How to prepare for technical interview questions in 2023

Video Transcript (How to Handle Technical Interview)

Now the other technical concepts that they ask in product

companies, this the next part that I'm going to tell

you would be a separate interview in itself.

In service companies, typically you just had one interview.

So you'll have 5 -10 minutes.

Hey everyone, let's discuss technical interviews today.

I'm getting a lot of questions on technical interviews

specifically for freshers, like what are the questions that

will be asked, what are the topics you need

to revise, what are the important topics, how the

interviews will be conducted and so on.

So this is more of a freewheeling conversation.

I'll tell you all of the experiences we've had

in the last four or five years running Edyst,

where we've got more than 10,000 students placed into

different companies and guided them with technical interviews in

different kinds of companies, both in services companies as

well as product based companies. All right?

So if you don't know the difference between

service and product based companies, you can check

out some other videos for that.

But let's just dive deeper into

this whole thing of technical interviews.

So technical interviews are generally

done after your coding around.

If you are going to take all of

the rounds that are there in an interview,

there are typically speaking about three to four

rounds depending on the company you're going for.

So let's say, for example, the first

a round is usually a coding round.

This could be a coding contest.

Like in services companies, you have your TCS NQT National Qualifier

test or TCS code beta or info NPC So like that

you may have given some kind of a test.

If it's an on campus placement, then you

may have given coding around over there.

Sometimes there are also aptitude questions over there.

This is called the written round.

We are not going to talk about that today.

Our major focus today is about

technical interviews, which is usually the

second round after you're written round.

So let's get into it.

So in your technical interviews, typically the

the interviewer wants to know two, three things.

First thing is the written round that you have written.

Are you actually aware of all the

concepts that you've implemented over there?

So let's say it's a coding around that you had earlier.

They want to know that the coding question that

you have written, the answer you have written, whether

you are able to explain it or not.

And this is why when we are teaching coding to

students, we always make sure to tell you that don't

just get the solution, but get the logic.

And when you're talking to your friends, always

try to explain the logic to them.

Can be in your local language also, it may

not be actually in English with your friends, but

make sure you are getting in the habit of

explaining the logic one by one, line by line.

Because what happens is when you go to the

interview, you end up talking about the code.

So first I wrote for loop, then I wrote while loop.

Then I wrote if condition the interviewer

can already read all of that stuff.

What they are asking for is can you explain your code?

Can you talk about your code?

So that when you join our team and

I ask you to explain what you have

written, you can explain in plain English what

you've actually written the logic that you've written.

So this is a major part of technical interviews.

That is they will either take your written

round code and ask you to explain that

or they will give you a new code.

Let's say if you are going for a

services company, it's going to be something as

simple as Fibonacci series or Factorial.

So they'll ask you to write that code

and they'll ask you to explain that code.

When I say write that code, it could be on pen

and paper or if it's online, then they could just share

a small window with you and you start writing the code

over there and then they'll ask you to explain that.

Now, the language, the programming language

does not matter so much here.

You can write it in C, C++, Java or Python whichever.

But the interviewer is more looking for are you

able to explain these concepts properly or not?

For example, if you are going to write the

code for factorial, I'm hoping that most of you

are aware of the code for Factorial.

Instead of saying sir, I will write a

for loop and then I'll calculate the product.

Instead of that, you say that I'll start with

the number one I'll incrementally go from one to

the nuclear factorial I want to find.

And as I'm going through each number,

I keep multiplying that into my product

and finally I'll print the product.

For example, I'll take one, then I'll take

two, multiply by one, it becomes two.

Then I'll multiply three into the previous

product, which is three into two six.

Then I'll take four multiply into my previous product,

which is four to 624 and so on.

So now, when you explain like this, it doesn't matter if

you did it in C, C++, Java or Python, the

logic remains same throughout for all of the coding questions.

So this is one major

component of your technical interviews.

They are going to ask you

about explaining your coding question.

Be that in the return round or they would have

given you a new coding question in the interview itself.

So that's one.

But it's not only this.

So if you have just been doing coding

practice, let's say competitive programming practice or just

data structure algorithms practice, it's not just related

to this, they will ask you more questions.

Also, just a side note here, for product companies you

will not get such an easy question as a factor.

Here you will get more difficult questions.

And it's always dependent on how you're

able to solve that in optimal time.

So one strategy to follow is show the

answer that you think is the right answer,

but you don't need to optimize it slowly.

You keep talking to the interviewer

and keep optimizing that approach.

So probably started with an order n square approach.

Then the interviewer says, okay, can we do better?

Then you go to an order n login, then an

order n and if the question has an even more

optimal solution, you can go even further over there.

So for product companies, the coding

the explanation is longer than this.

For service companies, typically 510 minutes

is going into code question explanation.

And product companies, sometimes the entire round

can be taken by one such question.

Now the other technical concepts that they ask in product

companies, this the next part that I'm going to tell

you would be a separate interview in itself.

In service companies, typically you just have one interview.

So you'll have five to ten

minutes of technical coding questions.

That is the coding question part explanation of

that and then you're going into technical concepts.

These are concepts generally related to

your syllables, your college engineering syllables.

These would be things like object oriented

programming, data structures, databases and OS and

networking depending on the company.

Some companies don't ask that much

of OS, operating systems and networking.

Some companies do ask that.

Very famous among most interviewers is Data Structures.

There are a lot of interview questions

that are geared specifically for data structures

like using stacks, cues, link lists.

These questions don't appear in coding around, but

They appear most often in technical interviews.

For example, take a given two stacks, or

rather given one stack, generate another stack, which

is the reverse of the first stack.

Now doing this using coding is fairly straightforward,

but when you're in an interview, the interviewer

will put up some specific conditions like you

can't use another stack or you can't use

another queue, or you can't use another array.

And so based on those restrictions, you

have to then answer the interviewer and

change your approach over there.

So Data Structures has a bunch of these questions.

Do check out some of our other

videos where we'll talk about that.

So Data Structure has some

of these interesting interview questions.

Object oriented programming is full

of such interview questions.

You know, your typical polymorphism, abstraction, encapsulation

and inheritance, all of these form a

lot of questions in object oriented programming.

Very specifically here they will go language specific, meaning

that if you are someone who is comfortable in

Python, you could explain Op using Python.

If you're someone who's comfortable in Java, you do that

in C, C++, Java or Python the same thing.

This is where C students generally have a disadvantage

because as a C student you don't really get

that much object oriented programming in your language because

there are not many features of that.

So make sure you are in an object

oriented programming language or Op language so that

you can actually answer these questions.

Now, if you are a non CSC student, this is mainly

the level of questions that you are going to be getting.

Now, since most of you are CSC students these

days, especially with the new branches and so on,

then you definitely need to know your databases and

your OS and networking as well.

But databases definitely.

So there's no excuse for not knowing.

Basics of SQL you definitely need to know the basics

of SQL for sure, and some DBMS concepts as well.

These all are typically what you will

get asked in your technical interviews.

And for services companies, this

is more than sufficient.

Another thing, the last thing that is

super important in technical interviews is projects.

Now, if you have a good project, this

can take up as much as 30 to

40 minutes of your technical interview time.

In many product companies, there is a

one round dedicated just to your project.

Now, this project could be a project you've

done in your college as a research project.

It could be something.

You've done in an internship, it could be something you've

done on your own completely an open source thing.

It's completely fine.

What needs to be there in the project is depth.

Means you can't just have a project

which can be assembled in two days.

If it's that simple, then the explanation

will also not have too many details.

The project needs to have a lot of details in it.

For example, if you're just creating a web app

that tells you the weather it's going to rain

tomorrow or not going to rain tomorrow and so

on, that's a very simple application.

It's a good application to create for your learning, but

it will take about two days for you to create

or even 3 hours for you to create.

Talking about that in an interview is not

going to set you apart from others.

However, if you create a proper web application with, let's say

a clone of Zomato or a clone of Airbnb, if you're

not heard of Airbnb, please do check them out.

But if you create a clone of something like that.

With login logout features.

With going through a bunch of listings.

Being able to comment on listings.

Being able to purchase some things.

Even if a dummy purchase.

If you are able to create such an application.

Then this requires you to create front end.

Create back end.

Credit database and if you're able to deploy it.

That is.

Actually run it online. That is.

You deploy it to the cloud. That's great.

Now you have all four or five of the skills

that are required to become a full stack web developer

and you can actually talk about that in an interview.

And it's not just full stack web development.

You can do the same thing with data science,

AI, machine learning blockchain, that's up to you.

But the point is, if you create a project that is

done in two to 3 hours or in two days, it's

not really going to work that well in an interview setting.

Meaning that you might still be able to answer some

questions, but it's not going to set you apart.

However, if you create something that took a month

for you itself to develop, then you will have

that much more to talk about in your interviews.

So just summarizing the entire thing.

In your technical interviews you're going to get

coding questions be that the one you've done

your written round, or the one you are

given in the interview, that's one you'll have

your core curriculum knowledge, that is things like

object oriented programming, data structures, databases, OS networking,

and also I forgot to mention things like

multi threading, exception handling and so on.

Anything that is not going to be asked in

your coding around, but it's still in your syllabus,

is possible to be asked in the technical interviews.

And finally technical projects.

That is the project that you have done.

And if you don't have any project please make sure

to go and at least do some free project something

because some project is better than no project.

So make sure that you have done some project out there.

If you have done an internship, then your

internship experience can also count as your project.

But the point is the interviewer should

have something to discuss with you which

is based in real life application.

So those are the important

topics for technical interviews.

Do subscribe to this channel.

We will cover each of these topics in

depth in the coming few days, but make

sure you subscribe to the channel for that.

Let me know in the comments below what other

kind of experiences you would like us to share

and we'll make videos on that as well.

Thanks a lot for watching everybody.

Do share with your friends who are appearing for

technical interviews and we'll catch you next time.

Thank you so much.

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