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Ask HN: What do you do to keep your Coding Interview skills sharp?

8 points by zer0sand0nes ↗ HN
Recently I started doing 1-2 problems from Leetcode before going to sleep.

I want to be prepared for whatever comes my way whenever I decide to interview again.

10 comments

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arthurcolle
Actually do interviews. After 20 you'll see what you should actually focus on, as opposed to cookie cutter problems that test memory vs. in-moment applications.
zer0sand0nes
You do only phone ones or you take time to go do the interviews? Also, if you just interview and then don't keep practicing, aren't you gonna get rusty?

I've had quite a few so far...definitely more than 10. From my experience, coding problems can range from anything to anything. Wall street was more puzzly, but even the big4 sometimes ask very convoluted questions.

Not sure how to generalize everything but to solve random problems on Leetcode.

arthurcolle
Take time to do interviews. Phone is just first pass, the real interview is when youre talking to another software engineer and mutually digesting a problem and seeing how you'd approach it. Stop thinking of interviews as a test and start thinking of interviews as a date. Do I want to spend my week with this person? Do I want to actually work on stuff with this person? Outside of maybe Google, these are the questions most interviewers are asking.
zer0sand0nes
For me the experience has been different. Any company that seemed interesting to me, always asked C.O.D.E & ALGORITHM questions.
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LeonB
Oh incidentally I learned recently that things you learn in the last 90 minutes or so before going to sleep are less likely to be retained.

I believe I read this in "The Expert's Guide to Sleeping Well" by Chris Idzikowski, which is a well-researched book... but I didn't take any notes on where in particular I read it.

It was a striking result because a lot of research shows that sleeping after studying is crucial to consolidate the learning -- this added the nuance that a gap between the study and the sleep is also needed.

zer0sand0nes
I usually surf the internet right before going to sleep. Reading random things. This happens because I give up the monotonous task of doing this types of problems on behalf of enjoying something. :) So, I might be ok?
_q1cj
After realizing that even as a moderately competent junior-mid-level developer my fitness for interview problems drops drastically as soon as I'm employed.

Studying algorithms reminds me of my most hated classes in college, mostly because my professor had no interest in teaching and was really only there for his research...

However, I still have no clue how to keep my interview-foo top notch while not freaking out about trying to get a job as well. I still can't believe friends of mine can line up 5-7 interviews in the course of a week and then get offers from 60% of them on their first try.

zer0sand0nes
That's you and me both buddy. The paranoia is always there. Which makes me really reconsider my life choices?

Like, why am I in this? Thinking in long term, considering the ageism factor, maybe it's about time I take some other approach to this whole career thing?

algaeontoast
I’ve thought deeply about that too. The whole, if I hate practicing stupid word problems so much, why have I convinced myself to spend most of my waking hours doing this software thing?

Then again, it’s decent money and in time I do plan to do something else entirely. Hopefully I’ll have an idea or get involved early enough at a startup to move into management / less technical things?