Suggested ideas to include in your reflection:
What happened in the interview/practice? What are some best practices of technical interviews that you've discussed? What did you excel at in the practice? What will you continue to practice as you prep for interviews in the future? What surprised you about the practice?
For me, the most valuable practice that I recieved from the interview prep work that I did was defining my process. Understanding that process is going to open more doors that knowledge makes a ton of sense. It's important to be able to ask for clarification and show that you are engaged in the technical part of any interview. As for the culture fit, doing the advance work of cold reaching out to current employees will help immensely in figuring out if you will fit well. Showing that the position is more than just a paycheck is also important, so doing research about the companies that I apply with will be at the forefront of my outreach efforts.
I scheduled a mock interview with Ian Douglas to practice for the real ones. It was divided into three parts.
In the first part I was asked to tell my story and the reason I decided to start coding. It also included other behavioral questions.
Software Engineering Interview Prep
High Level Roadmap:
Princeton Coursera course on algorithms
| #!/usr/bin/env python3 | |
| # Author: Mahendra Yadav(userimack) | |
| # Run the script using the following command: | |
| # | |
| # Python3 check_image.py <image url> | |
| # | |
| # For example: | |
| # | |
| # Python3 check_image.py 'https://dgplug.org/assets/img/main-dgp.png' | |
| # Output: |
In week two of mod 4 I participated in a mock-interview with Ian douglas. The interview consisted of two parts: technical questions and code challenges. Going into the interview I felt pretty confident about my ability to answer technical questions and a little apprehensive about the code challenges. My actual experience in the interview turned out to be the opposite of what I expected. I struggled to answer the technical questions eloquently, even when I was familiar with their content. I did, however, do really well on the coding challenges which was encouraging. Ian provided me a lot of resources to improve on technical questions which I have been reviewing periodically. His interview prep emails have been super helpful as well.
I've had two mock interviews and then 1 phone/technical interview. In the mock interviews, we spent about 30 minutes going over general interview questions and technical questions and then 30 minutes on a code challenge. In the phone interview, we spent about 15 minutes on general get-to-know you questions and 30 or so minutes going over a project I worked on and me explaining the code (via screenshare)
For the code challenge portion - just start writing something - pseudocode or anything. Don't just stare at a blank screen. When working on a code challenge, talk out loud about your process. Stay calm.
I think I did well in the get-to-know you type questions and the technical questions for the most part. My first mock interview, the code challenge portion was a disaster and my second one went better.
The most formal interview practice I've had to date was the vending machine challence during week 2 of the inning. In this challenge I was asked to create a vending machine API with the bare minimum functionality of taking in money, users can make a selection, and the vending machine dispenses the item. I was surprised at my performance during this session albeit a practice one. I felt that I was able to clearly articulate my though process and while I hit a few touch moments, I was able to work through and talk about my process. I tried to do this because, as it had been discussed with us, it is very important to be able to verbally communicate one's thought process during the interview, so that interviewers can get a much better sense of one's problem solving process. To that note, I feel confident that I will be able to continue to talk through my process even when I run into challenges during the technical challenge. What I have noticed after all the practice interview
Directions: During Module 4, you've had a few in-class models and practice sessions for technical interviews. You may have also participated in mock interviews or actual interviews outside of these class sessions. Please write a summary and reflection of 4-6 sentences on your interview participation in a gist that you'll link in your career development deliverables file.
Suggested ideas to include in your reflection:
