View reading-notes on GitHub

DSA Review

This topic matters as it relates to preparing for technical interviews.

Whiteboard Advice

The Advice: Communicate!

Whiteboard-style interviews can be very stressful and cause even the most competent candidates to fall apart. Communication is key during this process. We should not start coding right out of the gate.

First, Restate the Question

We need to make sure we really understand what they’re asking us to do. Restating the question and seeking affirmation from the interviewer is a very good practice on this regard.

Ask About Edge and Test Cases

We should make sure that we bring up possible edge cases that might cause potential errors. It shows that we’re analytical and will work to try to prevent bugs. Also, communicate clearly and ask how would the like us to handling testing, and if the code should pass specific tests.

Write Pseudocode and Ask If It Makes Sense

Sometimes writing pseudocode before the actual code might be a good approach. It gives us the opportunity to show our thought-process and problem-solving skills, and could potentially be all that the interviewer needed see.

We’re All Human

At the end of the day we’re all human, so openly discussing the problem in a conversational manner with the interviewer can help us in many ways during the process.

source

7 Tips

  1. Take a few minutes to think in silence.
  2. Write down the steps of the solution.
  3. Write pseudocode first.
  4. Don’t sweat the small stuff. We all use Google.
  5. Sit down. Be humble.
  6. Come prepared.
  7. Review your work.

source

Engineering Interview Process Deconstructed

  • Regarding the debate in the industry about using DSAs in coding interviews, even though they’re barely used in the real world, it was very helpful to understand the purpose. The point of an interview is to hire the right person for the role, so the whole idea is for it to be as predictive as possible. Testing the candidate’s problem-solving skills is a good way to masseuse their intelligence.
  • When companies ask very complex problems, it only measures specific knowledge in certain areas, but not necessarily intelligence, which is what they’re really should be focusing on.
  • The interviewing process is not perfect by any means, but in essence the goal is to see if the candidate can deconstruct a problem to solve it, and for the interviewer to see their thought-process when approaching the solution.
  • They’re hiring a candidate not for what they’ve done, but for how they talk about what they’ve done.
  • The thing that really hurts candidates without CS degrees is lack of confidence. Something to really pay attention to and to work on, especially coming from a bootcamp.

source

Things I want to know more about

  • I’m planning on reading “Cracking The Coding Interview” by Gayle Laakmann McDowell.

-back