How to Prepare

The single most effective thing you can do is practice. The more problems you do, the more feedback you get, and the more prepared you'll be for the real interview. It's too easy to fall into a near-mindless lull while reading content — practice is what makes the lessons stick.

The two practice formats

Practice should mirror the format you're facing.

Structured — in-browser sandbox

Pick a structured problem and you drop straight into an in-browser editor with a built-in AI assistant — the same shape as the CoderPad and HackerRank environments Meta, LinkedIn, and Uber use. Work through the phases under time. The goal is to make a constrained, unfamiliar AI feel normal well before you're using one for real.

Open-ended — your editor, your AI tools

Pick an open-ended problem and clone the starter repo onto your machine, with a timer matching a real interview. Build it however you want, using whatever AI tools you reach for day to day. When you're done, upload your code and your AI chat transcript to get a hire/no-hire rating plus detailed feedback across the same four areas interviewers grade.

Rehearse with limited AI

Practicing exclusively with state-of-the-art models is a trap. Candidates who struggle in the real thing are often the ones who never developed a workflow for when the AI can only get them part of the way. The interview assistant — especially in structured environments, which lack the system prompts and context of tools like Claude Code or Cursor — will feel noticeably worse than your daily driver.

So deliberately run at least one practice session with a weaker model, or with an assistant in a stricter "hints only" mode. Working effectively with imperfect tools is part of what's being tested, and it's what real engineering looks like most of the time.

Environment setup

Your tools should be a source of confidence, not a surprise on the day.

Timeline

One week out

• Read the four evaluation areas and skim both formats.
• Do one full timed practice run — structured or open-ended, matching your target.
• Record yourself narrating a solve and watch it back; notice where you went silent too long.

The day before

• Confirm the format, platform, and tools with your recruiter (see the formats article for the checklist).
• Clone and build one open-ended starter repo so the setup isn't new.
• Review your plan-first, verify, narrate checklist.
• No new material. Sleep.

Morning of

• Test your environment: internet, tool auth, test commands, screen sharing.
• Re-read the four evaluation areas — not for detail, for shape.
• Get there early, and treat the first five minutes as orientation, not panic.