Technical interviews often look like a puzzle contest, but most interviewers aren’t scoring you on whether you’ve seen the exact problem before. They’re evaluating how you reason, communicate, and debug under constraints. Here are practical ways to show that—consistently.

1) Start with a 30-second “problem framing” habit

Before you touch code, quickly confirm:

• Inputs/outputs: data types, size limits, ordering, duplicates, empty cases
• Constraints: time/space targets (or ask what they care about)
• Edge cases: “What if the array is empty?”, “What about negative values?”, “What about very large N?”

This makes you look intentional (and prevents avoidable rework).

2) Talk in “approach first, code second”

A strong structure is:

1. Brute force (even briefly): show you can reason from first principles
2. Bottleneck: what makes it slow (nested loops? repeated scanning?)
3. Optimization: name the tool and why it helps (hash map, two pointers, binary search, heap)

Tip: If you’re unsure, propose two approaches and compare complexity out loud.

3) Narrate your invariants (the secret to fewer mistakes)

Interviewers love when you state what must remain true:

• Two pointers: “Left pointer always points to the first valid element…”
• Sliding window: “Window maintains at most K distinct elements…”
• BFS/DFS: “Visited ensures we process each node once…”

When you articulate invariants, you debug faster and build trust.

4) Code like you’re pairing with a teammate

While coding, keep it clean and predictable:

• Use clear variable names (e.g., left, right, freq, visited)
• Add small sanity checks early (null/empty handling)
• Prefer small helper functions when logic branches

If you get stuck, don’t go silent. Say: “I’m considering X vs Y; I’ll test with an example.”

5) Always run a “tabletop test” before you hit compile

Pick a representative example and step through:

• Track pointer movement or map updates
• Confirm loop termination
• Validate output on an edge case

This is often where interviewers see real seniority: not perfect recall, but reliable verification.

Quick practice challenge (try this today)

Choose any medium problem and do only these steps:

• Explain the brute force and complexity
• State an optimized approach + complexity
• List 3 edge cases
• Walk through one example without coding

You’ll be surprised how much your performance improves even before writing a line.

What’s the hardest part for you in technical interviews right now—coming up with the approach, communicating clearly, or debugging under time pressure?