In the first part of this two part article, I discussed a high level overview of the entire interview process. Now, as promised, I will discuss the types of technical questions that are commonly asked during the interviews.

When interviewing for any software development position, the most important quality for the interviewer to find out is your development skills. They will first look at your resume and begin to work off of that. Prep work begins by reviewing your own resume and making sure that anything listed on there is correct. If you listed something like C++, but have not programmed anything in C++ for the last few years, it is best to give yourself a high level review on a wikipedia article.

Even if you only have time to look over a wikipedia “hello world” code sample, it is better than nothing. Once you review your resume, do it again. This time looking at each of the Skills you listed. If you state that you are familiar with lets say web services, you better be ready to answer some pretty detailed questions on the topic. Now you do not have to be bullet proof on the topic, but you should be able to articulate information and show a decent level of knowledge on the subject. Again, if the interviewer asks something above your understanding do not give up right away. I commonly say something to the effect, “I am not exactly sure, but I can assume it is something like…” Saying something like this demonstrates that you are not scared to take a step out of your comfort zone and venture a guess. This is a good quality that most employers will encourage among there employees.

Now for some development topics that you will almost definitely be asked sometime during the interview process. These are the topics you should review from your old CS 101 days, if you fail here I guarantee that you will not get the job even if you can code every language known to man.

• Encapsulation
• Inheritance
• Method Overloading
• Benefits of Object-Oriented Design
• Pointers
• Pass by Reference vs Pass by Value
• Type Casting

Now I am sure you have heard these terms in one class or book. Simply knowing the terms is one thing. Employers are going to want to see a high level example of the concept and potentially another example of when you would use it. Some more specific topics I would say are not required but recommended are:

• Understanding of underlying language principles (ex. Java JVM, Duck Typing)
• Comparing when to use what languages (ex. Ruby vs. C++)

One last hurdle lies between you and your job interview. Depending on where you interview, the company might have a policy to give you a programming or written timed exam. Now, do not freak out as there is a trick to this. They will ask you to write a bunch of code for things like Linked Lists, Stacks, String Parsing, and other common data structures/manipulators. There is a saying that goes along with software development, “I would not hire a programmer who thinks he can write a single line of code correctly the first time through.” After reading that, I am sure 90% of you believe you can prove that statement wrong. Good for you. The quote is meant to calm your nerves. The employer does not expect code that will execute cleanly. What they want is for you to demonstrate your knowledge of the data structure or task and put it into words. Now these words can be programming syntax, but more often than not you will forget built-in function names and get stuck. If this happens to you just keep going but either use pseudo-code and/or a paragraph describing the process and where you got stuck. Your goal on these exams is to demonstrate your ability to think on your feet and articulate the thinking process. However you can do this is fine with nearly anyone you will interview with, as I speak from personal experience. I have received job offers on multiple occasions over people who wrote their answers in C++ or Java and I did nothing more than drawing pictures and some pseudocode.

Remember the above and the things from the last article and your interview should go smoothly. This is not a guarentee that you will get the job offer, but it will definitely aid you in that quest.