Technical interviews reward clear thinking more than perfect recall. If you’ve been grinding problems but still feel shaky in real interviews, try shifting from “more questions” to a repeatable approach you can apply under pressure.

1) Use a 4-Step Framework for Every Coding Problem

When the prompt drops, resist the urge to code immediately. Instead, follow:

1. Clarify the problem
   • Restate the task in your own words.
   • Confirm input/output types, constraints, and edge cases.
2. Examples & edge cases
   • Walk through a small example out loud.
   • Call out tricky cases: empty input, duplicates, negative values, large sizes.
3. Plan before code
   • Propose a brute-force idea, then optimize.
   • Name the data structure you’ll use and why.
4. Implement + validate
   • Write clean, testable code.
   • Run through 2–3 test cases (including an edge case) while narrating.

Pro tip: Interviewers often score “communication and reasoning” as highly as correctness.

2) Narrate Tradeoffs Like an Engineer

A common differentiator is how you explain choices:

• Time vs. space: “I can get O(n) time using a hash map, trading for O(n) memory.”
• Simplicity vs. performance: “Sorting is simpler but costs O(n log n).”
• Constraints-driven decisions: “Given n up to 10^5, we should avoid O(n^2).”

If you’re unsure, say what you’d do with more time: “I’d profile this, but given constraints, I’ll choose X.”

3) System Design: Lead With Requirements, Not Components

Many candidates jump straight to queues, caches, and microservices. Instead:

• Start with functional requirements (what must it do?)
• Then non-functional requirements (latency, throughput, consistency, cost)
• Only after that, sketch the architecture:
  • API boundaries
  • data model
  • scaling strategy
  • failure modes & observability

Mini-checklist: bottlenecks, caching strategy, partitioning, backpressure, and what happens when dependencies fail.

4) Practice “Interview Conditions,” Not Just Problems

To build real interview stamina:

• Do 30–45 minute timed sessions.
• Record yourself and review: where did you get stuck? did you communicate?
• Practice one clean solution + one alternative (even if you don’t code both).
• Do a few sessions of live-coding with a friend or mock interviewer to simulate nerves.

Quick Reflection Prompt

Pick a problem you recently solved: could you explain it in 90 seconds with (1) approach, (2) complexity, and (3) edge cases?

What part of technical interviews is hardest for you right now—communication, speed, data structures recall, or handling system design ambiguity—and what have you tried so far?