Guides for the round, not just the problem.
Guides on communication, algorithms, what interviewers measure, and how to practice, written for engineers preparing for real interview loops.
18 posts shown
August 2026
2 guides- Process & materials5 min
Engineering Manager Interview Questions (And What the Panel Scores)
The five question families in engineering manager interviews (people, delivery, technical judgment, stakeholders, scope), plus the answer structure panels want.
- Prep planning5 min
The 90-Day Coding Interview Prep Plan (For Engineers With a Full-Time Job)
A 90-day coding interview prep schedule for working engineers: three 30-day phases, a weekly template, review cadence, and when to start mock interviews.
July 2026
4 guides- System design4 min
System Design Interview Prep: What to Study First
An eight-week system design interview prep order: core vocabulary, a five-question opener, building blocks, then timed drills, alongside your coding practice.
- What gets scored5 min
The Technical Q&A Round: Proving Stack Depth Without Code
How technical Q&A interviews are scored: mechanism-level answers, structured debugging and production trade-offs, plus drills for a round with no editor.
- Process & materials4 min
Behavioral Interview Questions for Software Engineers (STAR Templates That Don’t Sound Robotic)
Behavioral interview prep for software engineers: a compressed STAR format, the 7 story themes to prepare, example skeletons, and how to sound unscripted.
- Coding craft4 min
How to Read a Coding Interview Problem (Without Burning 20 Minutes)
How to approach LeetCode and interview problems: a five-pass read that takes under four minutes, the questions to ask, and how to turn it into a spoken plan.
June 2026
4 guides- Process & materials3 min
Software Engineer Resume ATS Checklist: Parser and Human
A software engineer resume checklist that survives ATS parsing and a 30-second human skim: layout fixes, bullet formula, honest keywords and section order.
- What gets scored4 min
Google vs Amazon vs Meta Coding Interviews: What Actually Changes (2026)
How Google, Amazon, and Meta coding interviews differ in emphasis, follow-ups, and pace, and how to tune one prep plan for all three without chasing myths.
- Process & materials4 min
Take-Home Coding Assignments: What Reviewers Look For
How take-home assignments get reviewed: scope an MVP, write a README anyone can run, test the edges, document trade-offs, and prepare for the live round.
- Coding craft4 min
Stuck in a Coding Interview: A Recovery Playbook
What to do in the 90 seconds after you freeze in a coding interview: name the kind of stuck, narrate, shrink the problem, and take hints without losing points.
May 2026
4 guides- Coding craft3 min
From ‘I Know the Algorithm’ to ‘I Can Code It Live’: Coding Interview Under Pressure
How to perform in a coding interview under pressure: a four-week drill ladder, what to say when you go quiet, and why silent LeetCode practice falls short.
- Prep planning3 min
New Grad and Intern Interview Prep: What to Prioritize
A six-week internship and new grad interview prep order: which DSA topics first, how to present one project, four behavioral stories, and daily spoken practice.
- Fundamentals4 min
Which Data Structure? A Decision Guide for Coding Interviews
Pick the right data structure fast in a coding interview: four questions that narrow the field, a constraint-to-structure map, and how to justify it out loud.
- Coding craft4 min
How to Think Out Loud in a Coding Interview
A four-phase script for coding interview communication: what to say while clarifying, planning, coding, and testing, and how interviewers read your silence.
April 2026
4 guides- Coding craft4 min
The Complete Guide to Two Sum (All 3 Approaches)
Two Sum three ways: brute force, sort plus two pointers, and a one-pass hash map, with complexity, the duplicate-value trap, and what to say out loud.
- What gets scored4 min
What FAANG Interviewers Actually Score You On
How big-tech coding rounds are graded: problem solving, code quality, communication, technical depth, and testing, and how the hire decision gets made.
- Fundamentals5 min
How to Analyze Time Complexity (With Examples)
A time complexity cheat sheet for coding interviews: common Big-O patterns, loops, recursion, amortized costs, graphs, space, and how to explain it out loud.
- Prep planning4 min
AI Mock Interviews vs Human Mock Interviews in 2026
When to use an AI mock interview and when to book a human: realism, feedback quality, scheduling, and a four-week plan that combines both.