The Mistakes Most Entry-Level Candidates Make in Technical Interviews

And how to set yourself apart from the other entry-level candidates

I’ve conducted enough entry-level technical interviews to identify the patterns and mistakes most candidates make. Below I detail the top three things you can do to avoid common mistakes and separate yourself as a top candidate during the interview process.

This is specifically regarding technical Leetcode-style interviews (not system design, although some of the information might apply to both). I’ll share a question I’ve asked quite a bit recently and how each of the tips below applies to it.

Each tip below also applies to a part of the technical interview evaluation that does transition to real-world software engineering skills. I know this isn’t always the case, but I feel these are especially important for anyone being evaluated for a software engineering role.

Note: While I work for Google and have access to Google interviewing resources, everything below is my personal opinion. Interviewing is a very human experience, after all.

What an Interviewer is Looking For

There’s always a lot of focus on finding the optimal solution in a technical interview and being perfect in your reasoning for how you arrived at that solution, but an interviewer is looking for much more than just that.

They don’t just want to evaluate your technical knowledge. They want to understand how you think. Understanding a candidate’s reasoning along with their knowledge of software engineering fundamentals tells them a lot about how you will perform on the job.

When you’re interviewing at this level, your interviewer will focus on three things: