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.
- new grad software engineer interview
- CS student interview prep
- entry level coding interview
- intern coding interview tips
Short answer: for internship interview prep with limited time, spend most of it on arrays, strings, hash maps and basic trees, get comfortable solving medium problems while talking, have one project you can explain in detail, and prepare four short behavioural stories. Skip the hard-problem marathons until later.
You are fitting this around classes, projects and exams, so copying a senior engineer's six-month grind does not work. Entry-level loops mostly check whether you can solve a reasonable medium problem cleanly and explain what you are doing.
If you have longer, scale up the 90-day coding interview plan. Either way, read how to read a coding problem and how to think out loud early.
A six-week priority order
| Weeks | Focus | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Arrays, strings, hash maps, basic trees | Most intern and new grad questions sit here |
| 3 | Binary search patterns, intro to heaps | Covers a large share of medium problems |
| 4 | Graph BFS and DFS basics | Separates candidates without needing contest-level tricks |
| 5 | Timed mediums, explained out loud | Turns knowing into performing |
| 6 | Mock interviews and review of weak topics only | Stop adding new material |
Some concrete problems for each block, all in the practice set:
- Weeks 1 to 2: Two Sum, Group Anagrams, Valid Parentheses, Maximum Depth of Binary Tree
- Week 3: Binary Search, Koko Eating Bananas, Kth Largest Element
- Week 4: Number of Islands, Binary Tree Level Order Traversal, Course Schedule
Leave hard-only sessions for later, unless a specific company or program is known to ask them.
Projects: one you can defend
Interviewers want one project you can walk through and debug with them:
- A README with run steps, what you built, and what you would improve
- One technical decision you can defend, such as why you picked SQLite over Postgres
- Tests or a demo that behaves the same every time. A flaky demo costs you trust quickly.
If a company sends a take-home instead, see the take-home assignment guide.
Behavioural: short and real
Internship loops still ask behavioural questions. Prepare four stories:
- A conflict or teamwork problem
- A bug or failure you caused
- A deadline under pressure, for example a project due during midterms
- Learning something new quickly
The STAR guide covers how to structure them.
Communication is the cheap win
Plenty of new grads solve the problem and still get a weak score because the interviewer could not follow them. Spend about 15 minutes a day explaining an approach out loud before writing any code, with no editor open. Live pressure drills help with the nerves side of this.
Company differences: read once, then move on
Skim the FAANG coding differences post once. Do not rebuild your plan around rumours about a specific logo. Solid medium-level skills transfer across companies.
FAQ
How many problems should I solve?
Around 80 to 120 problems you understood and reviewed is a better target than 300 you rushed. If you cannot re-solve one a week later, it did not count.
Do I need system design?
Intern loops rarely include a real design round. New grad loops sometimes include a light, high-level discussion. Only study the foundations if the recruiter mentions it; the system design prep order covers where to start.
What mock format works for students?
Mocks where you speak and code at the same time, because that is what trains you to talk while nervous. TechInView runs free DSA practice and a voice AI interview you can use between peer mocks. The AI vs human mock comparison covers when each helps, and how the AI evaluates explains the scorecard.
What about GPA and the resume?
If you are not getting past screening, work through the ATS resume checklist, then put your time back into interview practice.
Summary: internship interview prep should start with the most common DSA topics, one project you can defend, four behavioural stories and daily spoken practice, then finish with mocks that look like real new grad interviews.