Mock Interviews
Mock Interviews
[!NOTE] This module explores the core principles of Mock Interviews, deriving solutions from first principles and hardware constraints to build world-class, production-ready expertise.
1. The Scorecard
How are you actually graded? It’s not just “Did it run?”. Big Tech companies use a rubric based on Signals.
2. The Rubric: Strong Hire vs. No Hire
| Attribute | No Hire ❌ | Lean Hire ⚠️ | Strong Hire ✅ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Communication | Silent. Mumbles. | Explains after coding. | Talks while thinking. Engages interviewer. |
| Problem Solving | Guesses. Trial & Error. | Solves optimal but struggles with derivation. | Derives optimal solution from first principles. |
| Coding | Variable names like a, x. Messy indentation. |
Clean but buggy on first run. | Production-ready. Descriptive names. Modular. |
| Testing | “I think it works.” | Waits for interviewer to find bugs. | Dry runs code manually. Finds own edge cases. |
3. How to Hack the Score (The “Meta”)
- The “5-Minute Rule”: Never code in the first 5 minutes. Use it for Verification (Step 4 of Decomposition).
- The “Check-in”: Every 5 minutes, ask: “Does this direction make sense to you?” (Forces them to guide you).
- The “Pivot”: If you get stuck, state what you know and why you are stuck. “I know I need O(N), but sorting takes O(N \log N).”
4. Deep Dive Strategy Lab: Mock Interviews
Intuition Through Analogy
Think of this chapter like solving under whiteboard time pressure. The goal is not to memorize a fixed trick, but to repeatedly answer:
- What is the bottleneck?
- Which constraint dominates (time, memory, latency, correctness)?
- Which representation makes the bottleneck easier to eliminate?