Technical interviews are a nerve wracking experience that can demoralize a developer. In the past, these consisted of weird brain churning quest...
Some comments have been hidden by the post's author - find out more
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
There is a lot of consensus going around that prefers coding homework to coding interviews.
Who programs in front of a boss at the job? Not many...and not often.
Coding interviews reward rote memorization, and are a poor indicator of ability.
We are working IN software....to pretend like stackoverflow and google are not your second brain is delusional.
Anyway, Farhana thank you for sharing your story and you will soon get what you want if not already! Happy New Year!
Great take, Hunter! Agree with everything said, I hope to see more companies give take home coding projects as part of the interview process, as well as compensating the interviewee for their time spent on the project. But that's a different topic :)
Happy new year!
Totally agree with the compensation. Example: I tackled a coding project for a company (4+ hours), including some stuff nobody knew there. They learned something from me for free, especially since they rejected my application. It has a bitter taste.
Disagree with compensation. If a company took advantage of applicants as a free labor pool....it would get a terrible reputation. ;-)
It's not about free labor. It's about commitment. Without fee, company lose nothing, but an applicant lose a lot of time without any guarantee of a feedback
Well. I allow use google or stackoverflow on my interviews. It's ok to not know everything, but you have to be able to find solution (and understand what you've found).
Thanks for sharing Alex, I once had a front-end interview where the interviewer was okay with me searching up whatever and even said its okay to use a personal project's source code. It felt so wrong to me because I wasn't used to it. But it shouldn't have felt wrong because this is what every day development is all about. I'm happy to hear more interviews are allowing to use resources :)
What a great article! As a developer who regularly conducts technical interviews, a lot of this is absolutely true. Although I feel like the industry is way too critical of their entry-level positions, following this guide would get you a solid place on my team.
So according to the author, the author has a BS. degree in CS. I believe it may have worked out some way - as in help. For someone without a degree, fairly new to the industry, what is the guide for such a person to get into the industry? I am actually asking what an interviewer would expect from a person without a degree. Thanks a lot.
I don't have a degree either! It is absolutely possible to thrive, though we are at a disadvantage until the interview. But that's where non-traditional developers usually shine.
Do the same things as the author said -- keep learning every day and bettering yourself. My best experiences have been starting side projects. Make a text based game, or create a shopping list mobile app, or do one of those 50 projects in 50 days lists. It doesn't have to be super successful, but it will take you through real problems and teach you to be much better at problem solving.
And an aside, try to learn the industry standard terminology. I struggled a lot in interviews because I didn't understand what 'array notation' was.
+1 on every Christopher has said! My side projects were definitely the star of the show during the interviews. I started with creating my portfolio website and listing that on my resume as well as creating a ReactJS project because I felt like a lot of companies were heading towards this framework.
Otu Michael, I wish you the best of luck and tons of good vibes on your studying and searching. Networking with people already in the industry helped me learn what opportunities were out there as well as attending conferences, both free and scholarship awarded. The FreeCodeCamp website is a favorite website of mine that has a ton of real world project ideas to work on, where a lot of software developers gain new skills for new opportunities. Keep networking and studying!
Thanks, Man...
I am 58 and, after reading this, I have to say I am thankful that I am no longer looked at as a technical job candidate by employers. Some of these interview processes are just mind boggling and nothing like I had to go through decades ago. Good luck to the current and up and coming generation.
Quizz: what's the most important for a company?
I didn't see many interviews testing the second point. Instead we have interviewers throwing a subset of all possible questions one can ask a developer. How many questions is that? Way too many for us to keep our sanity.
This is ridiculous.
I've considered sharing my coding interview failures as well since I've had the luxury of not passing three of the four FANG company final stages. This post provides lots of great inspiration and pointers, so thanks for that! My tech career over twenty years has primarily been a mix of learning on the job and getting new roles by referrals. Since I didn't complete the traditional computer science path, I have less of an advantage when it comes to the LeetCode questions. I'm not saying I couldn't catch up, but there is less motivation to do so when work remains stable. I do like the approach of coding homework assignments over brain teaser quizzes that put the candidate on the spot.
Thanks for sharing your experience Farhana. In a world where every engineer is stuck creating the perfect persona, It is quite easy to forget that our failures are what keep us real and i believe every engineer has a backstory like this. Forming atomic habits of spending more time on leetcode and improving your skills inline with what the interview process expects (however flawed it might be) is one way to come out of this though. Also, don't lose motivation. Rejections are natural and can happen in surprising ways. There is something to be learned from every rejection.
Nicely said Gaurav! Agree with everything said.
Thank you for sharing your experience. It helps to prepare one's interview with companies.
One note though: there's not at all a standard for recruiting a dev in all companies, some companies do recruiter quicker than others and for the same position, you don't have the same expectation in two different companies.
Good point! I'm sure a lot of companies don't follow the standards that I experienced. But I believe whatever your craft is will still be asked about during any communication with a potential employer. Thanks for reading my post!
interview with companies you dont care? that is so selfish....
Thanks for the read Cristóbal! Continually practicing and getting better, no matter the company, helps all of us in the long run. Practice makes perfect :)
This is a great article. Very interesting to see what goes on during interviews at various places. Do you also create a portfolio of projects that you supply to the Interviewers? I try to build complete small apps that display my abilities. I recently did that with my entry in the #DOhackathon here at dev.to. Have you submitted an entry? Let me know I'd like to check it out. If you get a moment check out my entry and let me know what you think. Thanks.
If your partner's commitment is in doubt or you wish to know what your employers are doing behind your back, kindly reach out to "hackingloop6@ g m a i l . com". he is a reliable and legit hacker,he helped me gain closure to my Ex's phone activities during my divorce, tell him I referred you.
Nice, it was a nice writeup!
Thank you! Really appreciate it
I was not familiar with LeetCode. Thank you for introduction. Pomodoro technique was also catchy.
Glad this blog post benefitted you! Happy studying 💻
Congratulation on your new job. Great post. Thank you for sharing
Thank you so much!
Thanks for sharing your story, it's easy to keep blinders on after failing an interview - never lose sight of the big picture!
Worded beautifully Monica, thank you ☺️
Holy smokes, you got interview offers with so many big companies, your resume must have been killer with a perfect 4.0 GPA! Thank you for sharing your struggles and tips.
😁 thanks for the kind words! My resume was filled with my projects because my GPA was never high enough for an internship. To be completely transparent, I had a 2.6 GPA from sophomore year until my last semester because I had failed a class and had to wait a whole year to retake it. Definitely recommend listing out all of your best projects on your resume.
Happy studying!
Thanks for sharing your experiences
Great article Farhana! Helps a lot to keep up practicing and learning from failed interviews. I struggle a lot with rejections.
I can relate so much to everything that you wrote here.
How were you able to get so many interviews in huge companies like facebook, google ? How did you apply or what made them to invite you for interview ?
Hey Veton, I kept my Linkedin up to date and I attended many conferences where companies were actively recruiting. A majority of my interviews were through recruiters who reached out to me through either LinkedIn or these conferences (Grace Hopper, Tapia)
I made sure my GitHub was also up to date with projects that had screenshots and/or a live demo link in the readme file.