How much does software engineering interview preparation actually help?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

How much does software engineering interview preparation actually help?

manpreet 2 years ago

For example, company wants to hire 2.5+ candidate (yeah, not all companies require 3.5+ superhero engineers).

At work you typically perform something like 2.6, your max level is about 2.8, but without preparation you’ll get 2.0 at the interview. Just because of stress, forgetting some minor things, etc.

So I think that preparation allows you to avoid mistakes that you don’t make in day to day environment. Preparation won’t let you jump above your head (too much).

For example, take those “How do I answer ‘design twitter’?” questions (lots of them on quora). You may study all information on the net on the topic and provide a good answer, but a person who actually did design a similar system still will do better. So experience matters.

manpreet 2 years ago

Almost everything that you do professionally, including interviewing, can be greatly enhanced through proper preparation. Whether you’re trying to get a coveted job at Google, or a web development job at the local agency down the road, technical interviews can be tricky, stressful, and almost all of the developers (including senior) that I’ve interviewed could benefit from some extra practice. Often, the most experienced developers have lived a career in such high demand that they seem to have forgotten to fine tune the soft skills that really make or break an interview.