8 Cheat Sheet Sites To Ace Tech Job Interviews
Technical interviews can be grueling and filled with potential pitfalls. But you can up your chances of nailing them and landing that dream IT job with the right preparation. Here are 8 sites that offer sneak peeks at technical job interview questions at companies including Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon.
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First the elation, then the fear. For some tech job seekers, that pretty much sums up the feelings of landing a technical interview.
But before fear-induced paralysis of the mind sets in, it may be worth your while to take a look at one of the websites that provide examples of job interview questions asked by a number of companies, one of which may be where you are interviewing.
However, you may wonder whether it's worth the time to review such cheat sheet questions.
"You should do anything you can that's legal to prepare for an interview. That includes looking at these sites, talking to people you know who work at the company or used to work there and talking to recruiters who help the company find people," said Jon Holman, founder of the executive recruiting firm The Holman Group.
He cautioned, however, that job seekers should never divulge they've taken the time to look at these sites to get a jump on the potential questions that they may come across in the job interview. Holman stressed, "You especially don't want to assume that the statements on the blog are true or current. Companies aren't stupid. If they know that a blogger has posted their "standard" questions ... (the) questions will get changed. And if you're flummoxed in the interview because you didn't think more broadly than the list of questions on the blog, well, you don't deserve the job."
Cody Voellinger, founder of tech recruiting firm RockIT Recruiting, holds a similar view.
While Voellinger says he believes it is "definitely" worth a person's effort to review these sites and the technical questions listed, he noted it is far more important to consider the type of questions asked and develop a broader frame of mind that will help in preparing answers to the questions.
For example, there are 20 different areas that the interview can focus on, Voellinger noted. And in looking at the cheat sheet questions, job candidates may notice a particular company likes to use pair programming tests, while another company may prefer white board tests.
[See 10 Best Tech Companies To Work For In 2016.]
Gayle Laakmann McDowell, founder and CEO of IT career and job training site CareerCup and author of Cracking the Coding Interview, said, "The goal of these questions is not to test if you know how to solve some problem, but rather to assess if you can 'figure out' how to solve a new problem."
She added that tech companies typically are supportive of job candidates who engage in interview preparation. "They want to hire more software developers, and know that the process isn't perfect. Good developers often get rejected because they just weren't prepared," Laakmann McDowell said. "Many recruiters actually give candidates links to CareerCup, Cracking the Coding Interview, and other resources. Some [tech recruiting companies] go so far as to fund preparation ... they know that this can be the critical step in landing a great candidate."
In addition to CareerCup, other tech interview preparation programs include Interview Kickstart. Of course, there are the following eight cheat sheet sites with examples of technical questions asked by such companies as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. Take a look and tell us whether you would use these sites to help with interview preparation or if you would recommend them to job seekers.
CareerCup, a technology careers site, features a robust "Recent Interview Questions" section on the site where users are frequently posting examples of technical job interview questions. The section on interview questions also allows users to look at questions based on a company, such as Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, or Yahoo, as well as job title, or skill set, such as algorithms, coding, data structures, or Java.
Amazon job interview questions are by far the most prevalent on the site, currently numbering 4,068 examples, compared to 1,951 for Microsoft, the second highest. "I suspect it's for two reasons," said Laakmann McDowell. "First, Amazon does a lot of hiring for software developers both within the US and India, which are the two biggest sources of traffic for CareerCup. Second, it's a cycle: The more popular Amazon is, the more likely Amazon candidates are to visit the site, and thus the more Amazon questions they end up adding after their interview."
Algorithm job interview questions are also exceedingly prevalent, with 5,177 examples posted to the site. "Algorithm questions are a core part of how software developers are interviewed, and practicing these is essential. Unlike, say, knowledge questions, just reading documentation won't help you. You need to actually practice solving new questions. So that's what CareerCup is based around," Laakmann McDowell said.
Jobs and recruiting site Glassdoor offers an efficient "Interviews" page that allows users to enter the name of the company they are interested in. It then pulls up examples of interview questions users have encountered, or describes the interview process they underwent. Especially helpful is that each user's entry indicates their job title and whether they are a current or former employee, of it they are an intern. That allows prospective job candidates to zero in on the most relevant entries, such as those posted by a software developer, data scientist, or engineer.
"We've seen consistently that tech giants such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as consulting companies like McKinsey & Company and Bain & Company are known among candidates for difficult job interview questions," said Scott Dobroski, Glassdoor careers trends analyst. "However, candidates at a wide range of companies post questions to Glassdoor -- not only where they have had a tough interview. We find candidates are motivated to help others in the job search process, offering a transparent look into what can be expected at the job interview."
Dobroski noted that Glassdoor has seen all types of interview questions posted to its site, from oddball questions to challenging zingers. "By asking tough or challenging questions, hiring managers aim to better understand how a candidate thinks, problem-solves and approaches unexpected challenges, which come up in all industries, further helping them determine who is the best fit candidate."
Questions and answers site Quora offers user-generated responses regarding a wide range of topics, from what to learn in 10 minutes that will be useful for the rest of your life, to how fast toenails can grow. Tech job seekers punching in specific questions like "What is the engineering interview process like at Spotify?" or "What algorithm questions were you asked at an Amazon interview?" may find the question has already been asked and the answers logged. They can also post the question themselves to the Quora community.
Technical Interview, a site that houses a list of IT job interview questions, features sections based on skills like C++ and data structures, and a smattering of company-specific job interview questions from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
The site relies on pulling company-specific job interview questions from a variety of resources and coding books, as well as posting its own material. However, some of the material is also a little dated, going back to 2011.
The Tech Interviews site provides technical interview questions based on skills sets, noted by the tabs at the top of its home page. But it is possible to drill down to company-specific technical job interview questions by entering queries into the search bar, such as "Amazon interview." Once that is done, the site will return a number of questions. In some cases the questions are specific to a skill and not the company in question. In other cases it will note above the question that it was one that was submitted by a reader who went through an interview with the company and submitted some of the questions they faced.
The questions and answers posted to Tech Interviews are a collection of information generated by readers, companies that are referenced in the questions and answers, and also by the site administrator.
CoderCareer has tabs on its site that specifically address coding interview questions from Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft, as well as job interview questions about specific skills such as coding algorithms, binary trees, and data structures.
The blog site is run by Harry He, author of Coding Interviews: Questions, Analysis & Solutions. Although there are a number of technical questions on the site, only one new entry was posted in 2015 and five in 2014.
Although Microsoft has a reputation for job interviews that are challenging, the software giant provides its own cheat sheet of sorts to help students and graduates ace its job interviews. In its Interview Prep document, Microsoft outlines what technical questions to expect, hypothetical questions, ways to prepare for the interview, and specific interview tips for certain job positions and roles.
It may or may not be obvious, but one of the most useful tools to locate examples of technical questions you may come across at a specific company is to conduct a Google search. Key words should include technical interview, white board test, job interview process, the position sought and the name of the company.
For example, a Google search for "Etsy technical job interview," and "software engineer" yields a number of results to peruse.
It may or may not be obvious, but one of the most useful tools to locate examples of technical questions you may come across at a specific company is to conduct a Google search. Key words should include technical interview, white board test, job interview process, the position sought and the name of the company.
For example, a Google search for "Etsy technical job interview," and "software engineer" yields a number of results to peruse.
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