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Interview Preparation

Strategies and techniques for succeeding in technical interviews and coding assessments.

Common question patterns​

  • Array/String Manipulation: Two pointers, sliding window, string processing
  • Tree/Graph Traversal: DFS, BFS, tree construction, path finding
  • Dynamic Programming: Optimization problems with overlapping subproblems
  • Hash Table Problems: Frequency counting, lookup optimization
  • Sorting/Searching: Binary search, custom sorting, search optimization

Time management​

  • Problem Understanding: Spend 5-10 minutes understanding the problem
  • Solution Design: Spend 10-15 minutes designing the approach
  • Implementation: Spend 20-30 minutes coding the solution
  • Testing: Spend 5-10 minutes testing and debugging
  • Optimization: Use remaining time for optimization if needed

Communication skills​

  • Think Aloud: Explain your thought process while solving
  • Ask Questions: Clarify requirements and constraints
  • Explain Approach: Describe your algorithm before coding
  • Discuss Trade-offs: Explain time/space complexity trade-offs
  • Handle Feedback: Respond constructively to interviewer feedback

Code review​

  • Code Quality: Write clean, readable, and well-structured code
  • Edge Cases: Consider and handle edge cases appropriately
  • Efficiency: Implement efficient solutions with good complexity
  • Testing: Test your solution with various inputs
  • Documentation: Add comments for complex logic

Follow-up questions​

  • Scalability: How would you handle larger inputs?
  • Extensions: How would you modify for different requirements?
  • Optimization: Can you improve time or space complexity?
  • Real-world: How would you apply this in a real system?
  • Alternatives: What other approaches could you consider?