Technical interviews can feel like an endless loop of random problems and vague feedback. If you’ve been “studying a lot” but not seeing improvement, the issue is usually lack of structure and not practicing the interview itself (communication, tradeoffs, and testing).

A simple 45-minute daily routine

You don’t need marathon sessions—consistency and tight feedback loops win.

1) 10 min — Pattern warm-up (no code)

Pick one pattern and mentally rehearse it:

• Two pointers
• Sliding window
• BFS/DFS
• Hash map counting
• Binary search on answer

Goal: Say out loud when you’d use it and the typical pitfalls.

2) 25 min — Timed problem (with a “checkpoint”)

Choose one problem that matches the pattern.

• Spend 5 minutes max clarifying requirements and constraints
• Sketch approach + complexity before writing code
• At minute 12, force a checkpoint:
  • If stuck, write the brute force first
  • Or implement a simpler version, then optimize

Pro tip: Interviewers reward progress and clear reasoning more than silent perfection.

3) 10 min — Post-mortem (the part most people skip)

Write 3 bullets:

• What was the key insight/pattern?
• Where did you lose time? (edge case, syntax, wrong data structure)
• One rule for next time (e.g., “Always confirm duplicates handling before coding.”)

This is how you convert one problem into a repeatable skill.

Communication tips that boost your score immediately

Even if your solution isn’t perfect, strong interview behaviors can carry you.

• Narrate your plan: “I’ll start with a hash map for counts, then scan again to build the output.”
• Ask targeted questions early: input size, sorting allowed, memory constraints.
• Test like an engineer:
  • normal case
  • smallest case
  • tricky case (duplicates, negatives, empty input)
• State complexity confidently: “Time O(n), space O(n) due to the map.”

Common traps (and how to avoid them)

• Over-optimizing too early: Start correct, then optimize.
• Pattern hopping: Don’t switch strategies without a reason—validate with an example.
• No edge-case contract: Clarify what happens with empty inputs, ties, duplicates.

Mini-challenge for the community

Pick one pattern this week and do 5 problems in that pattern, logging your post-mortems. It’s shockingly effective.

What pattern do you struggle with most right now—and what’s one problem that keeps tripping you up?