How to prepare tech interview?
Preparation is key to success
No matter how great performer you are at your current project/company/school or no matter if you have graduated from top notch college or going through B.Tech or MS or PHD, you really need to prepare the tech interview to crack the interview process of tech companies.
How to prepare the coding concept?
Never ever try to memorize the solution of any leetcode problem. Instead, always pick the concept and try to solve as much as related problem as possible to build the concept.
If you think that you can memorize or practice the last 6 months question of a company and crack the interview then you will be just a super lucky.
You can go through following post to get the list of concepts needed to crack the interview or go through whatever course material you are going through.
Please also note; there are basic and advance categories of these concepts. You might not need the advance concept but if you do prepare them then it boost your confidence.
Struggle with problem will give you better edge
Instead of spending half an hour and then look into solution and thinking that it will build your concept is not a optimized ways to get the mystery of coding.
Instead, once you pick up the problem, make sure you first understand it and at least come up with bruteforce to solve it.
The easiest and also hardest ways to comeup with solution is to draw your problem and possible solution on paper. When we visualize the problem, it helps us to come up approach to solve it.
If you are not able to solve it, then try to find out what concept was used to solve this problem and get the mastery of that concept and solve many problems in that domain.
How to prepare the system design?
System design is also based on concepts. Pick the concept and try to solve related system design problem. You can go through my following blog or any other course as you like.
How to prepare the Behavioral interview?
Behavioral interview is very hard. Mostly because you can’t copy other’s answer or material. Also, by nature Software Engineers are introvert and shy to talk about their success therefore it makes it harder. You can go through following of my blog post to get some understanding.
How to use LLM?
Use Gemini or ChatGPT or other LLM as per your choice to discuss your doubts or learn any concept. Be it coding or system design or behavioral, LLM can really become your on demand instructor on this journey at almost free of cost.
Group study
If possible, make a study group with similar mindset to crack the tech interview. If you are starting fresh, it will take ~ one year to go though each concepts and crack the interview, therefore a group study (online or offline) will be a great tool to keep you motivated.
Mock test
Once you gone through basic concepts then start taking mock test. You should take the two forms of mock test.
- Leetcode mock test
- Hire a a private interviewer (You can reach out to https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaurav-em, he does help on mock test at very reasonable rate).
Dilemma of choosing programming language
There is no perfect programming language of coding interview. Only language that you should choose for your coding interview should be your own strong programming language.
Every programming language, be it Java or C++ or Pyhon or Javascript or Golang or C# etc, they do have pros and cons. So don’t get trapped if you see someone write faster code to solve the coding problem but you are not. In every coding problem, fist half goes into understanding and coming up the optimal approach to solve the problem. Second half is to code it. If your programming language doesn’t support ready to use library then it is ok to simply write the placeholder method and comeback later to complete it or just write unoptimized code for helper method if that’s save your time after you get go ahead from interviewer.
Just pick the language you are most confidant to write, debug, understand and explain.
Prepare your notes
For every topics, you should prepare your own notes. No matter what, it is always faster to do the revision if you refer your own notes. It could be offline or online notes based on your choice (online is always helpful).
Get interview call lined up
Even if you are targeting the big tech companies, you should get the interview calls lined up for other companies or startup. It really helped you to focus and force you to revise all the concepts before the interview.
Also remember, no matter how much preparation you do, you might not get your dream company if your dream is focus on single company. Best is, dream about pool of companies.
Feel free to join live classes
If you can afford the cost, feel free to join the live classes. I took classes from https://learn.interviewkickstart.com/ and it was worth it. Go for any classes you feel like you can afford it.
If you can’t afford or don’t want to spend money, you can still crack the interview as you will realized that it’s long process and you really need to put hard effort to get prepared.
Continuous preparation
Even you got the job, you should spend few hours to prepare the tech interview. These tech companies raised their bar for some reason. So better to trust the process and be ready for market.
Enjoy coding interview journey:-)
