1. Prepare for technical questions: There are a lot of articles online and videos on YouTube to help you with the technical questions. 2. General interview preparation: Don't forget to prepare for more general interview questions like "tell me about yourself?". 3. Mock interviews: I know from experience that mock interviews are crucial. Preparing on paper is completely different from actually answering questions in person. Practice and practice some more! 4. Don't underestimate/undervalue yourself. For me this is the most important advice I can give someone. I battle with this on a daily basis. My biggest barrier isn't my skills, it's my lack of confidence. Remember, you know more than you think. Don't talk yourself down, be positive about what you can do and what you have achieved. While it is true that you can cycle through common data structures in your head when stuck on a problem, and that hashmaps are commonly part of the solution, don't just pull a hashmap out of nowhere. One of my first coding interviews ever went something like this: Interviewer: I'd like you to produce a compressed string. For example, you may turn aaaabbc into a4b2c1. You may turn a into a1 Me: _immediately starts coding_ Let's use a hashmap Interviewer: Uh…well do you think you.. Me: Okay, so we've made a hashmap. Now let's make a bunch of print statements A hashmap is a useful tool, especially in these, but this isn't an RPG. You don't just immediately summon a hashmap and then crush every interview until you finally encounter the boss who can counter hashmaps ("oh no, guess I'd better bust out my ultimate move: The linked list!"). In some leetcode-esque problems, you can get away with using an array instead of a hashmap (and you can use size 26 by subtracting 'a'). Don't rely on that for everything. Some of the simplest interview problems involve using a hashmap to take counts, and then going from there…you can't just use a really big array without raising eyebrows. It helps to know some useful calls, like std::sort or whatever the heck the equivalent is in other languages The best interviewing experiences are like pair programming, where the two of you actually seem to be bouncing ideas off of each other. The worst interviews just involve the other person silently judging you --- What exactly happens to pass the interview can vary from region to region. For example, many silicon-valley-esque companies prefer asking data structures and algorithms questions, so if you plan on applying to those types of companies having a strong foundation in that topic is a must. This may not necessarily be the case in other parts of the world or for other kinds of companies. Some common interview archetypes you may run into include: - Giving you a coding challenge of some kind, usually about data structures and algorithms - especially at the entry level. To learn more about what these types of interviews look like and how to prepare for them, consider purchasing or borrowing a copy of "Cracking the Coding Interview". - Asking you questions related to the specific role you're interviewing for - e.g. frontend web design, security, data science… - Asking you to pair program together with your interviewer where you collaboratively build or debug a small program - Asking you to complete a take-home challenge of some kind - Asking you to try designing the high-level architecture of some larger program - Asking you about items you have listed on your resume (sometimes in general, sometimes focusing on a single project in-depth) - Just having a discussion about technology in general Note: this is not an exhaustive list. You should also keep in mind that different employers will look for different things and interviewing practices that are common in one area may be almost completely unheard of in another. So, we strongly recommend you network with developers in your local area and ask them for advice. ## general patterns [We conducted 213,000 recruitment coding tests around the world. Here's what we learned.](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/top-2020-it-skills) [What I Learned from Doing 60+ Technical Interviews in 30 Days](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-i-learned-from-doing-60-technical-interviews-in-30-days) ## how companies do it [Facebook senior software engineer interview | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25658098) [Facebook senior software engineer interview: the only post you'll need to read | by David Qorashi | Medium](https://daqo.medium.com/facebook-senior-software-engineer-interview-the-only-post-youll-need-to-read-e4604ff2336d) [I interviewed at five top companies in Silicon Valley in five days, and luckily got five job offers | by Xiaohan Zeng | Medium](https://medium.com/@XiaohanZeng/i-interviewed-at-five-top-companies-in-silicon-valley-in-five-days-and-luckily-got-five-job-offers-25178cf74e0f) [I interviewed at six top companies in Silicon Valley in six days, and stumbled into six job offers | by Bay Area Belletrist | Medium](https://bayareabelletrist.medium.com/i-interviewed-at-six-top-companies-in-silicon-valley-in-six-days-and-stumbled-into-six-job-offers-fe9cc7bbc996) about interviewing ## how veterans see it - leetcode [Guys - it happened again. I got "leetcoded" : cybersecurity](https://old.reddit.com/r/cybersecurity/comments/ttahpi/guys_it_happened_again_i_got_leetcoded) [Poll: Is the leetcode grind necessary to land a high paying remote job? | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30098671) ## how veterans see it [Ask HN: Would you pass an interview for your current position? | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29825080) [The dystopian world of software engineering interviews | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22331804) [The Horrifically Dystopian World of Software Engineering Interviews - Blog by Jared Nelsen](https://web.archive.org/web/20200406144007/https://www.jarednelsen.dev/posts/The-horrifically-dystopian-world-of-software-engineering-interviews) ["I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews" | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25298574) ["I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews" | eFinancialCareers](https://web.archive.org/web/20201206095602/https://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/3004947/coding-interviews-hackerrank-nightmare) [Tell HN: Interview take home assessments without feedback are frustrating | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36446770) [I cheated on my Microsoft interview (2019) | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31628886) [Is Cracking the Coding Int still relevant? : cscareerquestions](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/13rj2ci/is_cracking_the_coding_int_still_relevant) [Jose Aguinaga](https://medium.freecodecamp.com/welcome-to-the-software-interview-ee673bc5ef6) What if companies interviewed translators the way they interview coders? ## leetcode [Leetcode has taught me that I'm a bad engineer | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29804607) [5 years of leetcode with no progress. I'm giving up | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26468248) [I am sick of LeetCode-style interviews | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40571395) [I Am So Sick of Leetcode-Style Interviews | nelson.cloud ☁️](https://nelson.cloud/i-am-so-sick-of-leetcode-style-interviews/) ## reverse interview [Ask HN: Top three questions for a startup before accepting a job offer? | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19048108) [GitHub - lkostrowski/job-interview-questions-to-ask-companies: List of interview questions... For candidates! Pick your next company wisely](https://github.com/lkostrowski/job-interview-questions-to-ask-companies) ## why companies use it [Why is memorizing data structure and algorithms questions normalized as a barrier to entry for jobs that barely use these algorithms or data structures? : cscareerquestions](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/w2stai/why_is_memorizing_data_structure_and_algorithms) [The best engineering interview question I've ever gotten | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31065143) [The best engineering interview question I've ever gotten, Part 1 - Arthur O'Dwyer - Stuff mostly about C++](https://quuxplusone.github.io/blog/2022/01/06/memcached-interview/) ## competitive programming [Ansh-Sarkar/Resources-and-YouTube-Videos-for-Competitive-Programming: YouTube Videos for Competitive Programming By, Ansh Sarkar Connect on LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/ansh-sarkar](https://github.com/Ansh-Sarkar/Resources-and-YouTube-Videos-for-Competitive-Programming) [codeaholic-shub/ALGO-ADDICT: Repo for all famous interview and competitive programming question under one repo !](https://github.com/codeaholic-shub/ALGO-ADDICT) [GitHub - kunal-kushwaha/Competitive-Programming-Resources: Competitive Programming & System Design Resources.](https://github.com/kunal-kushwaha/Competitive-Programming-Resources) [GitHub - Knuth-Programming-Hub/CP-Resources: A curated list of Competitive Programming resources.](https://github.com/Knuth-Programming-Hub/CP-Resources) [GitHub - jnikhilreddy/Competitive-programming-resources: This repository consists of data helpful for ACM ICPC programming contest, in general competitive programming.](https://github.com/jnikhilreddy/Competitive-programming-resources) [GitHub - Uditgulati/CP-Resources-List: A list of excellent resources for most of the topics covered in Competitive Programming.](https://github.com/Uditgulati/CP-Resources-List) [GitHub - lnishan/awesome-competitive-programming: A curated list of awesome Competitive Programming, Algorithm and Data Structure resources](https://github.com/lnishan/awesome-competitive-programming) [GitHub - kothariji/competitive-programming: A one-stop Destination for all your Competitive Programming Resources. Refer CONTRIBUTING.md for contributions](https://github.com/kothariji/competitive-programming) [GitHub - denvitko/Competitive-Programming: Competitive Programming Resources](https://github.com/denvitko/Competitive-Programming) [Competitive-Cyber-Clubs/competitivecyberclubs.github.io: This is the source code for the Competitive Cyber Clubs website.](https://github.com/Competitive-Cyber-Clubs/competitivecyberclubs.github.io) [Competitive Cyber Clubs · Website for Competitive Cyber Clubs Community](https://www.competitivecyberclubs.org/) ## general coding interview [Coding Interview Prep | freeCodeCamp.org](https://www.freecodecamp.org/learn/coding-interview-prep) [The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing (version 3.0) - Joel on Software](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/10/25/the-guerrilla-guide-to-interviewing-version-30) [Senior Engineer Jobsearch](https://www.jobsearch.dev) [GitHub - kdn251/interviews: Everything you need to know to get the job.](https://github.com/kdn251/interviews) [Kevin Naughton Jr. - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKvwPt6BifPP54yzH99ff1g) [Coding Interview Advice | Interview Cake](https://www.interviewcake.com/coding-interview-tips) [Daily Coding Problem](https://www.dailycodingproblem.com/) [I just got a developer job at Facebook. Here’s how I prepped for my interviews.](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/software-engineering-interviews-744380f4f2af) (lots of linked resources) ## hackathons [hack-tools/hack-tools.github.io: Tools, resources, tips and other "hackathon related" stuff.](https://github.com/hack-tools/hack-tools.github.io) [GitHub - dingwilson/Hackathon-Packing-List: Hackathon Packing List - A Handy Guide](https://github.com/dingwilson/Hackathon-Packing-List) ## how to prepare [How to prepare for a technical interview - tips and tricks to help you perform your best](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/interviewing-prep-tips-and-tricks) [GitHub - Sjamilla/awesome-recruitment: List of my favourite recruitment things](https://github.com/Sjamilla/awesome-recruitment) [Tech Interview Handbook | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20727126) [GitHub - yangshun/tech-interview-handbook: Curated coding interview preparation materials for busy software engineers](https://github.com/yangshun/tech-interview-handbook) [GitHub - Olshansk/interview: Everything you need to prepare for your technical interview](https://github.com/Olshansk/interview) [GitHub - sidd5sci/tech-Interview-material: Everything you need to prepare for your technical interview](https://github.com/sidd5sci/tech-Interview-material) [GitHub - Anmol-Baranwal/Hack-Your-Growth: Make your life easier with these awesome resources: Interview Preparation, Readme Stats, Online Tools, Chrome Extensions, Portfolio Websites and many more!](https://github.com/Anmol-Baranwal/Hack-Your-Growth) [Anupriya1729/JobPrep: This repo contains my personal suggestions on how someone can prepare for placements and some of the imp resources.](https://github.com/Anupriya1729/JobPrep) [GitHub - anushka23g/Complete-Placement-Preparation: This repository consists of all the material required for cracking the coding rounds and technical interviews during placements.](https://github.com/anushka23g/Complete-Placement-Preparation) [GitHub - jwasham/coding-interview-university: A complete computer science study plan to become a software engineer.](https://github.com/jwasham/coding-interview-university) [How to Rock the Coding Interview - Tips That Helped Me Land Job Offers from Google, Airbnb, and Dropbox](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/coding-interviews-for-dummies-5e048933b82b) ## reverse interview [viraptor/reverse-interview: Questions to ask the company during your interview](https://github.com/viraptor/reverse-interview) [Twipped/InterviewThis: An open source list of developer questions to ask prospective employers](https://github.com/Twipped/InterviewThis) ## debugging [Bug squash: An underrated interview question | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41282807) [Bug squash: An underrated interview question – Jake Zimmerman](https://blog.jez.io/bugsquash/) ## faang interviews [Coding Interview Prep for Big Tech (FAANG) - And How I Became A Google Engineer](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/coding-interview-prep-for-big-tech) ## specific domains - ai and machine learning [[2201.00650] Deep Learning Interviews: Hundreds of fully solved job interview questions from a wide range of key topics in AI](https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.00650) [Deep Learning Interviews book: Hundreds of fully solved job interview questions | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29876742) [BoltzmannEntropy/interviews.ai: It is my belief that you, the postgraduate students and job-seekers for whom the book is primarily meant will benefit from reading it; however, it is my hope that even the most experienced researchers will find it fascinating as well.](https://github.com/BoltzmannEntropy/interviews.ai) ## specific domains - cysec [Getting Into Cybersecurity With a Nontechnical Background - UT Austin Boot Camps](https://techbootcamps.utexas.edu/blog/cybersecurity-with-non-technical-background) [Daniel Miessler](https://danielmiessler.com/study/infosec_interview_questions/) Information Security Interview Questions [GitHub - WebBreacher/offensiveinterview: Interview questions to screen offensive (red team/pentest) candidates](https://github.com/WebBreacher/offensiveinterview) [GitHub - tadwhitaker/Security_Engineer_Interview_Questions: Every Security Engineer Interview Question From Glassdoor.com](https://github.com/tadwhitaker/Security_Engineer_Interview_Questions) ## specific domains - data science [Data Science Interview Questions for Beginners](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/23-common-data-science-interview-questions-for-beginners) [khanhnamle1994/cracking-the-data-science-interview: A Collection of Cheatsheets, Books, Questions, and Portfolio For DS/ML Interview Prep](https://github.com/khanhnamle1994/cracking-the-data-science-interview) [Data Notes](https://medium.com/cracking-the-data-science-interview) ## specific domains - data structures and algorithms [Data Structures and Algorithms Problems | Techie Delight](https://www.techiedelight.com/data-structures-and-algorithms-problems/) ## specific domains - front-end [Front end interview preparation for busy engineers | Front End Interview Handbook](https://www.frontendinterviewhandbook.com) [GitHub - yangshun/front-end-interview-handbook: Front End interview preparation materials for busy engineers](https://github.com/yangshun/front-end-interview-handbook) [Decoding the Front-end Interview Process - DEV Community](https://dev.to/emmabostian/decoding-the-front-end-interview-process-14dl) [Frontend Technical Interview Prep: A study guide of things I constantly re-review when interviewing for frontend. · GitHub](https://gist.github.com/augbog/ed3502543169b6ce844313c69e4e1b2d) ## specific domains - infosec [How to Get Your First Job in InfoSec](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-get-your-first-job-in-infosec) ## specific domains - ios dev [GitHub - dashvlas/awesome-ios-interview: The curated list of iOS Developer interview questions and answers, Swift & Objective-C](https://github.com/dashvlas/awesome-ios-interview) ## specific domains - js [GitHub - knaxus/problem-solving-javascript: Crack you JS interviews Collection of most common JS Interview questions with Unit Tests](https://github.com/knaxus/problem-solving-javascript) [GitHub - kennymkchan/interview-questions-in-javascript: A mostly reasonable collection of technical software development interview questions solved in Javascript](https://github.com/kennymkchan/interview-questions-in-javascript) [Front-end-Developer-Interview-Questions/javascript-questions.md at main · h5bp/Front-end-Developer-Interview-Questions · GitHub](https://github.com/h5bp/Front-end-Developer-Interview-Questions/blob/main/src/questions/javascript-questions.md) [GitHub - sudheerj/javascript-interview-questions: List of 1000 JavaScript Interview Questions](https://github.com/sudheerj/javascript-interview-questions) [100 most asked JavaScript Interview Questions and Answers - Part 1](https://alimammiya.hashnode.dev/100-most-asked-javascript-interview-questions-and-answers-part-1) [GitHub - lydiahallie/javascript-questions: A long list of (advanced) JavaScript questions, and their explanations](https://github.com/lydiahallie/javascript-questions) [vinitshahdeo/JavaScript-Resources: Curated list of 10 resources to ace your next JavaScript interview](https://github.com/vinitshahdeo/JavaScript-Resources) [The JavaScript Interview Prep Handbook – Essential Topics to Know + Code Examples](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/js-interview-prep-handbook/) [GitHub - kolodny/exercises: Some basic javascript coding challenges and interview questions](https://github.com/kolodny/exercises) ## specific domains - js - promises [Master the JavaScript Interview: What is a Promise? | by Eric Elliott | JavaScript Scene | Medium](https://medium.com/javascript-scene/master-the-javascript-interview-what-is-a-promise-27fc71e77261#3cd0) ## specific domains - senior engineering [Passing Your Senior Engineering Coding Interview | by Steven Heidel | Medium](https://stevenheidel.medium.com/passing-your-senior-engineering-coding-interview-5a6b30261f68) [Why Senior Engineers Hate Coding Interviews | by Adam Storm | The Startup | Medium](https://medium.com/swlh/why-senior-engineers-hate-coding-interviews-d583d2855757) ## specific domains - sql [Medium-hard SQL interview questions | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23053981) [The Best Medium-Hard Data Analyst SQL Interview Questions - Quip](https://quip.com/2gwZArKuWk7W) ## specific domains - sysadmin and devops [chassing/linux-sysadmin-interview-questions](https://github.com/chassing/linux-sysadmin-interview-questions) Linux System Administrator/DevOps Interview Questions [kylejohnson/linux-sysadmin-interview-questions](https://github.com/kylejohnson/linux-sysadmin-interview-questions/blob/master/test.md) Examples of possible questions during linux syadmin / devops interviews. [Patrick Debois](https://www.jedi.be/blog/2022/02/11/shades-of-devops-roles/) (2022) Shades of DevOps - Related Job titles A quick overview of the titles/roles use to related to devops related subject matter experts. > _I will stick with my definition of devops regardless of job title:_ > _Dev(sec)Ops: everything you do to overcome the friction created by silos … All the rest is plain engineering_ The evolution of job titles is definitely one lens through which you can observe devops influence. This post nicely visualises the current state of titles from development to operations. [Angela Stringfellow](https://stackify.com/devops-resume-mistakes/) (2017) Mistakes to Avoid on Your DevOps Resume: Tips from 20 DevOps Leaders and Hiring Managers [GitHub - bregman-arie/devops-exercises: Linux, Jenkins, AWS, SRE, Prometheus, Docker, Python, Ansible, Git, Kubernetes, Terraform, OpenStack, SQL, NoSQL, Azure, GCP, DNS, Elastic, Network, Virtualization. DevOps Interview Questions](https://github.com/bregman-arie/devops-exercises) ## specific domains - system design [System Design Interview Questions - Concepts You Should Know](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/systems-design-for-interviews) [A senior engineer's guide to the system design interview | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34999464) [System Design Interview Guide for Senior Engineers](https://interviewing.io/guides/system-design-interview) [system-design-interview](https://github.com/checkcheckzz/system-design-interview) [Pramp: the complete system design interviewer guide](https://blog.pramp.com/the-complete-system-design-interviewer-guide-e5d273724db8) contains links to more resources [Pramp: how to succeed in a system design interview ](https://blog.pramp.com/how-to-succeed-in-a-system-design-interview-27b35de0df26) contains links [Gainlo Blog - system design questions](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/category/system-design-interview-questions/) [GitHub - DreamOfTheRedChamber/system-design-interviews](https://github.com/DreamOfTheRedChamber/system-design-interviews) [README | Mess around software system design](https://eric-zhang-seattle.gitbook.io/mess-around) ## specific domains - typescript [TypeScripting the technical interview | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35120084) [Richard Towers | Typescripting the technical interview](https://www.richard-towers.com/2023/03/11/typescripting-the-technical-interview.html) ## tricks [An Algorithm for Passing Programming Interviews (2020) | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29775023) [An Algorithm for Passing Programming Interviews - malisper.me](https://malisper.me/an-algorithm-for-passing-programming-interviews/) [Getting a job at Apple without going to college or doing LeetCode | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37158398) [Getting a job at Apple without going to college or doing LeetCode](https://aheze.substack.com/p/getting-a-job-at-apple-without-going) [Sleeping through the technical interview (2022) | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36635489) [Sleeping Through the Technical Interview - Xe Iaso](https://xeiaso.net/blog/sleeping-the-technical-interview/)