Preparing for a coding interview is essential as it gives you the opportunity to showcase your skills and understanding of coding fundamentals. The technical interview process can be daunting and overwhelming, but with the proper preparation, you can manage the challenges ahead. Although the interview question mainly varies based on the role you seek, preparing for some common coding interview questions will enhance your chances of acing the interview. Below we have composed a list of the most popular coding questions, coupled with how you should respond to them, and have also explained what the recruiter is trying to assess to help you ace your interview.

Commonly asked coding  interview questions

Data Structures

1. What is linear data structure?
2. What are common operations that can be performed on a data structure?
3. How would you find the second-largest element in an array?
4. How do you reverse a singly linked list?
5. How would you find the kth largest element in an array using a min-heap?

Strings and Arrays

1. How would you reverse a string without using additional memory?
2. How to remove all duplicates from a given string?
3. How can you determine whether two strings are rotations of one another?
4. What is the process for verifying whether a given string is a palindrome or not?
5. Can you write a function to find the subarray within an array of integers with the highest sum?

Object-Oriented Programming

1. What is a class and an object in OOPs, and how do you define a class in most programming languages?
2. What is polymorphism, and how does it relate to inheritance?
3. What are access specifiers and their importance in OOPs?
4. Differentiate in overloading and overriding.
5. Describe the concept of encapsulation and how it’s achieved in object-oriented programming.

System Design

1. Explain the difference between SQL and NoSQL databases and when to use them.
2. How is vertical scaling different from horizontal scaling, and when do you use each approach in designing a system?
3. What is a load balancer? How does it contribute to scalability and high availability in web application architecture?
4. Discuss the concept of database indexing and how it improves the performance of database queries.
5. What are the benefits and limitations of using caching in a web application?

Commonly Asked Questions and Winning Strategies

In addition to technical coding questions, recruiters often ask general questions to assess your real-life experience, unique problem-solving abilities, pressure intake, and work ethic. For instance, recruiters might ask questions about your education, work experience, interests, and why you are interested in the job to see if you are the right fit. We have listed some general interview questions along with strategies to respond to them effectively.

      1. Could you share some insights into your work experiences?

This is an essential and most commonly asked coding interview question. The hiring manager wants to assess your technical background and ability to work and blend into the company’s environment. Your answer should convince the hiring manager that you are a good fit for the job and would be a valuable asset to the company. Answer in a “present, past, and future” format highlighting your current work, past experience, and future aspirations, including relevant projects and coding languages.

      2. Can you discuss a few projects you’ve been involved in?

This question gives you the opportunity to talk about past projects and experiences. If you have professional coding experience, you can discuss the development life cycle of your best projects, like planning, execution, and maintenance. If you don’t have professional coding experience but have worked on personal projects, you can discuss your contribution there.

      3. How do you stay current with the latest technological trends?

Programming is an ever-evolving field, and it requires continuous learning. This question allows you to present your dedication and learning mindset and how you stay in touch with emerging technologies and new programming languages. Discuss the websites, magazines, or podcasts you follow in the field. Additionally, take this chance to talk about any side projects or online courses you’ve taken to enhance your skills.

      4. What is your typical approach when starting a new coding project?

Software development goes beyond coding knowledge; project planning, structuring, and execution are also essential. This question allows you to use the STAR method—a technique for behavioural interviews. Provide a concise and specific Situation, Task, Action, and Resolution to create a clear and comprehensive story for the interviewer. Read more about the Star technique here. 

      5. How do you approach collaborating with non-technical individuals from diverse backgrounds?

 Although coding roles typically involve hard skills like technical knowledge of programming languages and how to create applications, soft skills are just as essential as hard skills for programmers. Programmers often have to work with non-tech people to understand their requirements for any project and solve problems and should therefore be able to communicate with both technical and non-technical people effectively. When responding, highlight the importance of this interdisciplinary collaboration within the organisation. Discuss the benefits of embracing a nonprogrammer’s perspective and the value of these soft skills in the workplace.

 

Best platforms to prepare for coding interview

Now let’s explore some coding interview prep platforms to help you ace your following interview. Whether you are a newbie or a pro, these sites are used by prommers of every level. 

Coderbyte

Coderbyte is one of the top coding interview prep platforms. It comes with a free challenge and interview kit. In the premium version, users can access a custom challenge-building feature that allows users to customise sets of easy-to-hard questions. In addition to these features, users can also create an interview to practice for the future.

Pramp 

Pramp allows you to practice for interviews and get training for any IT job. With its huge community of developers for IT giants like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, you can pair up with anyone through a 30-minute HD video chat and learn from their experiences. Following the initial training, you will be able to take interviews in five different categories, i.e., product management, system design, behaviour, data structures, data science, and fronted.

Interview Cake

Interview Cake (subscription-based)  platform claims to teach you the right way of thinking to break down any coding interview question you might be asked, even if you’ve never seen it before. While practising interview questions, it does not only provide you with right or wrong results but also gives you hints, tells you common mistakes people make, and teaches you how to think about the problem and work through them. In addition to teaching you how to solve coding problems, Interview Cake also provides you with interview questions that tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon actually ask. 

LeetCode

LeetCode is a popular coding platform that helps you prepare for coding interviews. With its wide range of resources of over 2250 questions, you can pick and code any problem you want and submit your solutions to check the results. The scoring system displays the average score of different coders groups, allowing you to compare your results quickly. The platform supports 11+ languages and gives you various options to learn, practice and benefit from it. 

Conclusion

This was our list of the most common interview questions and their answers. If you found this article helpful and would like us to cover more topics like this, get in touch with us and share your suggestions for the upcoming posts. 

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