Technical interview guide

For most people, showcasing their technical abilities doesn’t come naturally in an interview setting. It can be challenging to be presented with a new problem under time pressure, even for the most qualified engineers.

We want you to feel prepared to demonstrate your skills, so we created this guide to help you better understand how to succeed in your technical interviews at Applied Intuition.

What to expect

Our goal in the interview process is to give you an opportunity to best showcase your abilities and deepen your understanding of what it would be like to work with us.

For technical software engineering interviews, our exercises are hand selected for you based on your background and interests. Expect a mix of different types of problems, including exercises in coding, system design, and debugging, which are designed to test a combination of your:

Coding skills and programming fluency
Understanding of good software design principles
Problem solving skills, including applying common data structures and algorithms
Domain expertise in e.g. ML, frontend, infrastructure (but only if you have relevant experience)

In each interview, your interviewer will lay out the exercise, then serve as your sounding board as you brainstorm and implement your solution.

What we look for

As a values-driven company, we look for candidates who demonstrate behavior that reflect how we operate. In a technical interview, this means creating a thoughtful solution, moving productively through a problem, and unblocking yourself when you get stuck.

In line with our values, we evaluate candidates along three general categories:

Collaborative ability

Understand the prompt. Take two minutes to ask questions and clarify any assumptions with your interviewer before you start coding. This ensures you are answering the core question during your implementation.
Brainstorm multiple approaches. There are often different ways to solve a problem, each with their own tradeoffs. Discuss each briefly with your interviewer before deciding on the best path forward.
Collaborate with your interviewer. We want you to run your ideas by us and feel like you can have a discussion to brainstorm. The more you share about your thought process, the better we can guide you and provide hints if you are stuck.

Fast and performant code

Speed matters. Your ability to translate ideas into code quickly shows familiarity with your chosen programming language and technical proficiency. In an interview setting, you can calibrate your interviewer to your speed, letting them know if you would normally move faster or slower in a production environment.
Practice defensive coding. As you implement your solution, take the time to go through your code and actively debug. This saves you from having a slew of bugs at the end of the interview when you are under more time pressure.
Get to a solution. Done is better than perfect—we generally want to see a working solution at the end of the interview. If you're implementing a less than optimal solution, explain the tradeoffs, and if you have time, walk through the design for the optimal solution.

Code design and elegance

Focus on readability. Code is generally written once and read many times. Use descriptive variable names, avoid convoluted blocks of code, and encapsulate functionality at the right level of abstraction.
Pay attention to tests. Write code in a way that is easily testable, and if time permits, implement unit tests for your functionality. Demonstrate responsibility for code quality and correctness.
Leave comments for yourself. We want you to write production-level code, but understand that this is not always realistic in an interview setting. Make notes to yourself as you code to remind yourself and let the interviewer know how you would approach the same problem in a work environment.

How to prepare

Here are some tips on how to get started on interview practice.

Set aside time. Practice takes time, and it may even feel like having a second job. The more time you spend preparing, the more confident you will be during the interview.
Be honest with yourself. Go through a sample coding question without any hints, and time yourself. Understand your baseline knowledge so you can identify where your weaknesses are.
Speak out loud. Vocalize your thoughts as you practice coding questions. This may feel unnatural at first, but talking out loud during your interview will help your interviewers clearly understand your thought process and logic.
Code in your strongest language. You pick the language you want to use during the interview, and we recommend using the language you are most comfortable with. This is usually the language you use in your day-to-day work. However, some roles have specific coding language requirements, and in those cases, the recruiter will let you know.
Mock interviews. Practicing with mock interviews by yourself or, ideally, with a friend really helps set the tone and get you into the correct interview mindset.

Can I use Generative AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, etc) for the interview?

Coding Interviews: No, you cannot use Generative AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, etc) for the interview. You are allowed to use Google or other search tools, but must share your screen.

Non Coding Interviews (technical discussions, case studies, etc): No, you cannot use any outside resources.

Resources

Here are some helpful resources to prepare for general software engineer questions, crowdsourced from Applieders. For other interview types, please refer to any preparation notes your recruiter provided to you.

LeetCode to practice coding problems
HackerRank to practice coding problems
HackerRank videos to help refresh theories
Patrick Halina's systems design guide
Grokking the Coding Interview
Cracking the Coding Interview