Welcome back to my blog and thank you for taking the time to read post #4. This week I was able to get my hands dirty and apply what I have been learning through reading documentation and watching tutorials. Working with React Native and Firebase has been a great learning experience and watching our project come to life has been incredibly rewarding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the purpose of this blog is to document my journey through the CS 467 Capstone course, I want to deviate from this topic and dedicate this blog post to my first experience with interviewing for technical roles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since I started my computer science journey in March of 2020, my goal was always to land a software engineering position in a big tech company. The problem was that I had no idea how to accomplish this. At that point I had no idea about the format of technical interviews or what Leetcode was. However, I did know that the more I knew about computer science and its key concepts, the better position I would be to accomplish my goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Therefore, as I mentioned in a previous blog post, I audited Berkeley\u2019s CS61B and learned about data structures and algorithms, almost accidentally learning perhaps the most important skills needed for tech interviews. Additionally, I was able to build a couple of personal projects that involved data structures and algorithms, which enhanced my understanding of the topics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fast forward to early August, I was admitted to OSU and immediately started applying for software engineering internships. I knew that the best route to accomplish my goal of working as a software engineer at a big tech company would be through internships. This would give me an introduction to the industry, help me gain valuable skills and enhance my resume.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To my surprise, about a month before my first quarter at OSU started I received my first online assessment from Coinbase. Having never taken an online assessment before, or even heard of them, I searched online to see how I could prepare. To my relief, most of the advice I read was related to reviewing data structures and algorithms. I already know about these concepts, I thought, this should be easy. With a naive sense of confidence, I opened the Hackerrank assessment and started reading the first question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As soon as I finished reading the first question my confidence completely faded away. I had no idea how to answer the question. I moved on to the second question, read the instructions and realized that it was harder than the first one. Ultimately, I tried my best and submitted my answers that passed a minimal amount of tests.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, about a week later I was informed that I did not perform well enough to move on through their interview process. However, instead of being disappointed about the outcome, I took this experience as a learning opportunity and started learning more about online assessments and technical interviews. I bought and started reading Cracking the Coding Interview<\/em> and created a Leetcode account. What followed were many late nights practicing problems and learning about problem solving techniques, which ultimately paid off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to keep this post short, I\u2019ll stop my story here. However, I do plan on writing about the next part of my journey, which was applying and interviewing for more software engineering internships. I hope you can join me then.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you for reading and I\u2019ll see you next time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rod<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome back to my blog and thank you for taking the time to read post #4. This week I was able to get my hands dirty and apply what I have been learning through reading documentation and watching tutorials. Working with React Native and Firebase has been a great learning experience and watching our project … <\/p>\n