[it's not finished yet, you might want to visite later]

Hi guys, I can't believe I finally got a chance to share my experience here, as I promised. I'm really grateful for the help that I gained from not just Leetcode but also outside sources, to everyone who helped me doing mock interviews and sharing with me your coding tips. And thanks to all recruiters & interviewers, you guys helped me so much on walking through the Interview process. I wish I could meet you in the future again.

Please forgive my grammar mistakes in the rest paragraphs. I will try my best to avoid as much as I can.

I started learning coding practice since 2019 Nov. What I mean by coding practice is to literally solve the coding problems like leetcode. Before that I was just able to create some views, make new api something like this. Even though I was graduated witg a CS degree. I wasn't that confident on coding and also on interviews.

I'm glad now I understand how and I want to share with you. Even though I failed on Google's extension rounds and it made me really really sad. It was so close.....T_T

Let's get started!

If we consider BQ questions is using pattern STAR, coding rounds also has a pattern. And this pattern will be useful for your career as well. It is What, How, and Why

if you solve a problem, you need to be able to summarize:

1. What is going on, what is actually behind the scene.
2. What is your solution, and how it's gonna work
3. Why would you do this way not the other way around.

If you are doing a leetcode, you need to think:

1. what's the requirements, corner cases, input and output?
2. What algorithem would you use to solve this problem and how it's gonna work?
3. What time complexity or space complexity would make this better than other algorithms, and is it for every type of inputs?

When you're on an interview, you would do the same thing to your interviewers and explain every step you think is a key to be considered for this problem. Everyone said communication skills is important and here's why, you need to let your interviewers know what's your solution before you start coding. Think about in real life and when you are assigned a work, do you start your work immediately? I believe you would plan your milestone first then starting doing the actual work right? This is the same. In real life company they want to see your plan and to predict how much costs would be required for your solution and what's the risk of this. During the interview, it's pretty like the same thing. You guys will have a discussion about the risk and result of your solution.

The interview is structured. Most of time, it's your turn to be positive and walk through the problem. Your interviewer switch their roles very often. Early of the time, they are your project managers to explain the tasks you would work on. In the middle, they would be your junior colleagues who want your help on solving this problem etc. It would be better to set yourself as a teacher or a senior, teaching them how you would knock down a problem.

How to study What, How and Why?

If you know the inside of an interview from above (like being a teacher), how about let's fill in the content of the "subject". This is the actual stuff you need to "teach" them.
My study process for this one is:
Step1. list all the data structures and algorithms that is required for interviews
Step2. know what are those, how to write in code
Step3. get to know their pros and cons, you should have ability to make tradeoff
Step4. list the examples from leetcode questions that could remind you the related algorithms

You need to draw a table and make it as a cheat sheet.
hmmmm.... it's kinda late tonight. I'll be back with my cheat sheet tomorrow :33333 see you