Ask HN: Senior Positions Interview Prep Resources?

I had two long breaks between jobs. I've also had 4 different jobs in the last 5-ish years. So - I've had to do some prep every year. When I hit 1 year at any job - I start prepping again. I prepped probably 200 hours for the first job, 200 for the second, and then 100 for the third and fourth in the last 5-ish years. I pretty much never stay more than a year because it's the only way to get compensation and title to go up at all the companies I worked at.

I'd suggest always working on paper or whiteboard - never use a computer. (You have to emulate the environment) Set a timer for every problem. (1 hour max - aim for 45 minutes on medium/hard when starting out; lower it as you familiarize yourself with a subject) Start throwing data structures and algorithms at the problem (pattern matching them, basically). Solve it or don't. Learn something to take away from it. If you don't solve it, learn how to solve it, and where you were lacking. If you did solve it, be sure to check other solutions because sometimes yours is crap. Practice that thing you were lacking. (Needed to know BFS? Implement BFS from scratch 10 times using spaced repetition) If you're planning on 8 hour study sessions then focus on one type of problem at a time. (BFS, DFS, graph problems, tree problems, binary search, dynamic programming, etc.) Only do those kinds of problems in that session. Set it up like you would for a math class. You do one chapter in that session/day/week/whatever and proceed to do a few chapters (say a BFS chapter, a DFS chapter, and a binary search chapter)... Once you've done a few, give yourself a midterm covering the topics you learned. So give yourself like 2 DFS, 2 BFS, and 2 binary search problems and see if you can solve them in a timed environment. If you rocked the midterm then proceed on to do more chapters and more midterms. If you didn't then relearn those subjects before moving on. Finally, when you feel like you've learned everything then give yourself a final exam to see if you remember everything and can still do it right.

Basically - treat it like a math class. It's not just memorization (you need to memorize the strategies, that's for sure - you need to be really fast at implementing BFS, DFS, binary search, etc. That should be wrote memorization but with a deep understanding).

Immigrant here, and I can read, write & speak english.

If i don't have a job with a company willing to sponsor my visa I would have to get back on the boat and leave.

My friends, who are from smaller countries have the privilege but I do not.

Stats from travel.state.gov

https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigr...

    Waiting list size by country
    Country             Applicants
    Mexico              1,229,505
    Philippines         314,229
    India               298,571
    Vietnam             231,519
    China-mainland born 231,519
    Bangladesh          169,231
    Dominican Republic  146,160
    Pakistan            115,625
    Haiti               94,506
    El Salvador         64,868
    Cuba                55,847
    All Others          840,393
    Worldwide Total     3,791,973

> immigrants fresh off the boat who don't speak english that own their own companies

Do you have a single example of this ?

lol dead silence as expected. These companies only exist in HN imagination.

Realize that the interviewer wants you to succeed! For an interviewer, a candidate that does great and gets hired is a much better outcome than another hour wasted on a rejection.

(I'm sure they are some toxic interviewers and dysfunctional companies where that's not the case, but you don't want to work there anyway so it doesn't matter.)

A lot of good things flow from there.

First, you should feel a little more relaxed. This generally helps think more clearly, talk more naturally, avoid panicking, etc.

Second, you should shift your mindset to view your relationship with the interviewer as based on cooperation, not antagonism. This generally helps act more friendly and less defensive.

Third, if you were at home cooperating with a friend to solve a difficult problem, would you stay silent, or would you run your ideas off each other? Probably the latter. The same applies here. Unlike your friend, the interviewer is limited in how much information they can give. But again unlike your friend, the interviewer already knows exactly how to solve the problem! So leverage that. Ask them whether your proposed solution makes sense. Ask them whether the time and space complexities of your proposed solution are good enough or if you should keep digging. By the time you start implementing the solution in code, you should be fairly confident that you're going in the right direction. (Sometimes the interviewer won't give much away. Don't panic, it happens—in that case just go for it and hope for the best.)