Tips to prepare for a technical phone interview

2. Preparing for a Technical Coding Phone
Interview

3. Ashik Raj Manandhar
Lead Mobile Engineer, Pocket Gems
• Graduated Berkeley EECS 2008 in Robotics
• Awarded Berkeley EECS 2009 Warren Dere Award for
Best Senior Engineering Design
• Worked on computer vision and media streaming
software for unmanned aerial vehicles for the defense
industry
• Joined Pockets Gems as Engineer #3
• Lead the engineering on Tap Pet Hotel – #4 Top Grossing
App of 2011
• Lead Platform at Pocket Gems
• Working on an exciting new title

4. • Relax.
• Know your fundamentals
• Have a good breadth of knowledge
• Know when to use each of your CS tools

6. Get a LOT of sleep. Don’t cram!

7. • Find a location for your phone interviews
that
• Has good WiFi
• Has good reception
• Is quiet

8. • Listen
• Breathe
• Explain your thought process
• Ask a lot of informed questions
• Recruiters are your friend

9. • Quickly judge if you’re a good fit
• How well do you know your fundamentals?
• What’s your thought process like?
• What’s your personality like?
• Any red flags?

10. • Typically ~1 hour
• 5 minutes for administrivia
• 10 minutes for you to ask us questions
• Leaves ~45 minutes for us to ask you questions

11. • We could ask you super in-depth technical questions
• We’d spend at least 20 min giving you the question
• You’d only have 20 min to answer the question

12. • We’ll focus on fundamentals
• Things all software people should know
• Things we know you know
• Less time spent asking the question
• More time for you to show us how you think

13. • Your programming language
• Your bread and butter
• Make sure you can answer fizzbuzz
• Commonly used elements – strings, arrays,
basic syntax and data types

14. • Know how they work
• Know how to implement them
• Know when to use them
• Know when not to use them

15. • Example Question – Reverse a singly-linked
linked list in place

16. • Example Question – Print out a tree by level

17. • Example Question – Given a node in a
graph, traverse the graph to find a specific
node

18. • Example Question – Use a stack to reverse
a linked list
• Example Question – Use a linked list to
implement a queue
• Example Question – Implement a hash table

19. • Algorithmic complexity analysis
• DFS and BFS
• BSTs

20. • Object oriented programming
• Inheritance, interfaces, subclassing,
polymorphism
• OO Design Patterns
• Singleton, Observer, Factory, etc.

21. • Multithreading
• Threads, processes, semaphores, concurrency
• Compiled vs. interpreted
• Pros and Cons

22. • Know your fundamentals
• Know when it’s the right time to use each of
your tools

23. • Think out loud
• Ask questions on the level of detail required
• Think of test cases, and verbally walk
through them before saying you’re done
• Front load your programming classes

24. • Write code
• in Stypi and/or Google Docs
• on paper
• on a whiteboard
• Have a non-technical friend ask you
programming questions
• Answer the question on paper
• Explain what you’re doing as you’re doing it

25. • Review your Data Structures books and
class notes
• Review the Head First book for your
programming language
 http://shop.oreilly.com/category/series/head-first.do

26. • Review Algorithms and Operating Systems
books and class notes
• Review your project classes
• Think through your projects
• Think through each of your design decisions

27. • Interview books
• Programming Interviews Exposed
 http://www.piexposed.com/
• Cracking The Coding Interview
 http://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/
• Review websites
• TopCoder Algorithms Tutorials
 http://www.topcoder.com/tc?d1=tutorials&d2=alg_index&module=S
tatic

29. • Sequoia backed startup making games
• Building the world’s best mobile engineering
team
• Becoming the global leader in mobile
entertainment

30. • #1 and #4 Top Grossing apps of 2011
• 2 of the Top Grossing apps of 2013
• Over 150 million installs
• iOS and Android

32. • Most people join with little to no knowledge
in Objective-C and other languages we use
• Looking for people with solid fundamentals
• Learn from experienced engineers at Pocket
Gems

33. • Competitive salary
• Brilliant people
• Challenging and meaningful work
• Delicious food

34. • $5000 external referral bonus (per referral!)
• Email us at ona@pocketgems.com

35. Ashik Raj Manandhar
Coding Blackbelt
Ashik.Raj@pocketgems.co
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