One of the few things that developers can agree on is that the interview process is terribly broken. There are ideas about how to fix it (links below) but the industry has yet to come to a consensus on a better way forward.
Many developers are particularly aggravated by the way some organizations insist on “academic” interview problems that test developers skill with algorithms and (big O) algorithmic analysis. The argument is that these types of problems are often irrelevant to the job, rewarding antiquated knowledge over practical skill, and are biased in favor of developers with more time and resources to spend on preparation.
Now, before we continue let me get this out of the way:
I agree with those arguments!
Demystifying the Technical Interview through Practice
Like I mentioned in my post on Meetup and Codewars, I think the best way to prepare for a technical/whiteboard/programming interview is to practice. Sites like Codewars make this kind of practice easier than ever, but the pressure of having potential employers watching over your shoulder adds a whole other dimension.
Because of that, I wanted to experiment with “live coding” through practice problems, talking through my decisions as I went along. This ended up being more difficult than I had anticipated, even without the live audience.
Now that I’m wrapping up my little experiment, I wanted to share a few things that I learned along the way…
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Meetup and CodeWars
Every so often somebody in slack will ask for advice on getting their first programming job. Experience is critical in the tech industry, so that first step can be a doozy.
While there is a lot of great information available on the internet, my favorite advice is short and sweet: Meetup and CodeWars
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