I recently organized my thoughts from preparing for a job switch. I hope it helps anyone getting ready for interviews.
1. In your portfolio, the failure process matters more than the result.
- Turn it into a story about the problem you faced and how you solved it.
- Be sure to include metrics that can be quantified.
2. In live coding, time allocation decides everything.
- Reading the problem 10%, designing 20%, implementing 60%, testing 10%
- Trying to be perfect from the start just eats up all your time.
3. Technical questions are at a different difficulty level than junior interviews.
- The key is why you used something, not rote memorization.
- Traffic handling, scalability, and incident response experience come up a lot.
I got offers from a few companies with a good interview atmosphere, but in the end I decided based only on salary. Looking back, I think the most important thing might be finding a company where you feel comfortable.