How to crack the interviews of big tech giants?

Cracking a programming job interview is not easy and when you aim for tech giants like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. preparing for an interview becomes a daunting experience. Well, the key to crack interviews of big giants lies in careful planning and good preparation.

To save you from getting lost, we have created a complete list that will help you prepare for tech interviews with industry giants. Preparing for the interviews with top companies will also ensure that you are way ahead of others. This increases your chances of getting many offers from companies and startups. We believe that aiming high always comes as a boon because it opens up many opportunities for you.

So what does an interview process entails

During an interview, the evaluation is done through the following skills:

• Technical and coding skills
• Analytical skills
• Experience in previous projects
• Communication skills

What you should keep in mind while preparing for your interview

While there are many things that you should keep in mind when preparing for interviews at the top companies like technical skills, soft skills, topics to prepare, etc. We will be covering them all, one by one here.

Focus

This is one important thing that you need to prepare for your interview. You need to dedicate your complete focus and not give up if any interview does not go well. Consider every interview as a stepping stone for another. Also, do not give up on the temptation of procrastination and thinking that you have prepared enough. This article will cover all the points that you need to know but you have to dedicate time and effort to learn those thoroughly.

Problem-solving attitude

Running into bugs and errors is a common problem to have in any tech job. During the interview, interviewers try to assess your approach towards solving problems and tackling situations when you are stuck. Problem-solving is an important characteristic of a Full Stack Developer. There are times when you would be asked to give shape to an original idea that requires thorough planning and execution. In such cases, you should keep a problem-solving attitude and display the same to the interviewer.

Topics to prepare

Technical skills are the core of your Full Stack career. Good knowledge and practice of programming languages and technologies is one skill that you will have to master. Prepare these topics well for your interview to boost your chances of getting selected by the big tech giants.

• Data Structure

As a Full Stack Developer, if you don’t know how to write web apps using React, Django, it’s okay but if you don’t know when to use a list over an array, what is the advantage of B-Tree over an array or how a hash table works, it is not okay. Problem-solving using data Structure is the core of programming and every programmer is expected to have a good knowledge of the fundamentals of data structure. It is an imperative requirement for developing a robust website or app that works seamlessly and this depends on how the program works, how data is stored. During interviews, you will be asked to optimize solutions for space and time complexity. You must have knowledge about linked lists, arrays, binary trees, binary search tree, hash table, stack, graph, and queue. You should also know comparative analysis about using particular data structures.

• Algorithms

Knowledge about data structures is not all. You must know how to work with these data structures. You should know about sorting algorithms like heapsort, mergesort, quicksort, binary search, graph algorithms, etc. You should also understand the library methods you use, for sorting an array, its internal algorithm, when to use a different algorithm for better optimization. Prepare in-depth on this topic because interviewers really dig deep into it during interviews.

• System Design

Knowledge about designing your solution from architecture to coding is another important topic that you must prepare well for interviews with tech giants. System design is a vast topic and includes object-oriented programming and design at a lower level. At a high level, it includes software architecture. So, you must know the following essential system design concepts when preparing for an interview:

• Caching
• Load Balancing
• Data partitioning
• Proxies
• Indexes
• Redundancy and replication
• SQL vs NoSQL
• Distributed system, etc
• Computer Science basics and Networking

You can claim that everyone knows the basics of Computer Science but when you are preparing for an interview at big tech companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, they expect you to know the fundamentals about how a computer works internally, binary and decimal, bits and bytes conversion, storage, CPU architectures, etc.

Similarly, knowing about computer networks is important while preparing for these interviews. You must have knowledge about these essential protocols like HTTP, SSH, FTP, TCP, UDP, etc.

Topics to study on Computer networks

• Working of computer network
• Network topologies
• Network devices and cabling
• IP address and subnetting
• OSI & TCP/IP Models
• Routers and switches
• Wireless networking
• Network security
• Planning and designing network processes

Knowing the concepts and what they do will be enough for interview preparation.

• Linux commands and concepts

Linux is the most popular operating system that offers cutting-edge solutions for server-side applications which makes it important that you have a good understanding of it and know how to work on Linux machines. Even though it is not mandatory to know about this, unless you applied for DevOps or IT support, it is essential that you know about it. You must have basic knowledge like how to check process status, how to find files, writing simple bash scripts, etc along with concepts like Linux boots, concepts of directories and files, permissions, etc.

Strong command in at least one programming language

It is vital that you master one programming language. It is good to know more than one language but you must have complete knowledge about one language and master it. Don’t play around with several languages. It will only create confusion.

Communication skills

This is not a sector-agnostic but a skill that is relevant everywhere. Good communication skills help you to express yourself well and also understand the requirements. This skill helps during personality assessment when the interviewer tries to understand how well you can communicate and how well of a team player you are. This helps to elaborate on your past projects and experiences well.

Do’s and Don’ts for interviews

• Do your research thoroughly about the company and the role you are interviewing for
• Do ask, if you have any questions or doubts
• Be confident and present yourself gracefully
• Don’t be late for an interview
• In case of a telephonic interview, don’t search online for answers
• Lie, neither on your resume nor during the interview

Some other points to keep in mind for interview preparation

• Don’t expect questions that you have heard before. The interviewer tries to assess how well you tackle unseen problems and thus you might not get asked similar questions.
• Research about the company to understand its core concerns. Talk to people working there. This will help you prepare for things that are important to the company.
• Practice whiteboard coding as much as possible

These points will surely help you to prepare and crack interviews with big tech companies. Remember to learn well and stay true to them during the interview because the interviewer can easily sense if you’re lying or exaggerating about your skills in your resume.

FAQ

Which company’s interview process includes System design?

Senior-level positions interviews involve system design questions. Companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon include this in their interview questions.

Do I have to do coding questions for interviews?

Yes, most companies ask coding questions to access the technical skills of the candidate and knowledge about web app development.

How long is the interview for a full-stack developer?

It is difficult for recruiters to gauge someone’s skill and expertise in an hour interview which is why there are several rounds of interviews for a full stack developer to assess the required skills of the candidate.

Wrapping up

Woo! We are done with the How to crack the interviews of big tech giants?

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