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• Whiteboard Advice

• 6 Tips

• Video: Engineering Interview Process Deconstructed

The Best Whiteboard Interview Advice I Ever Received

The best piece of technical interview advice I have received and can impart upon you is to communicate, communicate, communicate!

• First, Restate the Question
  • Do you understand what they’re asking you to do? Prove it. Restate the question for them and seek affirmation. You might actually be surprised to find you don’t fully understand what they’re asking for — perhaps the question is similar, but not the same, as a practice problem you have completed in the past.
• Ask about Edge Cases
  • Think for a bit about the inputs and expected output and think about potential edge cases to the problem. Ask about them. In many cases, the interviewer hasn’t even thought about edge cases and will make something up
• Ask about test cases
• Write Pseudocode and ask if it makes sense
• Write the actual code and ask if it looks good
• Stuck? Ask for help

7 tips to ace a programming interview

1. Take a few minutes.

   • Don’t waste precious minutes trying to fill the silence by saying everything you’re thinking, while simultaneously trying to solve the problem in your head. Instead, wait until the interviewer is done explaining the problem. Ask any clarifying questions, and then tell your interviewer:

   “Okay, got it. If it’s okay with you, I’m just going to take a minute or two here and think about the problem, and then I’ll start talking.”

2. Write down the steps of the solution.
   • Even after you have an idea of how to attack the problem, don’t start writing code down. Write down the general steps of how you will solve it on one side of the whiteboard, where it’s visible but won’t get in the way.
3. Write pseudocode first.
4. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
5. Sit down. Be humble.
6. Come prepared.
7. Review your work.

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