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Oscar
Oscar

Posted on • Originally published at Medium

Interview Questions and Tips

After passing multiple interviews I still remember some questions. Some of them repeat. In this article, I will provide a list of questions, that I had during the interviews. I will add some basic questions, not all questions will be from my experience. I will share my thoughts on why exactly these questions were asked. I will give some tips to make the interview process better.

1 How Do You Know About Us?

With this question, the interviewer wants to see if investing money in the different
platforms, where companies are looking for new members is worth investing. This will allow tracking platforms that bring fewer people to the interview. After the company will decide to invest or not invest money in this platform.

2 What is Our Company About?

By asking this question, the interviewer is checking interest in the company of the candidate. This requires knowing the field of expertise of the company. The best solution for this is to go to companies home page.

3 If You Have a Lot of Money Would You Code/Continue Your Work?

You like, what You do at work. But, what if one day You will wake up with millions of dollars? Would You still continue working? It will show how passionate are You about Your work. In reality, I think a lot of people would travel around the world, or do something else to rest. Important to not show the wish to quit, because it will show You are not passionate, about what You do.

4 Weaknesses and Strong Sides

It will show, what are You good and weak at. About strong sides would be better to show how You handle stressful/hard situations. For weaknesses, would be better to show problems, which were in the past and were solved. It will show the candidate as a person which can admit mistakes and grow.

5 How You Stay Calm in Stressful Situations?

Some companies can have toxic team members, maybe even toxic culture. It will make work harder by adding additional stress at work. No one will change anything to make work less stressful. Handle pressure by yourself, because this culture is not changing for a long time. My answer to this question was - I am open to objective criticism because it allows me to improve. I do not take it too close to stay focused and be productive.

6 Silly Questions

Another way to test a candidate's stress-resistant. Sadly this was one of my first interviews and I do not get a point. The question was - About the color of clouds and what changes it. I was applying for a developer's position, not a man who will tell what the weather will be tomorrow. It took me some time to understand the reason to ask these kinds of questions. Even today I think it is silly to ask questions like this.

7 Why Our Company?

It helps to understand, what the candidate is looking for. The interviewer will understand how inspired the candidate is to work in the exact company. A person inspired to work in a company like Google or another great company will be profitable in a long term. It is important to show how much the candidate knows about the company and why it is the best for him.

8 Tell About Yourself

People want to know You better. Never share information, which can be used against You. Do not share weaknesses/disadvantages or bad habits. Would be better to tell how started learning at university if there is a degree. Tell more about projects, what inspired You to make them, and the value they bring.

9 Why Should We Hire You?

This is the rare question, show Your worth to a company. Show responsibility and motivation.

10 Salary Expectations

If applying to a junior developer position and there is no commercial experience do not ask too much. Compare salaries on the different platforms and calculate Your taxes. Personally, I do not see any reason to ask more than 1000-1200 EU in Lithuania for people who have not more than one year of commercial experience. Do not forget companies can raise salaries later. Important to seek knowledge and experience at the start. Later as a professional, You will be worth more. At the start of their career, some developers were working for free to gain their first experience. As a solution, create websites for Your parents and friends. Later add to Your CV and talk about them during the interview.

11 Do You Have Any Questions?

This question is one of the most important. It shows the interest of the candidate and preparation for the interview. Good questions would be: How my progress will be rated? Company dress code? Will the company provide me a computer or should I use my own?
Career growth possibilities?

12 What is the Professional Achievement You’re Most Proud of?

Show candidates value in the previous job position. For me, it was fixing a small bug that was breaking down the website. The second would be better time management.

13 Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?

One of the worst possible questions, which makes no sense at all. I think most people understand this, maybe this is the reason I hear it very rarely. I think it shows the candidate's plans for the future and motivation. In case the developer does not see himself as a developer, it will be a sign for the interviewer that this developer will not stay for long.

Technical Questions

Left Join, or Inner Join?

Backend question, which request will provide more results? Answer - Left join because it will take results, which match in the left table. The Inner will take the result, which matches both tables. For this reason, the inner join will bring fewer data.

=== VS ==

Usually, this question was on the Javascript interview. == do not check the type of value. "5" == 5 this will return true. "5" === 5 returns false.

Main Technologies

To know, what to expect from a candidate. If a candidate is a full-stack developer interviewer will understand if he is better with the front-end or back-end. In most cases, full-stack developers cannot be equally good with both.

Conclusion

Stay calm, positive, motivated, polite, and concentrated. Do not expect anything from the interview. Learn from mistakes, while applying to work create projects. Be active on social media and learn in public. Let me know, what interview You had.

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