FIU Interview Prep

Technical questions - a step by step guide

1. Repeat The Problem Back

• Validate you understand the problem
• Ensure you are using intervew time to answer the questions asked
• Display your ability to summarize

2. Ask Clarifying Questions

• Establish the constraints and bounds: Bounds will dictate what solutions are feasible
• Begin to think about run time
• Ask for sample input: are you working with integers? strings? etc.
• Ask about special characteristics of variables: negative numbers? only alpha characters?
• Identify possible inaccurate assumptions: is the input sorted already?

3. Write Out Ideas

• Write the pros/cons
• Work with your interviewer

4. Choose Your Favorite Language

• Ideally an object oriented language like Java, C#, or Python

5. Look Out For Edge Cases

• Start identifying possible tricky scenarios
• Write out a few test cases
• Listen for hints from the interviewer

6. Code Your Solution Up

• Strive for clean and runnable code
• Draw pictures, provide pseudocode, and eventually write code

7. Test Your Code

• Run your test cases through your program
• Try out some edge cases. Did you miss any?

8. Analyze performance

• What's the runtime and spacetime complexity of your solution?
• Where can your solution be improved?

9. It's okay to not know answers immediately

• There questions are meant to push you!
• It's okay to say don't remember something, but don't give up!