As the demand for African tech talent grows around the world, an increasing number of people are learning tech skills to meet this demand.
While you’re writing code and solving problems as a tech newbie, it’s essential that you understand what it takes to get your first job in the tech industry. A technical interview has long been a source of anxiety for many tech newbies because they don’t know what to expect.
To be honest, a technical interview is unlike any other job interview: it’s a specialized, rigorous process that assesses your coding abilities, problem-solving abilities, and personality.
These interviews can be intimidating at times, especially if it’s your first time. It’s a lot easier when you know what to expect and have invested time in interview preparation.
In this article, I will share six major tips to help you prepare for your technical interview. Even if this is your first attempt, you’ll learn how to ace it!
Before we get into specific preparation tips, let’s go over what a technical interview entails.
What Is a Technical interview?
In contrast to traditional interviews, where you only talk about what you know, a technical interview requires you to demonstrate your coding and problem-solving skills.
Rather than simply telling the interviewer that you have the necessary skills, you must demonstrate them.
The goal of the technical interview is not to confound you with riddles, brain teasers, or impossible questions. Instead, it’s to see how you handle real-world problems, such as those you might face if you get the job!
How to prepare for a technical interview
You may have heard Zig Ziglar say, “Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.” This is something you may have heard many times before, but it cannot be overstated. The importance of adequate preparation cannot be overemphasized.
One way to avoid spending more time preparing for a job interview is to make certain practices and skills a part of your daily routine.
In my years of mentoring tech newbies, I’ve observed that many people wait until they get a call from a recruiter before spending quality time preparing for interviews.
So, in the days, weeks, or months prior to your job applications and interviews, here are some of the most crucial coding interview preparation tips to master.
1. Choose your preferred language for your coding interviews
In the majority of cases, companies will let you conduct your technical interview in any language of your choice. Because of this, you should practice using your preferred language to solve a variety of problems.
I’m aware of only one instance where this isn’t the case: Google’s algorithmic coding interviews, where applicants can only select from a pool of specific languages
The decisions you make may have a greater impact on your performance than you might realize. For this reason, it’s crucial to choose a suitable programming language early on in your coding interview preparation and to use it frequently in practice.
2. Practice the most fundamental concepts in computer science
One of the most important questions to answer at the start of your coding interview preparation is: What study topics and practice questions should you do to prepare for your coding interviews as efficiently as possible?
There are numerous resources available on the internet, but it can be daunting to determine how they fit into the time you have left to prepare. Fortunately, I discovered two useful YouTube channels for learning the fundamentals of computer science.
Data Structures & Algorithms — What Are Data Structures?
HackerRank: Data Structure and Algorithms
Feel free to check them out right away!
3. Solve a lot of mock interview questions
Writing actual code to solve real-world problems is one of the most effective ways to improve your problem-solving skills. For interview preparation, I’d recommend one of the most popular platforms among software engineers, Leetcode.
Leetcode is a website where you can practice interview questions and read interview-related materials. It is currently the best way to prepare for coding interview rounds.
Many of the problems on Leetcode stem from real-world interviews in various companies. I believe that anyone who solves 100–300 Leetcode problems has a good chance of passing almost any coding interview round.
4. Participate in various online coding challenges/ contests
Many prep interview platforms regularly host coding contests. These are enjoyable to participate in and may help you improve your speed. Furthermore, the speed required to participate well in the contests is roughly 2–3x that required in real interviews, and problems may be much more difficult than in a typical interview.
If you participate, be sure to still write good, clean code, and don’t be too discouraged if you don’t perform that well. These contests can be hard, and are not directly related to the interviews — participate only if you are already comfortable solving problems and want to challenge yourself.
Again, don’t be discouraged if you struggle to attempt those problems.
Keep practicing!
5. Be prepared to talk about yourself/project/experience
It is critical that you come prepared to discuss non-coding topics such as your employment history, career goals, past projects, and so on. If you work for a company with a long and tedious interview process, the technical interview could be just one of many, and you’ll almost certainly have to answer some version of this question when you meet new interviewers. This is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate soft skills and passion.
Prepare to provide clear answers to the following and other questions:
- When you were a member of a team
- When you successfully solved a difficult problem
- When you demonstrated leadership
- What you’re passionate about and why
6. Get yourself a mentor or study buddy
Do you have a friend or colleague who has similar job goals? Ask them to assist! Study coding concepts and work together to solve problems. Take turns interviewing each other so that you can understand the interviewer’s point of view.
Otherwise, I’d recommend that you find a mentor who will help you learn the necessary skills and prepare you for interviews.
Do you need a mentor right now?
Please do not hesitate to contact me via LinkedIn. Let’s work together to achieve your career goals.
Good News!
I’ve created a 3-month study plan that includes recommended study resources and practice question links.
Each study plan includes a list of coding interview topics, as well as resources and practice questions, which you should work through in order of priority each week.
Please contact me on LinkedIn if you would like a copy of this.
All the best to you!
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