#8 Session 7: Graphs / Tackling Imposter Syndrome

Technical interviews trigger imposter syndrome even in the best of us.

Your imposter syndrome can make you:

• Make you give up when you hit a snag
• Make you go silent for fear of asking questions

Here’s the good news. You are not an imposter!

Imposter syndrome is the psychological experience of seeing yourself as an intellectual fraud and the fear of being exposed.

You might feel:

• Being brilliant is a prerequisite for developers.
• You’ve tricked other people, and you might be exposed.

Like you don’t really know that much (only a tiny sliver of all the stuff there is to know), and if something is easy for us, must be easy for everyone else.

>70% of people experience imposter syndrome.

Practising more mock interviews helps accurately gauge what you need, and what you lack.

Never quit the interview.

A few tips to tackle imposter syndrome

• Familiarity will calm your nerves.
• Be sure to simulate the experience with mock interviews from peers
• Use Glassdoor to review interview questions
• Your internal dialogue isn’t reality.
• Hard work > perfection.
• Nobody knows everything. Set realistic expectations, goals, and celebrate progress!

First, know the content

• Know your data structures and algorithms
• Use your most comfortable language
• Specific questions about concepts are rare

If you remember nothing else,

1. Don’t start coding away; ask questions!
2. Communicate your design tradeoffs
3. Focus on getting a working solution first
4. Keep calm and think out loud
5. Practice, often, at the whiteboard

Finally:

• Failure is okay, everybody screws up
• It might not be fun, but it’s okay; there are lots of positions in and you still belong in the industry
• Every interview is a learning opportunity
• And no matter what, think out loud.

See:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCl9kvQGHPI
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UWDyJq8jZg

1. Clarify solution
2. Do example
3. Walk through example
4. Complexity
5. Plan in advance
6. Explain before coding; code
7. Test
8. Test comprehensively

System designs interview — Write down the constraints. Else, it is not needed.

Time complexity of graph traversal: V + E

Google for Geeks for Geeks even tree

Tips for graphs:

• How to convert the problem, to a graph problem, is the crux of the problem.
• DFS / BFS / Djistrika.
• Memorize DFS / BFS / Dijstrika. Use it to fit into your solution.