Technical Interview Tips @jasdev, @binroot 

Interview Types • Phone (Are you the right fit?) • Skype, G+ (Stypi, collabedit, Codility, GDocs) • In-person (white board / pair programming) 

The Phone Interview Google Voice. Think aloud through problems. Have a notepad or editor ready. Wear normal clothes (it makes a difference!) Reserve a UVa room. 

Skype / G+ Interviews • Reasonable Skype ID (with exception of ‘yoloSwagMaster') • Practice in collaborative editors • Test call with a friend 

The On-site • Write in the language you're most comfortable with. • You will likely whiteboard some code (with testing). • On-sites are typically done in loops with a lunch interview. 

How to Prep Books, practice sites, and mailing lists 

Books we recommend • Cracking the Coding Interview • CLRS (Focus on 4102 topics) • Bloomfield’s Lectures 

Coding Sites • glassdoor • GeeksforGeeks • Project Euler* • TopCoder • HackerRank • --Insert shameless plug for UVa ICPC here-- 

One of the best mailing lists I've joined Coding for Interviews (check out their LinkedIn group to be extra pro) 

Let’s jump into some problems 

After the problem statement...! • Talk the problem through • Clarify input/output of functions • Any assumptions? (for possible simplification) • Any runtime requirements or scaling issues? • Pseudocode (especially for on-sites) • Start coding (don't sweat minor syntax issues) 

After your first pass at the problem! • Take a step back. • Try some sample test cases • (if asked to try a specific one, you might have missed something). • Look for common pitfalls (floating point precision, string concatenation cost, off-by-one errors in indices) 

Sample Problem Let’s write a min-stack 

Ending the Interview • Will likely be given a chance to ask questions • Definitely have some ready, either personal or about the product / company • Be sure the end the interview by verbally thanking the person by name, this detail goes a long way