More and more companies use remote-online interviews as a part of their screening process. This post is all about how to prepare for an online programming/coding job interview.
If this is your first job interview as a developer, this might interest you: How to become a junior developer with no experience
Online-remote programming job interview preparation – a checklist
How to prepare for a online/remote programming interview? A good start is to go over the items in this checklist.
1. Have a good solid internet connection
It is surprising how much the technical details can affect. A good solid connection will not make you pass the interview, but a really bad one will reduce your chances.
Imagine you are speaking to the interviewer, doing your best project your excitement/enthusiasm. And then the video disconnects, returns, and disconnects again. You don’t want to be in that situation.
How to make sure the connection is good?
You can use this tool to test your speed: https://www.speedtest.net/
Or simply try to make a skype/zoom/hangout call to someone, and share your screen.
Prepare a backup for your internet connection
In case your internet is not good enough, or you are not sure, it’s better to prepare a backup.
A simple thing to do is to make sure you can use you 3G network on your phone, and use the phone as a hot spot.
For me, if I’m in a place with bad Wi-Fi, I choose to go to a silent coffee shop and have the interview there.
2. Choose a quiet place, where you feel comfortable and turn off your phone
A remote job interview is your opportunity to have a job interview where you feel at home. So choose a place you feel at home. and..
- No background noises
- No sounds of dish washing in the background
- It can be in your kitchen, but make sure no one is cooking.
I chose the balcony, where I feel relaxed and it’s quiet.
And make your self a cup of coffee, like you would in an onsite interview.
Make sure no distractions interfere your concentration. For me, it’s my phone. So I turn it off before the interview starts.
If video chat is involved, make sure to remove dirty underwear from the background. And in general – check that the background looks in order.
Turn on the lights, even if you like to work in the dark, and do some test with your laptops PC and Microphone (call a friend via Skype for example).
3. Prepare your computer
Chances are you are going to use your PC for this interview, either for a programming task, for video chat or for a shared screen.
Keep only essential programs running (hint: facebook is not one of them)
If it’s a coding interview, keep your favorite IDE opened, with a ready-to-run hello world you can use to answer questions.
Close all other apps, no need for the interviewer to see which Youtube video you are watching, are you connected to LinkedIn, and to see your messenger notifications.
Restart your computer
If you have a rocket ship mac, this one is not for you. If you are like us mortals, restarting your computer will make it run faster. You don’t want things to get stuck while you are trying to solve a recursive algorithm problem.
4. Find out which coding platform is used for the interview
A coding remote-online interview usually includes a hands-on programming task.
There are 2 common approaches here:
1. Ask the interviewee (you) to share your screen while solving.
2. Use a platform that allows you to right code and the other side to see it.
In any of these cases, it’s better to ask the interviewer (perhaps in the preliminary call, or by email) HOW is the coding task performed.
Once you know, practice this tool as much as possible.
Personal story time!
I am now in an application process for a company that recruits using an remote hiring process.
They told me that the coding challenges will be held in a platform called codility (which is super nice). Fortunately, I entered the platform two days before the interview, just to see how it looked, and played with it, solving some easy tasks.
It took me about 15 MINUTES (!) to master it, finding out how to see the debug output, how to run their test, how to add test cases of my own.
These are 15 minutes that I would not have during the interview. Luckily I passed, in case you are interested.
side note: I thought about having a separate post about popular tools for performing online programming tasks, if you think it’s interesting. please comment 🙂
Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash
5. Bring your own pen and paper(s)
Some times during the interviews you will be asked to design a system, or create an architectural diagram of some sort.
Traditionally this is done using a white board and a pen.
Well, you are not in the office any more, so there’s none of these.
A simple solution for it could be to draw the diagram using a pen and a paper, send a picture or show it in your video screen. Much easier than using the mouse/touch pad to do it IMHO.
An example for design question can be found under the design part here.
6. Ask if you can use google in the interview
The benefit of seeing a candidate solving tasks on a real PC, instead of on a white board, is that the interviewer can see the workflow the programmer has. The tools they use, how do they solve a problem, do they right tests?
One of the most important tools I use as a programmer is (drum roles) Google. Don’t you?
It can be very helpful during an interview, nothing’s wrong about using it (or stack overflow or MSDN or any other documentation).
Simply ask, in the worst case, they will say that it’s not allowed.
Conclusion:
Remote job interviews can be challenging, but they can work for you with the correct preparation.
Do not let the interview surprise you, login to the platform before, solve some tasks. Do not waste time in the interview searching for the “run” button. Prepare your setting, computer, coffee, water, whatever. And nail it!
That’s it for how to prepare for an online programming interview.