[{"_1":2,"_42":-5,"_43":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_10":11,"_40":-5,"_41":-5},"root",{"_5":-5,"_6":-5,"_7":-5,"_8":9},"user","shoppingCartId","toast","locale","en","routes/_store+/_readers+/email_author.$slug/route",{"_12":13,"_39":-5},"book",{"_14":15,"_16":17,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":23,"_24":25},"id","Z2lkOi8vbGVhbnB1Yi9TdG9yZTo6Qm9va1Byb2R1Y3QvNTE1MTc","title","Nail A Coding Interview: Six-Step Mental Framework","state","published","contactAuthorMethod","email","aboutText","

By now, having practiced hundreds of coding questions on HackerRank and LeetCode for weeks, you must feel quite confident about the upcoming interview.

After the interviewer gives the introduction and finally reveals the coding problem, the sense of nervousness starts to creep in within you. While you are internalizing the coding problem, for a split second, your mind gets lost. Now you don’t know where to start.

Suddenly you also notice the 45-minute clock has been ticking, so your mind goes blank again. A well-prepared code interview has a bad start.

I have been there, and I know that feeling.

I have interviewed hundreds of software engineer candidates while working for big tech companies, and also hiring for my own company Roxy. I have interviewed new grads, industry veterans from Google, Amazon & Facebook, quantitative engineers from Hedge Funds, and indie entrepreneurs.

After analyzing hundreds of interviews, I noticed that the same six steps, forming a mental framework, were often at work.

Introduction
Step 1 - 6 with examples, actionable takeaways

About Author

Grace Huang is an ex-founder with a successful exit. She was a software engineer at several big tech companies, including Amazon and Bloomberg.

She writes about startups, entrepreneurship, investing, software and hardware engineering, manufacturing, and lifelong learning.

Check her Linkedin profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lghuang/) to learn more. Feel free to ask questions or drop a note on Twitter @imgracehuang.

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Contents

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