I landed a Summer 2023 Software Engineering internship with Audible, an audio books company and Amazon subsidiary. The application and interview process were standard. It included an application, online assessment, recruiter screening, and remote technical interview.
I prepared for my technical interview by grinding Leetcode. I’ve learned it’s just what you do in this field to gear up for interviews. It is an important part of the preparation process especially for junior engineers. If you want a technical job, you have to show some technical acumen. It is the main ingredient for interview success.
However, the secret sauce to interview success is communication. I produced a naive solution during my technical interview. The time complexity was n^2. It had unnecessary additional lines of code. The syntax wasn’t perfect. The interview wasn’t perfect. I accidentally told my interviewer my solution ran in n time and later corrected myself.
Still, it was a great interview. I left feeling confident and excited. I walked through my solution demonstrating that I could read code. I discussed how my solution was naive and proposed ways it could be improved if I had more time and wasn’t feeling so nervous. I admitted my time complexity mistake showing that I was agreeable and teachable.
Communication is the key to interview success. It was a happy surprise given that most preparation advice centers on grinding LeetCode and most novice coders think successful interviews hinge solely on technical prowess. They don’t. Now, don’t mistake what I’m saying as technical acumen is not important. It is. However, a successful interview can be measured in more ways than one.
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