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Interview preparation roadmap · Technology

Enough technical depth to design solutions, plus discovery, demos and clear communication with customers.

TechnicalDemosCommunication

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  1. 01Interview foundations
  2. 02Technical foundations
  3. 03Role-specific
  4. 04Practice
  5. 05Company & final prep
CoreCommonly assessedGood to knowRole-dependentAdvancedFor deeper interviewsOptionalNot needed by everyoneCompletedYour progressYou are hereNext up
  1. 01Interview foundations

    What every interviewer sees first.

    1. 01.1Resume

      CoreBeginner3–5 h

      A one-page resume you can defend line by line.

      What this covers

      • One-page format — Reverse-chronological, clean fonts, no photos or tables that confuse parsers.
      • Project bullets — Action + what you built + a number (users, speed, accuracy).
      • Skills section — Only skills you can answer questions on for two minutes.
      • ATS readability — Export a text-based PDF and check it with a parser.
      • Working links — GitHub, LinkedIn and a live project link that open.
      • Tailoring — Reorder bullets to match the job description.

      What to practise

      • Run your PDF through a parser test
      • Rewrite each bullet as action + result
      • Remove any skill you can't explain for 2 minutes

      Common questions

      • Walk me through your resume.
      • Which project here are you most proud of, and why?
      • Why is this skill on your resume?

      Free resources

      • OpenResume — Free ATS-friendly resume builder and parser test (Free)
      • Jake's Resume (Overleaf) — The LaTeX resume template most SDE freshers use (Free)
      • Resume Worded — Resume and LinkedIn scoring (Free plan)
      • Jobscan — Match your resume against a job description (Free plan)

      Free courses

    2. 01.2Tell me about yourself

      CoreBeginner1–2 h

      A 60–90 second answer: present, past, why this role.

      What this covers

      • Present — Who you are now: degree, year, focus.
      • Past — One or two proof points: a project, internship or result.
      • Future — Why this role and this company next.
      • Length — 60–90 seconds; stop before you list everything.
      • Delivery — Calm pace and eye contact, not a memorised script.

      What to practise

      • Write it, then say it out loud 5 times
      • Record yourself and cut anything over 90 seconds

      Common questions

      • Tell me about yourself.
      • Why should we hire you?
      • Where do you see yourself in a few years?

      Free resources

      Free courses

    3. 01.3Behavioral & STAR

      CoreBeginner3–4 h

      Stories about teamwork, conflict and failure, told with STAR.

      What this covers

      • STAR structure — Situation, task, action, result. Spend most of the time on action.
      • Story bank — 6–8 real stories you can reuse across questions.
      • Teamwork & conflict — Disagreeing respectfully and what you changed.
      • Failure & weakness — A real one, what you learned, what you do now.
      • Ownership — Times you took initiative without being asked.
      • Common HR questions — Why us, why you, strengths, relocation.

      What to practise

      • Write 6 stories in STAR form
      • Map each story to 2–3 common questions
      • Practise one story with a friend

      Common questions

      • Tell me about a time you failed.
      • Describe a conflict in a team and what you did.
      • What is your biggest weakness?

      Free resources

      Free courses

    4. 01.4Spoken communication

      CoreBeginner4–8 h

      Clear, structured answers in simple English, at a calm pace.

      What this covers

      • Structure first — Answer in one line, then give reasons or an example.
      • Simple English — Short sentences beat fancy words.
      • Pace and pauses — Slow down; a pause is better than a filler.
      • Listening — Answer the question that was asked, then stop.
      • Online calls — Camera at eye level, look at the lens, check your mic.

      What to practise

      • Record a 2-minute answer daily and note fillers
      • Read aloud for 10 minutes a day
      • Join one English conversation practice a week

      Common questions

      • Tell me something interesting you learned recently.
      • Explain your final-year project to someone from another field.

      Free resources

      Free courses

  2. 02Technical foundations

    What customers will ask about.

    1. 02.1How the web works

      CoreIntermediate4–6 h

      HTTP, browsers and the request lifecycle that web interviews build on.

      What this covers

      • HTTP basics — Methods, status codes, headers.
      • Cookies, sessions & tokens — How login state is kept.
      • Caching — Browser cache, CDN and cache headers.
      • CORS — Why browsers block cross-origin calls and how servers allow them.
      • REST vs GraphQL — Trade-offs at a basic level.
      • From URL to page — DNS, TCP/TLS, request, render.

      What to practise

      • Inspect one site's network tab and explain each request
      • Explain "type a URL and press Enter" in 3 minutes

      Common questions

      • What happens when you type a URL?
      • What is CORS?
      • Difference between cookies and local storage?

      Free resources

      Free courses

    2. 02.2SQL for interviews

      Good to knowBeginner4–6 h

      Query questions that show up in many tech and data rounds.

      What this covers

      • SELECT basics — Filtering, sorting, LIMIT.
      • Joins — Inner, left and self joins.
      • Aggregation — GROUP BY, HAVING, COUNT DISTINCT.
      • Subqueries & CTEs — Breaking a hard query into steps.
      • Window functions — RANK, ROW_NUMBER, running totals.

      What to practise

      • 20 interview-style SQL questions
      • Rewrite one long query using a CTE

      Common questions

      • Find the second-highest salary.
      • INNER JOIN vs LEFT JOIN?

      Free resources

      • SQLZoo — SQL by doing, in the browser (Free)
      • DataLemur — SQL and analytics interview questions (Free plan)

      Free courses

    3. 02.3Back-end & API design

      Good to knowIntermediate8–12 h

      Designing, securing and scaling the APIs your projects expose.

      What this covers

      • REST design — Resources, verbs, status codes, versioning.
      • Authentication — Sessions, JWT, OAuth at a basic level.
      • Validation & errors — Consistent error shapes and input checks.
      • Pagination & filtering — Cursor vs offset pagination.
      • Rate limiting & idempotency — Protecting APIs and safe retries.
      • One framework deeply — Express, Spring Boot, Django or FastAPI.

      What to practise

      • Build a CRUD API with auth and tests
      • Write the API docs for one of your projects

      Common questions

      • How would you design a REST API for a library?
      • What is idempotency?
      • How does JWT authentication work?

      Free resources

      Free courses

    4. 02.4Cloud fundamentals

      Good to knowIntermediate8–12 h

      Compute, storage, networking and identity on one major cloud.

      What this covers

      • Compute — VMs, containers, serverless.
      • Storage & databases — Object, block, managed databases.
      • Networking — VPCs, subnets, load balancers, DNS.
      • Identity & access — Users, roles, least privilege.
      • Cost & regions — Pricing basics, availability zones.
      • Shared responsibility — What the provider secures and what you do.

      What to practise

      • Deploy a small app using free-tier services
      • Draw your app's cloud architecture

      Common questions

      • What is a VPC?
      • Difference between horizontal and vertical scaling?
      • How would you make an app highly available?

      Free resources

      Free courses

  3. 03Role-specific

    The customer-facing part.

    1. 03.1Solutions & pre-sales engineering

      CoreIntermediate6–10 h

      Turning customer needs into technical solutions and demos.

      What this covers

      • Discovery — Understanding the customer's problem and constraints.
      • Solution design — Mapping needs to product features and integrations.
      • Demos — Short, story-driven demos for the customer's use case.
      • Proofs of concept — Scoping and success criteria.
      • Handling technical objections — Honest answers and follow-ups.

      What to practise

      • Give a 10-minute demo of any product to a friend
      • Write a one-page solution proposal

      Common questions

      • Walk me through how you would run a demo.
      • How do you handle a feature the product lacks?

      Free resources

    2. 03.2Technical communication

      Good to knowBeginner2–3 h

      Explaining your thinking clearly in English.

      What this covers

      • Structure — Big picture first, then details.
      • Plain words — Explain without jargon.
      • Checking in — "Does that make sense so far?"
      • Written English — Clear emails and follow-ups.

      What to practise

      • Explain one project to a non-CS friend
      • Record a 2-minute explanation of your best project and listen back

      Common questions

      • Explain recursion to a 10-year-old.

      Free resources

      Free courses

    3. 03.3Projects & resume defense

      CoreIntermediate4–6 h

      Explaining what you built, why, and what you would change.

      What this covers

      • The problem — What it solves and for whom.
      • Your role — Exactly what you built yourself.
      • Architecture — A simple diagram: frontend, backend, database.
      • Hardest bug — What broke and how you found it.
      • Trade-offs — Why this stack; what you would change now.
      • Scale questions — What happens with 10x the users.

      What to practise

      • Prepare a 2-minute walkthrough per project
      • Be ready to draw its architecture

      Common questions

      • What was the hardest part of this project?
      • Why did you choose this tech stack?
      • How would it handle 10x more users?

      Free resources

      Free courses

  4. 04Practice

    Run it like a real meeting.

    1. 04.1Mock interviews

      CoreBeginner3–5 h

      At least two full practice interviews before the real one.

      What this covers

      • Realistic setting — Same format, time limit and dress as the real round.
      • Common questions first — Introduction, motivation, experience, weaknesses.
      • Feedback — Ask what was unclear or too long.
      • Recording — Watch yourself once; fix fillers and pace.
      • Role questions — Add 3–5 questions specific to your field.

      What to practise

      • Do two mock interviews with a friend or senior
      • Use a spoken practice tool and read the transcript

      Common questions

      • Tell me about yourself.
      • Why this role?

      Free resources

      Free courses

    2. 04.2Strengths & weaknesses

      Good to knowBeginner1–2 h

      Honest strengths with proof, and a real weakness you are working on.

      What this covers

      • Strengths with proof — Pick 2–3 and back each with one short example.
      • A real weakness — Not a disguised strength; something you are actively improving.
      • What you are doing about it — The habit, course or system that shows progress.
      • Fit to the role — Strengths that matter for this job, not any job.

      What to practise

      • Write three strengths with one example each
      • Practise the weakness answer until it sounds calm, not rehearsed

      Common questions

      • What are your greatest strengths?
      • What is your biggest weakness?
      • How would your friends or teammates describe you?

      Free resources

      Free courses

  5. 05Company & final prep

    The last 48 hours.

    1. 05.1Company research

      CoreBeginner1–2 h

      The product, the role, the job description and recent news.

      What this covers

      • The business — What it sells and to whom.
      • The role — What the job description really asks for.
      • Recent news — Launches, results, announcements.
      • Interview format — The rounds, if the company shares them.
      • Your fit — Three reasons, matched to the job description.

      What to practise

      • Write 3 reasons you want this role
      • Match 3 JD lines to your experience

      Common questions

      • Why do you want to work here?
      • What do you know about our product?

      Free resources

    2. 05.2Questions to ask

      Good to knowBeginner30 min

      Two or three good questions for the end of the interview.

      What this covers

      • About the team — How work is planned and reviewed.
      • About growth — Mentoring, learning, the first 90 days.
      • About the product — What is hard right now.
      • What to avoid — Questions a quick search answers.

      What to practise

      • Write 5 questions, keep the best 3
      • Prepare one question about the team's own product

      Common questions

      • Do you have any questions for us?

      Free resources

    3. 05.3Final checklist

      CoreBeginner30 min

      Logistics, documents, setup and a calm night before.

      What this covers

      • Logistics — Time, timezone, link or address.
      • Documents — Resume copies, ID, certificates if asked.
      • Tech check — Camera, mic, internet, charger.
      • Night before — Sleep, light revision, no new topics.

      What to practise

      • Do a 5-minute tech check the day before
      • Lay out documents and clothes the night before

      Free resources

    4. 05.4Job & interview safety

      Good to knowBeginner15 min

      Spot fake offers, payment requests and fake interview links.

      What this covers

      • Payment requests — Real employers don't charge for jobs or training.
      • Email domains — Check it matches the company's own site.
      • OTPs & logins — Never share them with anyone.
      • Fake interview links — Care with unknown chat apps and downloads.
      • Reporting — The 1930 helpline and cybercrime.gov.in.

      What to practise

      • Check one recent offer against these rules
      • Confirm the opening is listed on the company's own careers page

      Free resources

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