Technical interviews can feel like a trivia contest—until you realize most interviewers are evaluating how you think, not how many patterns you’ve memorized. Here’s a practical approach to perform better in coding rounds, live sessions, and technical assessments.

1) Optimize for the interviewer’s rubric

Most rubrics boil down to:

• Problem understanding (requirements, constraints, edge cases)
• Communication (clear plan, narrating tradeoffs)
• Correctness (tests, corner cases, invariants)
• Efficiency (time/space complexity, scalability)
• Code quality (readability, maintainability)

Tip: Treat the interview like a mini design review. Your goal is to make your thinking legible.

2) Use a consistent problem-solving script

When you get a problem, run this lightweight checklist:

1. Restate the problem in your own words.
2. Ask 2–3 clarifying questions (input sizes? sorted? duplicates? memory constraints?).
3. Propose a baseline solution first (even if it’s O(n²)).
4. Improve it with a known technique (hashing, two pointers, BFS/DFS, DP, heap).
5. Confirm complexity and walk through an example.

Why it works: It reduces panic and prevents “silent coding,” which is a common fail point.

3) Master a few high-leverage patterns (not everything)

If you’re short on time, prioritize:

• Hash maps/sets for membership & counting
• Two pointers / sliding window for arrays/strings
• BFS/DFS for trees/graphs
• Heaps for top-K and streaming
• Binary search on monotonic answers (a huge unlock)

Focus on recognizing when a pattern applies, not just reproducing a solution.

4) Live-coding: narrate decisions and test as you go

In live environments, interviewers often infer confidence from process.

• Before coding, state: “I’ll implement X; then test on these cases.”
• Add tiny tests (empty input, single element, duplicates, large values).
• If you hit a bug, say what you’re checking: “I suspect an off-by-one; I’ll verify boundaries.”

5) If you get stuck, don’t freeze—pivot intelligently

A strong recovery looks like:

• “I’m considering A vs B. A is simpler but slower; B uses a heap for efficiency.”
• “Let me validate with a small example.”
• “Worst case is… so I’ll adjust to meet constraints.”

Stalling silently is usually worse than presenting a partial, well-reasoned path.

Your turn

What part of technical interviews is hardest for you right now—finding the approach, writing bug-free code, or explaining your thinking under pressure?