Preparing for a Tech Interview
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This document provides an overview of preparing for and succeeding in a technical interview process. It discusses finding job openings, the typical interview stages including phone screens and in-person interviews, common technical interview questions, and tips for each part of the process. The key advice is to practice coding problems daily, focus on breaking problems down step-by-step, ask clarifying questions, and follow up after interviews by thanking interviewers.
Preparing for a Tech Interview
- 1. d i v e r s i T E C H P R E S E N T A T I O N aug 15 preparingfora techinterview
- 2. Overview/Hello projekt202Chicagoisanexperience-driven companythathelpsorganizationsnavigate complexdigitaltransformations. DIGITAL EXPERTS 50+ APPS BUILT 300+ LOCATIONS four ANDRE SUGAI Director ofTechnology PRESENTER
- 4. 01 Allabouttheinterviews FIND AN OPENING APPLY FOR POSITION PHONE SCREEN / IN-PERSON INTERVIEW FOLLOW-UP REVIEW / ACCEPT OFFER Find public postings or network to find open positions Positions should match your current skill set The hard part – showing what you know Don’t forget to thank the team or ask for feedback You win! Time to put that negotiation hat on
- 5. 01 Allabouttheinterviews 1. The average job opening attracts 250 resumes 2. Only 2% of applicants will be called for an interview for the average job opening 3. 42 days is the overall average time it takes to fill a given position 4. The interview process takes an average of 23 days 5. It takes five to six weeks on average to get a job offer Getting totheinterviewishalfofthebattle! WhatcanIexpect? Source: https://www.ebiinc.com/resources/blog/hiring-statistics
- 6. 01 Allabouttheinterviews • Understand that anyone can fall prey to the “Interview Anti-Loop”, i.e. for every qualified candidate, there is at least one set of interviewers who would not hire that person • Interviewers may not be trained in good interviewing skills and processes • Many interview exercises do not have a set rubric to weigh out performance, leading to interviewer bias Notallinterviewsandinterviewersarecreatedequally Source: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-google.html
- 7. 01 Allabouttheinterviews • Technical screening • In-person interview • Coding exercise – 60 mins • Code review exercise - 45 mins • Break – 15mins • Debugging exercise – 30 mins • Technical Discussion – 30 mins • Chat with Director of Technology – 30 mins • NO take-home test We have a rubric – a set of instructions and a set of things to look for and how to weigh out each candidate in the same way. We train our interviewers – each engineer that proctors an exercise has taken the exercise themselves. Theprojekt202’stechnicalinterview Source: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-google.html
- 9. 02 Beforetheinterview Most technical phone interviews will focus on questions that can be answered on the fly – you won’t have to spell out a function that reverses an array. You may be asked: • About your engineering career • Ex. Tell me about your current role and your responsibilities as part of your team • Questions specific to the role, technology, and tools • Ex. Describe the Android Activity Lifecycle • Personal drive / self-learning questions • Ex. How do you stay up-to-date on the latest iOS news? • To explain best-practices for general engineering activities • Ex. What are the Agile ceremonies that matter the most to you? Preparingforaphoneinterview
- 10. 02 Beforetheinterview Some common reasons why someone did not seem like a good match after a phone interview: • “Candidate had a decent breadth of experience but not a lot of depth.” • Don’t just answer questions, dive into as much detail as you know • “Candidate wasn’t passionate about his work” • Focus on your extra-curricular activities that showcase your passion for engineering • “Candidate could not elaborate on software engineering basics like the SDLC” • Polish up on best practices, even if you have never used them in a work setting, read up on some of these things so you can speak about them • “Candidate applied for a senior position but did not have matching technical skills” • Make sure to introspect and apply to positions that fit your skillset or a good phone screener will rule you out quickly Preparingforaphoneinterview(cont.)
- 11. 02 Beforetheinterview Before a technical call make sure you: • Find a quiet place to talk without being disturbed • Use headphones so you can have your hands free • Have paper and pen ready to write down your thoughts and questions • Read up on the company, their work, and check out the interviewer on LinkedIn • Write down a list of questions you may have for the interviewer Preparingforaphoneinterview(cont.)
- 12. 02 Beforetheinterview Most in-person or online interviews will center around trying to get a rough understanding of your: • Knowledge around Computer Science basics • Algorithms • Basic data structures like arrays and linked lists • Binary Search Trees • Big O Notation • Software development best practices in teams • How to use version control systems • Performing code reviews • Advanced technical concepts • Scalable system architecture designs • Describing pieces of the SDLC • Analytical thought process • Tell me about a difficult problem that you were able to resolve after trial and error • Describe a complex problem in easy to understand smaller chunks • Soft Skills • What has been your experience working in multi-disciplinary teams • Explain a technical concept to non-technical people Preparingforanin-personinterview
- 13. 02 Beforetheinterview What you should practice: • Coding algorithmic and data-structure exercises • Reviewing code that someone else wrote • Whiteboarding or discussing open questions • Computer science and engineering best practices Preparingforanin-personinterview(cont.)
- 14. 02 Beforetheinterview How do you prepare? • Study the fundamentals • Solve coding questions every day • Practice white-boarding • Participate in mock interviews Howmuchyoupractice is reallyuptoyou –butdailypracticeisthenextbest thingtoafull-timejob Preparingforanin-personinterview(cont.)
- 15. 02 Beforetheinterview What pitfalls you should avoid when trying to prepare: • Know what you know • Cramming the day before the interview is not the way to go • Choose sleep over studying – being alert and coherent is more important than that last sample problem! Preparingforanin-personinterview(cont.)
- 17. 03 Duringtheinterview On the technical side of things: • Focus on the breaking down every problem into smaller pieces • Lay everything out in pseudo-code if you can before you start coding • Treat everything like it should be production ready • Run your code • Include tests if you can • Watch out for edge cases • Ask clarifying questions when you need to – not getting caught up in rabbit holes is essential Practiceeachof thesesteps inyourdailyexercisestoo! WhatshouldIdowithmyhands? Source: https://medium.com/@nickciubotariu/ace-the-coding-interview-every-time-d169ce1fd3fc
- 18. 03 Duringtheinterview The most important non-technical things to remember during an interview are: • Be engaged – don’t give 1 word answers, interviewers are looking for as much information as they can usually in a short amount of time • Know your audience – most likely, the person interviewing you will be another very technical person, use technical terms and make sure you use them correctly • Speak your mind – interviews are not about coming up with the right answer out of the blue, the reason why they are proctored is to have someone follow along with your train of thought, so make sure to walk the interviewer through your thought process • Dress for the part – make sure you know if the office has a casual environment before you head in with a suit and tie Nooneishiredpurelybasedontechnicalskill,trainingyoursoft-skills arejustas important WhatshouldIdowithmyhands?(cont.)
- 20. 04 Aftertheinterview Make sure that you don’t forget the little things • Send a follow up email thanking each of the individual interviewers • Make sure you ask about next steps and when you should hear back • Ask any questions that you may have regarding: • the culture • the company’s focus on personal / technical growth • the engineering process • work / life balance • benefits Howdoyousetyourselfapart?
- 21. 04 Aftertheinterview Most importantly… Let people know that you are excited about the opportunity and would love to join their team Howdoyousetyourselfapart?(cont.)
- 22. 04 Aftertheinterview Articles • http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-google.html • https://medium.com/@nickciubotariu/ace-the-coding-interview-every-time-d169ce1fd3fc Books • https://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-Programming- Questions/dp/0984782850/ref=dp_ob_title_bk • https://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Manual-Steven-Skiena/dp/1849967202 Sites • https://www.careercup.com/ Resources