How to Prepare yourself for a Coding Interview

3 years ago

You acquire the abilities necessary to create impressive websites, complex applications, or fast and stable APIs. You want to get your dream job as a developer, so you start taking interviews. Suddenly, you wonder if all you have been learning is right and if you are ready to take on a job.

Do you have a coding interview coming up and you are a little nervous? understandable! You are unquestionably not alone. Before major life events, everybody feels nervous.

It is no surprise that software engineers spend months training for coding interviews because they are so widely used by tech companies. The coding interview, on the other hand, can appear to many people to be a blurry procedure. What exactly is it? What should I do to get ready? Since each company's coding interview is unique, getting a clear description of the entire coding interview can be challenging.

The value of planning cannot be overstated. And that is precisely the subject of this post. In this post, I will tell you about my personal experience as both an interviewee and an interviewer. I will show you how to get a coding interview in the first place, how to prepare for it thoroughly, and how to get hired and get your career started. 

Let us get this conversation going. You must first obtain a coding interview before you can prepare for it. But how do you do it?

1.What is the best way to get an interview?

Having an interview with a large corporation is difficult because you would be up against a lot of other applicants. Even if you are an exceptional software engineer, obtaining an interview can be challenging. The explanation is straightforward. The recruiter's role is to rapidly review your resume and evaluate your abilities, intelligence, and fit to work for the company based solely on your resume. With the vast number of applicants, you just have a few minutes to impress the recruiter and set yourself apart from the competition. This is not always simple or fair, but it is what it is.

• Put together a portfolio of a few notable projects.
• Keep track of everything and keep organized.
• Write a strong resume and cover letter

1. Referrals

By far the most effective form of conducting an interview. Knowing someone who already works at a company is the most certain way to get an interview there.

2. Networking with other professionals

Your professional network will not only help you in securing an interview but will also play an important role in the development of your career. However, what exactly is technical networking?

It is all about making connections with people in similar professions or industries and forming relationships with them. Thankfully, Linkedin made the process a lot simpler.

3.Open Source Contribution

If you participate in some open source projects, make sure to include the information in your resume. Of course, open-source contributions do not have the same effect as referrals and professional experience. However, assuming all other factors are equivalent, these projects would undoubtedly help you stand out from other applicants who have less projects on their resumes.

2.What should I do prior to the coding interview?

The most important thing to remember is to practice, practice, and practice more. Passing the coding interview is not a game. It all boils down to how much time you devote to understanding core computer science concepts and studying coding interview patterns.

Companies can allow other languages such as JavaScript if you are familiar with a standard coding language such as C++, Java, or Python. To make your learning more successful, it is important that you stick to the language you choose as you prepare!

As you can see from the list above, the coding interview is highly focused on data structures and algorithms in terms of planning. In addition to technical planning, you can contact your interviewee to get a better understanding of how the interview will be conducted so that you are not caught off guard during the interview.

3.How to Prepare for the Coding Interview?

Let us get right to the point. What are your plans for preparing for your coding interview? Here's the deal: It is a technical interview for your coding interview. Interviewers are mostly interested in how well-versed you are in technical terms. They are interested in how capable and fast you are at solving problems. So, my advice to you is to spend the majority of your valuable preparation time to the technical aspects of the interview, as this is what really matters.

1. Books

Books like Cracking the Coding Interview, how to do coding interviews well, De-Coding The Technical Interview Process, Elements of programming interviews, Grokking Algorithms, and many more can help you get information and practice.

2. Coding Sandboxes

You will want to practice coding exercises, and there are plenty of sandbox platforms available:

• Leetcode: is the most common destination, with a Pro tier and a lot of free tools.
• Codewars coding katas: small coding challenges to complete.
• Edabit coding challenges: it is a free website that offers a variety of coding challenges.
• SWECareers: It was developed by a Facebook developer, and it is the most affordable service that includes a comprehensive algorithms video course as well as 200 popular coding questions organized by the businesses that often ask them.
• AlgoExpert: it is a paid service curated by a former Google developer that provides video walkthroughs for more than 100 coding challenges.

3. Additional resources

• Solving Problems for the CS Technical Interview: a Stanford University course One of the easiest ways to prepare for Big Tech coding interviews is to study the slides and course materials. When I moved to the UK in 2009, I used an early version of this course to prepare for interviews.
• Always be coding: tips from Google and Square software developer David Byttow on how to get a career in engineering. Although the article was published in 2013.
• Interview bootcamps are becoming increasingly common. They are the most expensive choice, but they will help you level up more quickly and provide you with a lot more input.

4.Always prepare for a coding challenge

If you are applying for a job that requires you to write software, do not be surprised if you are asked to do so during your interview! Often you will work on these coding tasks on the whiteboard, and other times you will use a Web-based interactive editing method. 

The majority of coding challenges will be easy enough to complete in the required time for the interview. Some interviewers will send you home with a more difficult problem to solve and a deadline for returning the completed project.

Still, always, Clarify the conditions and make a note of them. Before you begin coding, build diagrams, process flows, and other documents to demonstrate that you fully comprehend the problem. This is how a developer will address a real-world problem, so show the interviewer that you do not take shortcuts for 'simple' issues. Often search for the fastest answer to avoid losing the interviewer's focus, but often speak about how you can refactor the solution, such as using less loops or renaming variables to make it more clear.

5.Get to know the company and the interviewer.

Do some background research on the business. Learn about the systems and structures that they employ. What are their plans for the next five years? What markets and domains do they specialize in? Not only does research provide you with good talking points and demonstrate your interest in the business, but it also allows you to recognize where your skills fit with the job requirements.

Look up your interviewer on LinkedIn while researching the business. Knowing more about this person will help you customize your responses in a way that the interviewer can understand.

6. DON’T FORGET THE SOFT SKILLS.

Mastering coding challenges is just half the battle; do not overlook the importance of soft skills. There are many items that interviewers search for in addition to the ability to code during the entire interview process, including the professional coding interview. 

These other abilities include the ability to interact, cooperate, and address the issue at hand, as well as your leadership abilities, willingness to learn, and overall cheerfulness. Candidates often lack soft skills, which can be a big deal in many coding interviews.

Soft skills are valued by an organization that is worth contributing to, often even more than hard skills, since they illustrate how well an individual can grow inside the company and learn those hard skills over time. This is particularly true for software engineers in their early stages.

The coding interview is an opportunity for you to demonstrate not just your engineering skills, but also how well you collaborate with others. It is made to simulate what it is like to function as part of a team. So be yourself, study and practice, take a deep breath, and get ready to ace the coding interview!