From the first phone call to the final handshake, here is how to walk into every interview with confidence.
The phone screen is your first live interaction with a company. It usually lasts 15-30 minutes and is conducted by a recruiter or HR professional. The goal is to confirm basic qualifications, salary expectations, and mutual interest before investing time in a full interview.
Technical interviews vary widely across companies and roles. Some focus on coding challenges, others on system design or architecture discussions. Here is how to prepare for the most common formats.
Practice on LeetCode or HackerRank. Focus on arrays, strings, hash maps, and trees. Talk through your approach before coding. Interviewers want to see your thought process, not just the answer.
For senior roles, expect questions like "Design a URL shortener" or "How would you build a real-time notification system?" Study scalability patterns, load balancing, caching, and database choices.
Some companies give a small project to complete at home. Focus on clean code, documentation, and test coverage. Show you can write production-quality code, not just code that works.
You may be asked to walk through a past project's architecture. Explain your choices, trade-offs you considered, what you would do differently, and how it performed at scale.
Behavioral questions assess how you have handled real situations in the past. The assumption is that past behavior predicts future behavior. The STAR method gives you a framework to answer clearly and concisely.
S - Situation: Set the scene. Where were you? What was the context?
T - Task: What was your specific responsibility or challenge?
A - Action: What did you actually do? (This is the most important part.)
R - Result: What happened? Quantify the outcome if possible.
The questions you ask reveal as much about you as the answers you give. Good questions show curiosity, critical thinking, and genuine interest in the role. Never say "I do not have any questions."
"What does a typical day look like for this position?"
"What are the biggest challenges the team is currently facing?"
"How is success measured in this role?"
"How large is the team, and what does the structure look like?"
"What is the team's development methodology?"
"How does the team handle code reviews and knowledge sharing?"
"What does career progression look like here?"
"Are there opportunities for learning and professional development?"
"Where do you see this team or product in the next year?"
"What do you enjoy most about working here?"
"How does the team handle disagreements on technical direction?"
"What is the on-call rotation like?"
After 30+ years of placing IT professionals, we have learned what really moves the needle in interviews. Technical skills matter, but they are rarely the deciding factor between top candidates.
Remote and hybrid interviews are now standard in IT. A poor virtual setup can undermine even the strongest candidate. Here is how to get it right:
Our recruiters can prep you for specific companies and roles. We know what they are looking for.