How To Study For Technical Interview

Anticipate What Youll Need To Know

Then, find practice problems to test those areas. Fully understand the role that you’re applying for by revisiting the job description and identifying what skills and experiences the employer is looking for. Research the companys tech stack so you know what language youll be using . Find some of their developers on LinkedIn and see if their job descriptions can give you clues about what tools & specific frameworks theyre using. Read their engineering blog if they have one, or read their engineers personal blogs. Using all of this information, identify questions you think they might ask, and practice those.

Here are some great resources for practice technical interview problems:

• InterviewBit: A product which gamifies the experience of practicing for your interview and includes lots of sample problems.
• Hired In Tech: A free online course which includes algorithms & systems design step by step tutorials, as well as a 6-week intensive preparation plan and lessons.
• LazyQuestion: Includes hundreds of sample questions for all different types of languages in an easy quiz format.
• A comprehensive list of questions from a variety of languages was put together by some GitHub users.

Be Prepared To Prove Your Skills

Many technical interviews include an aspect where you are asked to prove your skills through a series of brainteasers, whiteboard coding challenges or remote coding assignments. While this phase typically occurs during the second or third interview, it is important to be prepared for at least one brainteaser question or whiteboard challenge during your first technical interview. With these questions, it is important to remember to talk through your reasoning process and explain the steps you are taking to answer the question.

Discover Indeedâs top resources for tech talent including career advice, sample resumes, job search quick links and more.

What Is The Role Of Continuous Integration Systems In The Automated

The interviewer is asking this question to make sure you understand what continuous integration systems are and how they are used in the automated build process. When answering this question, clearly define what continuous integration is and then explain how it is used in the automated build process.

Example:“Continuous integration is a developmental process that requires developers to integrate code into a shared repository several times throughout the day. Each time the code is integrated, it is verified by the automated build. This allows for early detection of defects and problems within the codebase.”

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Take Home Technical Test

Most often, companies will send a test to be completed at home before they speak to a candidate for any type of interview. Only a portion of submitted resumes will be sent a test and the technical test is to determine if you have the skills they need. On occasion, you may find a company that will go right to a phone interview without the test, but home tests serve to further filter out those who are unprepared for the role, so be ready to get one.

The company has put together a test to show a couple different aspects of your abilities. They want to understand your general comfort with computer science problems, and they want to see how you can handle some problems that will be relevant to the job. This makes it difficult to know what specific questions a company may ask, but thanks to their need to test your general computer science skills, it is straightforward to prepare for this test.

A good approach to get ready for a technical test is to train yourself to answer both theoretical questions about solving problems and specific technical questions. A strong data structures textbook is one of the best resources to help you prepare for both. A good book has hundreds of answers to commons questions in it. Organization and application of information is the job of any software engineer.

Resources for Technical Test Preparation

Taking the Technical Test

Dont Forget To Prepare For Traditional/behavioral Questions

Employers often say that students are so concerned about the technical interview that they havent thought through answers to common questions like Tell me about yourself? or Why are you interested in this job? Read through our tips on common interview questions and practice behavioral questions with a CCE career counselor.

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Be A Conversationalist And Prepare To Ask Questions

In addition to being knowledgeable and showing demonstrable skills, being able to communicate with people professionally is important. Doing things like talking through your work, providing thorough, on-topic answers and arriving at your interview prepared to ask questions can make a big difference when it comes to moving forward in the process.

To better prepare for the conversation, have a few questions you’d like to ask the interviewer ready. This will likely require additional research on your part. Take some time to review the company and job description before the interview, and jot down any questions that arise. It’s also customary for candidates to hold their questions for the end of the interview, so consider that before jumping into your own pre-scripted questions.

What Kind Of Questions Will I Be Asked In A Technical Interview

The likelihood is that most of the technical questions in the interview will relate directly to the job role. Therefore, you can get a good idea of what questions they might ask you from the job advert.

Most job descriptions will specify a set of essential technical skills and, rather than take your word for it, theyll want to see those skills and knowledge in action.

The kind of questions will vary from role to role. Your first point of reference, particularly for a big graduate employer, should be their website, as they might post examples of the sort of questions theyll ask.

You can also find plenty of websites with lists of technical questions, which you can use to test yourself. However, you should always check the sources of the website some simply post hearsay.

All in all, during a standard technical interview they might expect you to complete a task, such as coding, or they might ask questions that test how you would use your technical knowledge in a real-life situation.

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How To Nail The Amazon Interview: A Practical Guide

Amazon is one of the top tech companies in the world. According to a , Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the United States and stands globally with an employee headcount of 566,000 as of 2018.

Working for a global company that serves millions of customers every day is an exhilarating prospect. Knowing that the code you write could have such a large impact can be quite enticing for many developers.

On top of that, Amazon enjoys many of the same perks that the big tech companies, including Google, Facebook, etc., enjoy. Numerous company benefits including the ability to work remotely and competitive salaries, among others are some of the reasons that may compel you to throw your hat into the ring.

If you are intrigued by what Amazon is offering, then youll need to be able to jump the Amazon Interview hurdle. Mastering this interview is the barrier that stands before you and working for one of the largest and most prestigious tech companies.

In this post, we are going to be outlining how to prepare for the Amazon technical interview. We will be highlighting some of the key differentiating factors for Amazon and how these compare to other, more standard technical interviews.

In this post, I will cover:

Ask For Clarification If Needed

If the interviewer asks you a question and you need additional information to properly answer it, it is ok to ask the interviewer for clarification. This will show the interviewer that you have the ability to identify when additional information is needed and that you aren’t afraid to ask for clarification when you need it.

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Common Technical Interview Mistakes To Avoid

Knowing what not to do can be just as important as knowing what to do, so lets quickly cover a few common technical interview mistakes.

1. Not preparing enough

Seriously, theres no such thing as too much coding interview preparation. The good news is, most candidates dont put in that time. So it doesnt take much to really pull ahead of the pack, says Parker . Its such a bummer as an interviewer to watch a candidate really come up short and just think to yourself, I can tell youre smartif you had just reviewed some of this stuff Im sure youd be able to get this.

2. Jumping into the code without taking a moment to think it through

You might be eager to start solving the problem, but take a few minutes to question your assumptions and make a game plan first! Starting too quickly gets a lot of people into trouble when they could have taken a moment to prevent confusion down the road, says Refael . Some of the most common mistakes candidates make are avoidable. Pause for a moment to think through the problem-solving process.

3. Being too arrogant or opinionated

4. Not making conversation/chit-chat

Trick #: Be Personable

My last trick for you is to be personable.

In your interview, be someone that you would want to work with. Show them your best self.

Interviews can be intimidating, and developers are generally a quieter and more reserved people, but you need to show the people you interact with, “Hey, I’m a fun and nice person to work with.”

I’m not asking you to be someone you’re not. But you don’t want to be, according to one of my close friends who interviews people all the time, a “sea creature.”

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Interview Pro Tips: How To Nail A Technical Interview

Allstate provides expert guidance to help you prepare for your next step in the recruitment process.

Hungry for new strategies to nail your next interview? We were, too, so we asked the experts at Allstate to break it down in this series.

When interviewing for a specific position, you might be asked to participate in technical interview as part of the application process. If youre wondering what exactly a technical interview is and tips for how to prepare for one, read on!

Standardize The Evaluation Rubric

The team also created a standardized rubric for how the candidate’s performance on a technical interview is evaluated.

“We don’t want to be in a situation where unconscious bias or bias of one candidate over another plays a part because of our preconceived notions,” says Clement.

Creating a rubric that looks at multiple categories allows the evaluator to look at the performance of the candidate from a more holistic perspective, as opposed to looking at a candidate’s performance on one technology.

The team created a Periscope dashboard to create a feedback loop between the candidates and evaluators to identify opportunities for improvement in the technical interviewing process.

The frontend engineering team used Periscope to collect feedback from candidates who participate in technical interviews.

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What Do You Do To Keep Your Tech Skills Up To Date

Interviewers may ask this type of question during a technical interview to evaluate how candidates approach their self-development regarding their careers. Because technology can change quickly, successful candidates usually have specific resources, news outlets and other ways of keeping their skills current.

Example:“I regularly read tech blogs from respected and vetted IT professionals as well as participating in short-term skills training. I’ve also started working on personal projects, where I frequently refer to some of my go-to sources and forums to check up on the tools I’m using and my ability to implement specific processes while maintaining current practices.”

Why This New Model For Technical Interviews Is Better

The new model surpasses the old model because we created realistic scenarios that reflect what it’s like to actually work for GitLab, and we established a more consistent method of measurement.

“So we’re able to get better candidates overall. Candidates that pass through this technical interview, we’re sure that they’re going to be successful at GitLab,” says Clement.

We also struggled in the past with finding a good way to check that the candidate knows how to use Git, and can navigate pipelines and testing. By using GitLab for interviews, we’re able to confirm a candidate’s competency with Git implicitly by evaluating their performance on the technical interviews.

We wanted to mirror the actual experience of troubleshooting a broken MR while working at GitLab, so we allow our candidates to use the internet during their technical interview. This allows the evaluator to see how the candidate solves problems and see their resourcefulness.

“If you’re already using GitLab for your tooling, you’re just exposing them to what it’s like to work at GitLab it’s a more accurate representation,” says Clement. “And you can also make sure you’re measuring testing proficiency and you make sure they understand how that works before they join your company.”

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How To Prepare For Coding And Technical Interview Rounds

Okay But Do We Have Any Research Around These Technical Interviews Is There Any Information That Proves That Academic Algorithm

The director of Google’s HR department , Laszlo Bock, wrote a book on how to find the best employees. However, the biggest takeaway for manyreaders of that book was this:

Google studied tens of thousands of their own hiring decisions and concluded that their interview processa process that used puzzler questions and algorithm quizzeswas broken.

The findings seemed to say that they would have hired just as many successful candidates by randomly picking them during interviews. I’m skeptical that their process, specifically some of the sections more relevant to the position, didn’t help at all. How did they know that the candidates they didn’t pick wouldn’t have been worse?

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Interviewing Is A Skill

In the end, interviewing is a skill. It takes some studying and a lot of practice to master.

So don’t beat yourself up if you don’t perform how you would have hoped. Keep learning, and keep practicingyou’ll get there!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to , and if you want more information on how to prepare for a development career, I write stuff like this on my blog.

Thanks for reading!

What Concepts Are Emphasized During A Coding Interview

Concepts frequently emphasized include arrays and strings, binary trees, dynamic programming, and linked lists. According to CoderPad, other common interview topics include breadth-first search algorithms, palindrome checker, and sorted lists of numbers. Interviewers may emphasize data structures and algorithms.

Common data structures tested include arrays, linked lists, stacks, and queues. Common algorithms tested include recursion, bubble sort, insertion sort, and binary search.

Of course, the interview topics will also depend on the role you are interviewing for and the skills and tools that will likely be needed for the job.

In addition to assessing your technical skills, the interviewer will also be watching for examples of creative thinking and the ability to receive and apply feedback. They may look for signs that tell them how you may fit in with the team and company culture, and judge your understanding of the role and the company’s work.

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Practice Stuff You Rock At

To cultivate your confidence, practice questions that you can already solve handily. Sure, feel free to start the day with a new problem, but by the afternoon you should be building momentum with the questions you know best.

Giving yourself a few wins like this helps your brain simulate a stellar session at the whiteboard. You’ll go to sleep dreaming of data structures, and you’ll wake up with a self-esteem stimulus that makes you stand out in your interview.

In The End: It’s Just An Interview

In the end, it is what it is.

You’ll perform how you perform.

You’ll be interviewed by the person you’ll be interviewed by.

Their interview process will be their interview process.

Maybe you had an off daymaybe the interviewer had an off day.

Afterwards if you feel embarrassed, defeated, or anything elsetake a deep breath and let it go! Don’t let your Lizard Brain weigh you down. A bad interview is not the end of the world. Your career isn’t ruined, your reputation isn’t ruined, and your life isn’t ruined.

It’s just an interview. Learn from it, adapt, and be better the next time.

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