Interview

Preparation

Most Common Reasons for Rejections

Thinking of the test as a test

...instead of as a production code

  • no tests
  • commit messages are bad
  • PRs are not created
  • README file is not created
  • "Developer" speak
  • Grammatical mistakes in READMES / issues / PRs
  • Not following code best practices
  • Formatting
  • Eye for Pixel Perfect design

How can you improve?

  • Be detail-oriented and professional at all times.

Below is the feedback for the assignment:
1. Hover on cancel is too small.
2. Clicking outside the modal does not close the modal
3. Hover on "Add Investor" makes the button smaller
4. CSS misaligned with the spec.

Example 1

-Most features aren't implemented, the few that are aren't working well. (For instance, search doesn't look for partial name or lower/upper case. Or add investment is added to the db but not in the UI)
-Not responsive on wide or small screen
-Many UX issues; things not centered

 

Example 2

- Missing test cases that could have proven/disproven a function worked as intended
- Not knowing how a function worked that you used (.map)
- Return type differed to what you thought was being returned (false vs undefined)
- Saying that an input was invalid when it was valid

Example 3

    A lot of candidates struggle to articulate the technical aspect of what they have done in their previous expereince and how they have solved a given assignmnet/problem

Technical Articulation

How can you improve?

  • Mock Interviews
  • Read technical blogposts or books and try to summarize it.
  • Try explaining the same concept to someone else.
  • Communicate your partial thoughts as well.

Structured thinking/problem solving skills

Partners are interested in the thought process that candidates display in solving problems and logical thinking.

There have been cases where candidates have got the right answer, but they were rejected because of the code (they failed to understand why or how a certain code is written)

How can you improve?

  • Pair Programming
  • Read 'How to solve it' by G. Poyla
  • Watch mock interviews on YouTube and follow their style

Weak fundamental knowledge

Partners have indicated that rejected candidates do not have strong basics in Javascript, React, Node, HTML/CSS

How can you improve?

  • After the course, read the React Docs multiple times.
  • Build projects out of your domain.
    • CRUD -> Very interactive application such as Excel
    • Excel -> Animation heavy
    • Anim -> Games

DS Algo skills

Rejected candidates have not been able to clear the DS Algo round

Partners have also mentioned that some candidates have weak/average DS Algo skills

How can you improve?

  • Keep practicing on HackerRank / LeetCode

Speed in solving problems

Candidates need more exposure to solving problems and become faster in solving them in the given timeframe

Rejected candidates have mentioned they were unable to solve problems in the given time

How can you improve?

  • Learn how to depend on libraries or integrate other people's code in your own repo
  • Learn to search about relevant problems faster

deck

By Arfat Salman