The Complete Guide on How to Prepare for a Technical Interview

Is technical interview preparation a daunting experience for you? Do you get surrounded by unknown anxiety before the technical interview process? You feel as if you were not able to deliver the best. Or do you spend the whole day looking for endless motivational interview tips videos, sample questions, and answers and feel drained out? 

Here I will share tips to market yourself as a brand, learn how to market your experience and knowledge, mistakes to be avoided, and how to go about tech interview preparation. But before beginning, let's remind ourselves what some great people said :

" By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." — Benjamin Franklin.

This article is not about cracking interviews at Google and an intensive round of interviews, but it will help you discover answers to

• How to prepare for a technical interview 
• Mistakes to be avoided while preparing for a technical interview?
• How to market yourself as a brand in an interview?
• What should you ask your employer before preparing for the interview?
• Best way to prepare for technical interviews
• Set of questions both technical and behavioral
• Technical interview tips 
• Questions for the employer. in an interview

Courtesy - Cartoonstock

When you're preparing for an interview, an experienced person feels overconfident about cracking the interview as they have broad exposure to the industry. However, a fresher may focus on making an excellent first impression, and preparing for the most common interview questions.

Here's the catch!

There are several things you could be doing that are ruining your chances of getting the job — and you might not even realize that you're doing them!

In this blog, let’s go through the entire process to prepare for a technical interview, amazing tips to ace your interview which would help achieve success on the first attempt. In addition, there is also compiled a list of things you should avoid during your tech interview preparation. 

But first, let’s go through the basics of a technical interview and its different stages –

Technical interviews are part of the hiring process for technical professionals. It is a highly focused process that assesses your technical skills and knowledge. The purpose of technical interviews is not to trick you with brainteasers, but instead to see how you tackle real-world problems. 

Technical interviews can be time-consuming as they may include different parts such as remote screening and coding challenges. The elements of a technical interview may seem intimidating, but they are designed to test your critical thinking and real-world problem-solving skills. 

The technical interview focuses on evaluating a candidate’s abilities to resolve problems, think creatively, and adapt solutions. Success in the interview signifies your qualifications meet the job needs. 

Stages of Technical Interview 

While every company has a different process, let’s look take a look at average situations you might face to outline how you should prepare for a technical interview: 

• First Stage: Telephonic or Video Screening – The company shows interest in your resume and wants to take it forward. This initial screening stage is held to check if you are qualified and skilled enough to proceed to the technical stage. 
• Second Stage: Remote Assignment Interview – Some companies might prefer to test your coding skills with a remote test before having you actually come for the interview. This interview is conducted over the phone, via Zoom, or Skype, or could be a homework-type assignment. 
• Final Stage: Onsite Interview/Whiteboarding -  The actual ‘technical interview’ involves an in-person interview dealing with coding challenges. Here, you need to do it on a whiteboard in front of the interviewers. In virtual interview, it is done remotely over video conference. 

So, these are the stages that you need to go through when you are looking at how to prepare for technical interviews. 

The process to prepare for a technical interview is much different than a non-technical one. While preparing for standard interview questions and answers, consider what questions might be asked on technical methods and skills.  Below is the step-wise guide with the best way to prepare for technical interviews to ace a technical interview even if it’s your first one!

1. Getting Distracted or Zoning Out

You may feel like a master of trade or competent enough to crack the technical interview, but competition is immense, and everyone possesses different skill-sets. Since you don't control the interview, being prepared is critical. Don't keep things for the last moment; instead, practice daily efficiently when you look for how to prepare for technical interview questions. 

2. Not Practicing your Interview Technique

To be confident on the showdown day, think beforehand about how you can best demonstrate your skills and experiences in an interview. Practice how you will answer, give a presentation, get some prompt cards in your bucket, and make your answers compelling.

3. Not Planning the Journey

Respect the company, the interviewer, and the position by being on time. Reflect on good time management skills by planning your trip and being before the time at the venue. It will also help you settle down, revise before the interview, check out the company's infrastructure, interact with other candidates, and ease out.

4. Not Sleeping Well

When you are working a lot on how to prepare for technical interviews, don’t forget to rest enough.  Don't cram any last-minute interview preparation. Adequate sleep is pertinent for you to fire on the next day. 

5. Forgetting Printouts

Ensure to carry printouts of your CV with you, as well as any other supporting information, like references or a portfolio. Pop a notepad and pen in your bag just in case you need to write anything down

6. Inappropriate Dressing

Look polished and put together on the interview day. Check beforehand your dressing to avoid looking goofy. Especially, freshers, you are no more in the coll zone, looking professional and determined for the job your clothes should be appropriate.

Ask these questions from your employer to know the direction of research for preparing for the interview.

Purpose and Format of the Interview

Knowing the interview's purpose and format will help understand what the employer is looking for and their criteria for finding the best candidate. It will help you collect maximum data that is relevant to the interview process.

Technical Interview Format

• Drawing a whiteboard solution to access your problem-solving skills, the kind of programming language, the system you have worked upon.
• Writing code to solve a problem
• Team management and problem-solving skills by leading your prospective team 
• A situation to be handled by role-playing and solving or evaluating a problem and the kind of approach you apply.
• Intensive interviews with a series of people or a panel of experts.
• Open-ended questions check how your strengths, skills, and experience will help perform the current job role. 

• A behavioral interview is also a critical aspect that focuses on your behavior in the past profession, interpersonal skills, communication skills, and the result.
• The STAR method is popular for answering behavioral interview questions given a situation, the tasks you performed, the actions you took, and the consequences of those actions. The approach helps highlight what the employer is looking for in a candidate: leadership, communication, interpersonal skills, teamwork.

Who will Interview You?

When thinking of how to prepare for a technical interview, It is of immense help to know who will interview you as it helps in doing the right kind of research and digging out relevant information. A lot of data about the interview is available on Linkedin and other social media platforms. This interview panel also helps you plan questions of your own — see the final section on "questions for your employer."

Let's Understand by Assuming the Following Three Roles will Interview You:

• Technical Lead: They will deep dive into your technical capabilities, best practices concerning technology and implementation.
• Product Owner - Your expertise in working with an agile team.
• Project Manager - Will dive into your project deliverance timelines.

While preparing consider working on various sets and formats of questions like role-specific questions, company-specific questions, job-specific questions, behavioral questions, and many more.

1. Role-Specific Questions

Role-specific questions will focus on how you have added value via your current to the organization. What achievements have you got, and what have been the challenges. You may add your current role below for us to guide you through detailed interview preparation. 

2. Company-Specific Questions

Be prepared with complete details about the company, functional areas, business model. Being clueless about the company details will ruin your chances of getting selected.

3. Interviewer Specific Questions

Knowing who will interview you, try putting yourself in their shoes, performing their role, and search questions they may ask concerning their area of expertise.

4. Job-Specific Questions

The employer is looking for a candidate who understands the job role and responsibility the best and is a perfect fit. Be aware of the job list of requirements. You can guarantee someone will ask you in-depth—questions about your experience or a fresher subject matter relevant to the job role.

5. Experience Specific Questions in a Technical Interview

Nobody knows more than you have to add to your skill concerning your experience, so it's the most vital part you should play upon. Your resume and your presentation should speak volumes about your experience. You can get in touch with our experts for resume feedback.

• What was the exact role you performed?
• Challenges you faced, and how you overcame them?
• Did you re-architect the applications to take advantage of AWS features? If so — what did you do? 
  

6. Interview Questions About Your Education

For a beginner and even for experience, academic achievements play a critical role.

• Emphasize your academic achievements and the IT certification course you completed during your training. 
• Mention scholarships earned? 
• Perform an internship with a tech company? 
• Describe critical projects in detail, including technologies you mastered like Python, SQL, to complete them. 
• What are your technical certifications?
• How did your education prepare you for this job?
• How would you rate your key competencies for this job?
• What are your IT strengths and weaknesses?

7. Behavioral Questions in a Technical Interview 

They will ask you questions about how you deal with certain situations, how you cope under stress, and how you deal with failure, change, and uncertainty. These questions are designed to probe how you deal with the ever-changing situation 

What coding language are you most comfortable with? The technical interview agenda is to assess candidates for specialist positions in IT and engineering. The questions are specific to the job role so that you can be accessed based on your skill sets relevant to the role. Brainteaser questions, numerical reasoning problems, or logic tests are often conducted. Some sample questions:- like tell me about issues you have in the job and how you overcome them? What kind of development tools have you worked upon?

• What development tools have you used?
• What languages have you programmed in?
• The employer will be interested in knowing how you get the work done, the process behind and whether you will be a cultural fit or not? 
• How did you first learn to program and what was the first thing you built?
• Tell me about some of the more interesting or difficult problems you've been working on the past few years.

You may answer any of these questions in our comment box below and we will guide you through.

You can prepare answers about the 6P’s

• Purpose – Why they do what they do
• Plan – How they do what they do
• Process – What they do to do what they do
• Persistence – What happens when what they do fails
• Persuasive communication – How they get others involved in helping what they do become successful
• Pride – How they celebrate what they do"

- According to Matt Doucette, Director of Global Talent Acquisition at Monster

Below is the list of the best way to prepare for technical interviews: 

1. Carry Your Portfolio 

It is always a good idea to carry a portfolio of your work to show the interviewers. It could include code samples, proposals you’ve written, or projects you have worked on. Employers want to see your technical ability as well as the ability to communicate technical thoughts and recommendations, and the tools you’ve mastered. Here, the portfolio will help to showcase what you are an expert in. Check these Best Skills to Demonstrate on your Resume! 

2. Explain Your Reasoning

Explaining your problem-solving process and the logic behind it will help you stand out from other candidates. This will reflect your knowledge and instinct to apply what you have learned immediately and logically. 

3. Know Different Methods for Solving a Problem

Specific technical interview questions have many answers to them and several possible scenarios to conclude. Explaining our problem-solving process and knowing different methods will show your diverse knowledge.

4. Ask for Clarification if Needed

Don't be hesitant to ask for clarification in case of doubt. This will show the interviewer that you can identify when additional information is needed and be afraid to clarify when you need it.

5. Elaborate on Answers you Don't Know

There is nothing wrong with not knowing an answer and telling the interview about the same. However, you should elaborate on your response and explain how you would find the information to answer any such situation. This will show the interviewer you can search for information to solve problems when you don't know how to do something.

6. Be Prepared to Prove your Skills

Be prepared for brain teaser questions and whiteboard challenges. This is a chance to prove your skills and technical know-how through a series of brainteasers, whiteboard coding challenges, or remote coding assignments. It focuses on your reasoning process and explains the steps you are taking to answer the question. Knowing about the company and its processes is critical to drafting the right kind of answers. Not sure about the in-demand skills? Check these IT Skills to make yourself job-ready. 

7. Don't Rush Your Answers 

don't rush to answer, take time, think about the right methodology to draft the solution, and then reason. Ask if you have any doubt.

8. Questions for Your Employer 

Working upon a list of questions for your employer is critical. Consider researching questions like what are the company’s functionalities and how will it affect your role? What kind of training do they impart to existing employees, metrics for measurement of code quality, what is the company’s revenue model, and how critical is your role?

9. Have a Strong Closing

Many interviews cross the finish line awkwardly, but it must not be. To create a lasting impression on interviewers, utilize the last few minutes to ask questions about the company, the culture, projects, and initiatives the company’s involved with. Here, your focus should be to let the interviewer know that you’re the right person for the job and this is how to prepare for technical interviews efficiently. 

If there are specific aspects of your experience,  skills, or knowledge that weren’t covered — or that you want to focus on — this is the right time to emphasize those. 

10.  After the Interview 

After you are done with the interview, jot down any notes, thoughts, or feedback you have.

Don’t forget to follow up and send a thank-you note!   

If you want the interviewer to remember you for the right reasons, send a thank-you note using the interviewers’ names, recalling some of the high points of the interview, and expressing why you’re the ideal fit.

A technical interview can feel daunting but remember that, the employer wants to give someone a job. Prepare for a technical interview as much as you can as it will provide you with the confidence to perform on the day. 

The way you answer accurately and the presentation of your answers is essential, but if you are struggling with a solution, being calm, methodological, and working on the right approach will take you ahead.

Usually, every job interview discussion begins with the basics and moves to the advanced level, so we hope this guide on how to prepare for a technical interview has given you the required insight to ace your next IT interview. 

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