Interview Process: How to Prepare
- Invest time in preparing
- Practice answering many different coding questions
- Write code in a simple text editor
- Practice by coding by hand
- Practice under time pressure
- Go over data structures, algorithms and complexity
Invest time in preparing
It’s important for any engineer, even senior ones, to brush up on their interview skills, coding skills and algorithms. An interview is typically different from your day-to-day job. This is the first technical interview in the process, so any preparation for this interview will be beneficial for the next ones.
Practice answering many different coding questions
Practice answering a coding question with the most efficient bug-free solution without using a compiler. A few resources that offer coding questions to use for practice: Careercup, Topcoder, or Project Euler.
Write code in a simple text editor
In the interview you will write your code in a similar environment (like CoderPad) without syntax highlighting or auto-completion.
Practice by coding by hand
Coding interviews will be done on a whiteboard. Practice some of the questions with a whiteboard or pen and paper to help prepare.
Practice under time pressure
You will have a limited time for the coding question, so it will be important to finish it in time. If possible, have a mock interview with a friend to simulate the interview experience.
Go over data structures, algorithms and complexity
Be able to discuss the big-O complexity of your approaches. Don’t forget to brush up on your data structures like lists, arrays, hash tables, hash maps, stacks, queues, graphs, trees, heaps. Also sorts, searches, and traversals (BFS, DFS). Also review recursion and iterative approaches.
Think about your 2-5 years career aspirations
You will be asked to talk about your interest and your strengths as an engineer.
Prepare 1-2 questions to ask your interviewer
There is 5 minutes at the end of the interview for this.
