DEV Community

Cover image for What are your tips for coding interviews?
Cat McGee
Cat McGee

Posted on

What are your tips for coding interviews?

Do you have any tips for acing coding interviews? What do you normally do to prepare for one?

Mine is: when preparing, try to practice solving problems on a whiteboard!

Top comments (9)

Collapse
 
heylucas profile image
Lucas • Edited

I can share my experience as someone that conducts interviews often.

  • Warm up: The vast majority of candidates does not warm up before their coding interviews. Before your interview starts, grab one or two problems you already know how to solve and code it again, from scratch. That'll help get your gears going.
  • If you don't fully understand the problem, ask your interviewer for more info or tell them what you are not sure about. They'll be more than glad to explain it to you.
  • If the question you get allows for it, try to come up with test cases before you write the code. Just list something like '[input] -> [expected output]'. That'll give you some guidance when writing the code.
  • Once you are done coding, tell your interviewer you want to walk through your code. This is great signal for an interviewer and will certainly buy you points.
  • People often tell you to "think out loud" but not everyone is into that. Sometimes candidates get confused by trying to talk and write code at the same time. Instead, try first explaining the approach you'll take and then write code. Another option is to ask your interviewer if you can write the code first and then explain it to them later. I would totally accept that if a candidate asked.
  • If you know someone who's an interviewer, ask them to do a mock interview with you. Ask them to give you feedback as if you are a real candidate. Take notes and iterate.
  • If you don't manage to solve a problem on the spot, don't feel bad. The only reason the interviewer knows how to solve them is because they've asked the same question over and over again.
Collapse
 
luffy_14 profile image
Ahmad Ra'fat
  • Have a good sleep beforehand.
  • Try to be calm.
  • Always be honest and say "I don't know" if you really don't know.
  • Try always to have a smile and be friendly during the interview, this will grant you some points.
  • They are trying to see you as you will be working with them as a colleague so show them that you will add value to them.
  • Don't push yourself to the best solution from the first try. Always do the simplest solution that come to your mind.
  • Don't be silent. Think out loud this will help you & them as well so much.
Collapse
 
catmcgeecode profile image
Cat McGee

These are great! I especially love "Don't be silent" - this has always been quite difficult for me in interviews.

Collapse
 
luffy_14 profile image
Ahmad Ra'fat

For me this is the most powerful tip for tech interviews in general.
Good luck with your next interview then :)

Collapse
 
supermario_ai profile image
SuperMario

So, coding is one part. They also look at your people skills.

You can be amazing at development but be a $h1tty person, or too introverted and not get the job.

If you can't play ball with your team, you don't get to go on the field.

πŸ’―β€οΈ

Collapse
 
juanfrank77 profile image
Juan F Gonzalez

This! 100%

Where I work people on recruiting say they can get folks in a couple of Udemy courses so they can get the tech skills but they can't get them to learn how to be a team player, be proactive, act ethically and all the other important non-tech skills of a professional.

Collapse
 
supermario_ai profile image
SuperMario

πŸ’―

Collapse
 
canro91 profile image
Cesar Aguirre
Collapse
 
kirankamath96 profile image
Kiran Kamath

Hey, I came across sites like Pramp, InterviewBit which has mock interviews and helps you improve in your speaking skills, I guess rehearsing is a good option before going to interview.