Whether you're grinding LeetCode, rehearsing system design, or just trying to stay sharp between rounds, your environment matters. The right tools can cut friction so you focus on what counts: nailing the interview.
Here are 7 Mac apps that helped me (and developers I know) get through interview prep without losing our minds.
1. Raycast — Your Command Center
Raycast replaces Spotlight with something actually useful for developers. During interview prep, I used it constantly — quick calculator for Big-O comparisons, clipboard history for pasting code snippets between windows, and instant window tiling so I could have my IDE and a problem statement side by side. The snippet expansion feature is great for saving common algorithm templates.
Price: Free (Pro $8/mo)
2. Obsidian — Your Second Brain for Patterns
Obsidian is a local-first markdown note-taking app with bidirectional linking. I built an entire graph of algorithm patterns — linked "sliding window" to "two pointers" to "hash map tricks" — and reviewing it before interviews was like having a cheat sheet that actually taught me something. The search is lightning fast and everything stays on your machine.
Price: Free for personal use
3. Monk Mode — Kill the Feeds, Keep the Focus
Monk Mode blocks distracting feeds at the content level without nuking entire apps. During interview prep, this was essential. I could still use Twitter to DM recruiters but the infinite feed was gone. Same with YouTube — tutorial videos worked fine, but the homepage couldn't pull me into a 2-hour rabbit hole. When you're spending 3-4 hours a day on problems, protecting that focus time is non-negotiable.
Price: $15 lifetime
4. Warp — A Terminal That Doesn't Fight You
Warp is a Rust-based terminal with modern editing, command search, and AI assistance built in. For interview prep, the block-based output is a game changer — you can copy just the output of a specific command without wrestling with text selection. The built-in AI can explain error messages when you're testing solutions locally, which saves trips to Stack Overflow.
Price: Free (Teams plan available)
5. TokenBar — Track What Your AI Study Sessions Cost
TokenBar sits in your menu bar and shows real-time token usage across LLM APIs. If you're using ChatGPT, Claude, or Copilot to help explain problems, verify solutions, or do mock interviews, costs add up fast. TokenBar helped me realize I was burning $4/day on GPT-4 during prep. I adjusted my workflow — used cheaper models for simple explanations and saved the heavy models for complex system design questions.
Price: $5 lifetime
6. Rectangle — Snap Your Windows Into Study Mode
Rectangle is a free, open-source window manager. Interview prep means juggling a lot of windows: LeetCode on the left, your IDE on the right, maybe notes on a second monitor. Rectangle's keyboard shortcuts make this instant. I set up a muscle-memory layout — problem on the left third, code in the middle third, terminal on the right — and it cut my context-switching time dramatically.
Price: Free and open source
7. Numi — Think Through Problems Without Leaving Your Keyboard
Numi is a text-based calculator that feels like a scratchpad. During interview prep, I used it constantly for back-of-the-envelope calculations: "if this array has 10^6 elements and my solution is O(n log n), that's roughly 20 million operations" — just type it out in plain English mixed with math. It's way faster than opening a Python REPL for quick arithmetic, and the natural language support means you don't break your flow.
Price: Free
Wrapping Up
Interview prep is a grind, but it doesn't have to be a disorganized one. These tools won't teach you dynamic programming, but they'll make sure your environment isn't working against you while you learn it.
Got a tool that helped you through interview prep? Drop it in the comments — always looking for new additions to the toolkit.
Happy interviewing, and may your Big-O always be optimal. 🎯
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