profile picture

    Acing the Interview Process

    Schedule Practice Interviews🔗

    Book two mock interviews within the next 14 days with companies you are not interested in working for. Ideally, schedule the first phone screening 7 days out. This will motivate you to prepare even when time is tight. Remember, most companies allow candidates to re-interview after 6-12 months if needed, so don't stress.

    Choose One Primary Coding Language🔗

    Although being a jack-of-all-trades with multiple programming languages is preferable on the job, it can be counterproductive in interviews. The key is optimizing the time between conceiving a solution and writing syntactically correct code. Therefore, picking a functional language you know very well is recommended.

    Select the programming language you actively use and feel most proficient in as your go-to for interview coding. This ensures you can demonstrate your skills accurately.

    Other Key Strategies🔗

    • Thoroughly review the job description and research the company to anticipate likely interview questions and expectations.

    • Practice discussing your resume, projects, and skills out loud to improve your articulation and confidence.

    • Prepare stories that highlight times you successfully solved complex problems, overcame challenges, collaborated, etc.

    • Brush up on computer science fundamentals like data structures and algorithms. Review coding patterns and syntax for your chosen language.

    • Plan for behavioral and technical questions, but also prepare some insightful questions to ask the interviewer to show interest.

    • Dress professionally and arrive early to interviews to make a good impression.

    Behavioral Questions: "Tell Me About a Time..."🔗

    Behavioral interviews are not optional for senior roles. Companies use them to evaluate judgment, ownership, collaboration, and values alignment.

    At Google this is often discussed as Googliness. At Meta, interviewers usually evaluate alignment to company values and how you work with speed, impact, and collaboration (sometimes called culture fit/value fit).

    The most effective approach is:

    1. Be fully prepared with 6-8 real stories from your experience.
    2. Keep every story honest and specific; avoid exaggerated claims.
    3. Structure answers with STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
    4. Quantify outcomes when possible (latency, revenue, reliability, user impact).
    5. End with what you learned and what you would improve next time.

    Preparation improves clarity, but honesty builds trust. Strong candidates do both.

    Common questions candidates often get stuck on:

    1. "Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager or a senior engineer. How did you handle it?"
    2. "Tell me about a time a colleague was impacting the team's productivity. What did you do?"
    3. "Tell me about a time you proposed a novel solution to a problem, but it was not adopted. What did you do next?"

    Easy questions that should still be a high-impact showcase:

    1. "What is the hardest production bug you have debugged?"
    2. "Tell me about the best feature you have developed."

    With practice and dedication to sharpening your interview abilities, you can showcase your qualifications persuasively and land the perfect job.