How to figure out what to study for technical interviews
Technical interview prep often fails due to a lack of clear direction rather than a lack of effort. Without knowing what specific topics or skills a target company actually tests, job seekers waste time studying the wrong material while neglecting crucial areas.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1grinding LeetCodeDid this help you?
- 2reading Designing Data-Intensive ApplicationsDid this help you?
- 3Searching online for sample interview questionsDid this help you?
- 4Giving candidates a list of written questions in a conference room with a pencil instead of verbal interviewsDid this help you?
- 5Relying on current limited job experience managing infrastructure for a custom AI model running on EC2 instancesDid this help you?
- 6Preparing for extremely basic technicals alongside behavioral questionsDid this help you?
- 7Studying coding languages and SQL mentioned in the job postingDid this help you?
- 8Relying on strong experience in troubleshooting and support jobsDid this help you?
- 9Looking up the questions after the interviewDid this help you?
- 10Relying on practical experience and probing questions instead of studying textbook definitionsDid this help you?
- 11Reviewing core technical areas beforehand and practicing how to explain troubleshooting concepts on the spotDid this help you?
- 12using platforms like hellointerview and sad serversDid this help you?
- 13reading Brendan Gregg's booksDid this help you?
- 14Reaching out to contacts or employees at the firm for adviceDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I'm of course nervous and want to be as mentally prepped as possible and to avoid as many 'curveballs' as I can lol..”source ↗
“I’m comfortable troubleshooting these things in the real world, but interviews are obviously a little different when someone asks you to explain everything on the spot :/”source ↗
“I’m currently a cloud admin, and I was told the interview will be focused on "AI". I’m not exactly sure what that means in this context. whether its supporting the infrastructure that AI applications run on, or developing the applications or models themselves or something else.”source ↗
“Does anyone have experience with what “AI” typically means in a cloud/SME baased roles?”source ↗
“the problem is the damn ai not sure what it changes”source ↗
“I also think people may just not be good at answering technical questions on the spot.”source ↗
“It has happened to me as well, because you can blank in the middle of the interview when you're put on the spot.”source ↗
“In the interview, she said that it was only her role and the accountant role. She also asked me 2 textbook questions towards the end that I didn’t quite know.”source ↗
“I just had an internship interview where I completely bombed basic questions like "What are the three components in a statement of cash flows" and embarrassed myself.”source ↗
“So yeah, just making sure others can learn from my mistakes because I am embarrassed for letting this opportunity slip”source ↗
“Now when I look it up, I feel stupid.”source ↗
“I have an upcoming 45-minute virtual panel interview for a Data Analyst position at Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group (MAPMG), and I was hoping to hear from anyone who has gone through their interview process.”source ↗
“I tried looking up sample interview questions but didn’t get very far.”source ↗
“Did another round of interviews last year and the thing that killed me wasn't lack of effort. It was direction.”source ↗
“I'd spend a Saturday grinding graphs, then realize the company I was interviewing with barely asks graph questions and heavily weights system design, which I'd basically ignored.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 13How to prep for an interview when you haven't interviewed in years
- 21How to study for professional exams when you don't know where to start
- 2How to talk about financial experience in an executive interview
- 2How to prepare for a Salesforce Account Executive interview
- 7Why do I blank out during job interviews?
- 4Did I ruin a job interview by saying something stupid?