Ask HN: How do you prepare to tech interview? Any tip and tricks?
A seasoned developer shares insights on preparing for tech interviews, emphasizing the importance of aligning one's strengths with the interview process. They suggest that many interviews may not reflect a candidate's true abilities and encourage applicants to focus on their unique skills. The advice includes being honest about one's working style and accepting that rejection is a normal part of the process.
- ▪The author has over 20 years of experience in development and has struggled with tech interviews.
- ▪They emphasize that many interviews do not align with their strengths and that it's important to find companies that match one's skills.
- ▪The author advises candidates to represent themselves honestly and to focus on their good attributes during interviews.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
20+ year dev here, successful CTO, built many production systems, etc. I tend to bomb >50% of tech interviews.I started doing better when I realized most tech interviews are not aligned with my brain, and that is ok. I have bad recall for syntax or even for things I've built in the past if I'm not currently engaged with them. This can come across like I am a bullshitter, or wholly incompetent. I also stumble through leetcodes - I remember enough to identify to right approach but fumble knocking out solutions in 15 minutes.But this is fine! If everyone at a company has focused on powering through leetcodes to get the role, or the job demands photographic memory of HTTP codes ("what is code 428 used for?" An actual interview question I have seen...) I am probably not a good fit and won't…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Ycombinator.