How to prepare for the Technical Interview

This resource is meant to help you prepare for the technical interview, which is a required step in App Academy's Fast Track admissions process.

Overview

App Academy is an intense bootcamp. Students who have a solid foundation in programming, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills tend to thrive in this bootcamp environment.

Thus, the goal of this interview is to assess your comprehension of key coding concepts and how you solve problems to ensure you are prepared for the bootcamp.

What we are looking for

App Academy has a Selections team that reviews applicants and their interviews in order to determine their readiness for the bootcamp. You will be assessed in this technical interview on a number of criteria:

     
  • Attitude: While it’s normal to be nervous, we want to see your personality shine in this interview. Students who are engaged and project positive emotion tend to work well with other students in the bootcamp.
  • Professionalism: This interview should be taken seriously. We are preparing you for the working world, so we need to see you can carry yourself professionally.
  • Understanding problems: We need to see that you can break problems down to reach a solution.
  • Explaining strategy and code: You need to be able to verbally walk through your intended strategy for the problem and the code leading up to your solution.
  • Coding ability: We will assess your ability to write code fluidly and to successfully implement a working solution.
  • Debugging skills: You should be able to see ahead of time what areas of your code will not work and why by stepping through each line of code out loud. You should avoid relying on the “run” feature. If you “run” the code and come across any errors, you should be able to decipher the terminal output as well as locate the error. We would like to see you communicate how to solve the error and also why it happened.
  • Pairing: Part of your interview will include working with your interviewer to solve a problem (“pairing”). This will assess your overall ability to communicate and collaborate well with others. Much of your time at App Academy will be spent pair programming.

How the interview works

The interview consists of three problems: two solo prompts and one pair programming prompt. Each problem will have a 15 minute time limit to solve it. You'll complete the interview using JavaScript.

Your Admissions Specialist will provide you with the link to schedule your interview through YouCanBook.Me (a scheduling platform).

On the day of your interview, no less than three minutes before the start time, you will receive an email from one of our interviewers with the link to join them in HackerRank’s CodePair platform.

CodePair is a browser-based pairing platform that we will use to conduct the interview. It is located on the HackerRank website. To get into the interview, you will simply open the link from your interviewer in a web browser (preferably Google Chrome or FireFox). You will need a steady internet connection and a working microphone and webcam for the interview.

Once you open the link, you will be taken into a pairing room. Your interviewer will give you instructions to read over, and then you will start the interview.

During the Technical Interview, you may not consult any notes or outside sources. You must stay within the HackerRank window at all times. Close out of any other windows and disconnect any other monitors you may be using. Interviewers are notified each time a candidate clicks out of the HackerRank window and are instructed to end the interview if a candidate repeatedly leaves the HackerRank window.

Solo Prompts

The first two problems you work on will be solo prompts. These are problems that you solve on your own in front of the interviewer - the interviewer will take notes on how you solve them.

You will be expected to explain your strategy out loud for the problem before you begin coding.

As you code, you should verbally walk through each line of code for your interviewer and provide insight into what you are doing and why. Explain your logic.

When you have finished writing your solution, verbally step through each line of code using a test case chosen by the interviewer. When you feel comfortable with your solution, you can ask permission to run your code to verify your code works.

Pairing Prompt

The last problem you will work on will be a pair programming prompt. Pair programming is working together with another programmer in order to solve a problem - this is something we do a lot of at App Academy!

The 15 minute pairing prompt will be broken down into the separate roles: navigating and driving. You will be assessed on your ability to do both.

Navigating:

  • You are responsible for thinking through the overall strategy of how to solve the problem and communicating your strategy to your partner. You will provide high-level verbal instructions to your partner in order to guide them through the problem.
  • You should ensure your partner is on the same page as you at all times.

Driving:

  • You are responsible for listening to your partner and following their instructions. You will physically type out code in the CodePair text editor. You should make sure you understand the code that you are being asked to type - ask any clarifying questions and double check your understanding.
  • Avoid typing ahead of the instructions your partner is giving you. Be respectful and wait for instructions before typing.

Resources to Prepare

1) View this presentation on pair programming.

2) JavaScript:

3) Study JavaScript on Google Grasshopper.

     

Tech Interview Checklist

In the days leading up to your interview:
     
  • Work with the practice problems until you can consistently solve them in 15 minutes or less without running your code until the end.
  • Practice talking through your solutions. You will need to be able to explain your approach in detail. Try explaining your solution to someone else, even if they don’t know any code.
  • Practice debugging. You will probably run into bugs during the interview and your ability to diagnose and fix them on the fly says a lot about your coding ability.
  • Practice tracking every variable throughout your code with an example input.
  • Practice pair programming. Remember that during the pairing portion of the interview, your ability to communicate is far more important than your ability to solve the problem.
  • Walk through the “Am I Ready? Self assessment” before scheduling your interview.
  • If you do not have one of them already, download Chrome or Firefox for optimal connection to the HackerRank platform.

The day of your interview:
  • Look for an email with your HackerRank interview link before your scheduled interview time. Be sure to check that the email address associated with your application is correct.
  • Take a deep breath and know that your interviewer is excited to meet you.

We wish you the best of luck in completing the technical interview - you've got this!

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