The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech

Original: https://codingcat.dev/podcast/1-35-the-coding-interview-and-transitioning-in-tech

▶ Watch on YouTube & Subscribe to CodingCat.dev

**The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech **is a CodingCat.dev podcast episode featuring Laurie Barth alongside Alex Patterson and Brittney Postma focused on Career, Web Dev. Laurie Barth joins us to talk about her transition from working on docs with Gatsby to becoming a Software Engineer at Netflix and the coding interviews along the way. 1.35 - The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech: https://codingcat.dev/podcast/1-35-the-coding-interview-and-transitioning-in-tech 00:00 - Intro

00:27 - Laurie Barth Intro

01:10 - Lego not Legos

01:48 - How did you get your start in tech?

04:00 - What was your first tech job?

05:45 - What is middle end?

07:30 - Gatsby Image team & new Gatsby Imag Watch the full video breakdown on YouTube or explore the architectural notes, chapters, and official documentation links below.

Questions

1. Can you tell us a little about your background and how you got started in tech?
2. Recently you transitioned from Gatsby to Senior Software Engineer at Netflix, what sparked this move?
   1. Job changes within Gatsby (backend, docs, middleend, frontend tooling)
   2. Job titles
   3. Small vs Large Team
3. What types of jobs were you applying for?
4. How did you find interviewing at different companies, what did you like or not like?
5. What (if anything) needs to change with coding interviews?

Links

CSS Tricks - How to Contribute to an Open Source Project

Technical Overview: The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech

1.35 - The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech: https://codingcat.dev/podcast/1-35-the-coding-interview-and-transitioning-in-tech 00:00 - Intro

00:27 - Laurie Barth Intro

01:10 - Lego not Legos

01:48 - How did you get your start in tech?

04:00 - What was your first tech job?

05:45 - What is middle end?

07:30 - Gatsby Image team & new Gatsby Imag

When applying the concepts from The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech in a production codebase, teams working with Career, Web Dev should align their implementation with the roadmap.sh Developer Career Paths (Structured engineering skill trees, system design, and career progression). Structuring your workflow around repeatable patterns, automated verification, and clear separation of concerns helps prevent regressions as your application scales.

Key Engineering Takeaways

• **Core Topic Focus: **Practical strategies for Career, Web Dev covered in "The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech" (Laurie Barth joins us to talk about her transition from working on docs with Gatsby to becoming a Software Engineer at Netflix and the coding interviews along the way.).
• **Production Implementation: **Combine the architectural patterns demonstrated in this podcast with the official roadmap.sh Developer Career Paths for type safety, performance, and long-term maintainability.
• **Hands-On Video Walkthrough: **Follow along with the live coding demos and discussion on YouTube (The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech) and subscribe to CodingCat.dev on YouTube for weekly deep dives.

Video Chapters & Timestamps

Jump directly to any segment of The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech on YouTube using the timestamped chapters below:

• 00:00: Intro
• 00:00: Laurie Barth Intro
• 00:00: Lego not Legos
• 00:00: How did you get your start in tech?
• 00:00: What was your first tech job?
• 00:00: What is middle end?
• 00:00: Gatsby Image team & new Gatsby Image plugin
• 00:00: How did you get started with Gatsby?
• 00:00: Sarah Drasner blog post
• 00:00: What drove your change from Gatsby to Netflix?
• 00:00: How did the interview process go with different companies?
• 00:00: "I would never take a take home if I had a choice"
• 00:00: What are the problems with the in person technical interview?
• 00:00: Cater the interview to the job
• 00:00: Designing the technical interview
• 00:00: Look for people that can solve problems not memorize
• 00:00: It needs to be a good fit for both you and the company.
• 00:00: Multiple rounds of interviews are exhausting
• 00:00: Be upfront with the expectations for the interview
• 00:00: Tips for going into interviews

Resources, Links & Official Documentation

• *Watch on YouTube: *The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech Full Video (plus Subscribe to CodingCat.dev)
• *:30 - David Neal twitter (): *https://twitter.com/reverentgeek
• *:53 - Laurie - Code Girls - (): *https://www.amazon.com/Code-Girls-Untold-American-Breakers/dp/0316439894
• *:59 - Laurie - Drop (): *https://drop.com/?referer=V63MWF
• *:35 - Brittney - Polywork (): *https://www.polywork.com/brittneypostma
• *:00 - Brittney - DevelopHer (): *https://developher.com/book/
• *:20 - Alex - Tauri (): *https://tauri.studio/en/
• *Show Pick: *New Desktop Web Apps (picked by Alex Patterson)
• *Show Pick: *Polywork (picked by Brittney Postma)
• *Show Pick: *DevelopHer - motivational book geared towards women (picked by Brittney Postma)
• *Show Pick: *Code Girls - book about female code breakers during WW II (picked by Laurie Barth)
• *Show Pick: *Drop - mechanical keyboard shop (picked by Laurie Barth)
• Laurie Barth Guest Profile & Episodes on CodingCat.dev
• Laurie Barth on GitHub
• roadmap.sh Developer Career Paths: Structured engineering skill trees, system design, and career progression
• MDN Web Docs for Developers: Core web platform standards, browser APIs, and performance guides

Related CodingCat.dev Tutorials & Podcast Episodes

• The 7 Strategies I Used To Defeat Imposter Syndrome: How to beat Imposter syndrome in 7 steps
• Becoming a Developer Advocate: Learn from Tim Benniks about how he changed from being a director of Web Development into his new role as a Developer advocate
• Firestore levels up: Bringing the power of search and JOINs to NoSQL in Firebase: Web Architecture & Implementation Guide: Hands-on web engineering breakdown of "Firestore levels up: Bringing the power of search and JOINs to NoSQL" (2026-04-27). Learn how to integrate Firebase, Goog...

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What are the main takeaways from The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech?

Laurie Barth joins us to talk about her transition from working on docs with Gatsby to becoming a Software Engineer at Netflix and the coding interviews along the way. 1.35 - The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech: https://codingcat.dev/podcast/1-35-the-coding-interview-and-transitioning-in-tech 00:00 - Intro

00:27 - Laurie Barth Intro

01:10 - Lego not Legos

01:48 - How did you get your start in tech?

04:00 - What was your first tech job?

05:45 - What is middle end?

07:30 - Gatsby Image team & new Gatsby Imag Throughout this podcast, Laurie Barth breaks down real-world implementation details for Career, Web Dev so developers can apply these patterns directly in production.

How do you implement Career best practices in production?

When adopting Career and Web Dev in a production stack, start by validating your configuration against the roadmap.sh Developer Career Paths (Structured engineering skill trees, system design, and career progression). Focus on incremental adoption, automated testing, and observability so your team can measure performance and developer velocity improvements at each stage.

Where can I watch the full The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech walkthrough and find related code resources?

You can watch the complete video session for The Coding Interview and Transitioning in Tech on the CodingCat.dev YouTube channel. For a deeper dive into Career, check out our related guide: The 7 Strategies I Used To Defeat Imposter Syndrome.