Cracking the Coding Interview - Fooo

Before the Interview | Behavioral Preparation
2 When asked what the most challenging part was, don’t say “I had to learn a lot of new
languages and technologies ” This is the “cop out” answer (e g , you don’t know what
else to say) It tells the interviewer that nothing was really that hard
3 Remember: you’re not just answering their questions, you’re telling them about yourself!
Many people try to just answer the questions Think more deeply about what
each story communicates about you
4 If you think you’ll be asked behavioral questions (e g , “tell me about a challenging
interaction with a team member”), you should create a Behavioral Preparation Grid
This is the same as the one above, but the left side contains things like “challenging
interaction”, “failure”, “success”, and “influencing people ”
What questions should you ask the interviewer?
Most interviewers will give you a chance to ask them questions The quality of your questions
will be a factor, whether subconsciously or consciously, in their decisions
Some questions may come to you during the interview, but you can - and should - prepare
questions in advance Doing research on the company or team may help you with preparing
questions
Questions can be divided into three different categories:
Genuine Questions: These are the questions you actually want to know Here are a few
ideas of questions that are valuable to many candidates:
1 “How much of your day do you spend coding?”
2 “How many meetings do you have every week?”
3 “What is the ratio of testers to developers to product managers? What is the interaction
like? How does project planning happen on the team?”
Insightful Questions: These questions are designed to demonstrate your deep knowledge
of programming or technologies
1 “I noticed that you use technology X How do you handle problem Y?”
2 “Why did the product choose to use the X protocol over the Y protocol? I know it has
benefits like A, B, C, but many companies choose not to use it because of issue D ”
Passion Questions: These questions are designed to demonstrate your passion for technology
1 “I’m very interested in scalability Did you come in with a background in this, or what
opportunities are there to learn about it?”
2 “I’m not familiar with technology X, but it sounds like a very interesting solution
Could you tell me a bit more about how it works?”
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