Resume Don'ts
Name two pieces of irrelevant information a CS student should typically exclude from their resume?
Irrelevant high school achievements, personal photos, relationship status, etc.
What does the “STAR” Method stand for?
Situation, Task, Action, Result
You are asked, "What is your biggest weakness?" What is the standard, best-practice way to answer this question?
State a genuine, professional weakness, and then explain the specific, proactive steps you are taking to overcome or mitigate it.
What’s the difference between a behavioural interview vs. a technical interview?
Behavioral: Assesses soft skills, past experiences, teamwork, problem-solving approach using questions like "Tell me about a time when..." Answered using STAR format.Technical: Assesses coding skills, algorithms, data structures, system design through live coding problems, whiteboarding, or technical discussions.
What is the amortized run-time of binary search?
O(log n)
What is the biggest mistake you can make regarding a "gap in employment" on your resume?
Leaving the gap unexplained. Briefly mention if you were traveling, taking a course, or working on personal projects.
Name two non-obvious "life-hacks" for the application process (beyond just customizing your resume).
Applying directly on the company website (not job boards), networking/getting referrals, applying quickly (within 1-2 weeks of posting), or filling out optional application fields.
In an informational interview or chat, what is the most crucial question you can ask an industry professional to gain insight for your future career?
"What is the biggest technical challenge your team is currently facing?" (or a similar question that focuses on technical depth and problem-solving).
What is the recommended best practice for a technical interview when you are stuck on a problem?
Verbalize your thought process (even the incorrect path), ask clarifying questions, and state assumptions to show the interviewer your problem-solving approach.
What’s the difference between a stack and a queue?
Stack: Follows LIFO (Last In, First Out) — the most recently added element is removed first
Queue: Follows FIFO (First In, First Out) — the earliest added element is removed first.
What’s one red flag that can get your resume rejected by an ATS (Applicant Tracking System)?
Using fancy graphics, tables, or PDFs without searchable text.
Your resume mentions you "worked in a team on a university project." How would you rephrase this using RATS?
e.g. Architected a REST API that processed 10,000 requests per hour; Reduced deployment time by 50% through implementing a CI/CD pipeline
During a coffee chat, you're asked "Why are you interested in our company?" but you've only done surface-level research. How do you recover?
Be honest but positive: "I'll admit I'm still learning about [Company], but what initially caught my attention was [specific thing you do know - product, tech stack, mission]. I'd love to hear more about what it's like to work here from your perspective." Then ask thoughtful questions based on their responses.
What should you do in the last 5 minutes of an interview when asked "Do you have any questions for us?"
Always have 2-3 thoughtful questions prepared. Ask about: team dynamics, day-to-day work, current projects/challenges, growth opportunities, tech stack decisions, or company culture. Avoid: questions about salary/benefits in early rounds, things easily found on their website, or "no, I'm good."
Name a frontend and backend workflow.
Frontend: e.g. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Backend: Node.js with Express, MongoDB, PostgreSQL.
A CS student includes a skill section listing all languages they've ever seen. What's the key mistake and solution?
Mistake: listing skills with no demonstrated proficiency.
Solution: only list skills you can comfortably discuss or those supported by projects/experience.
Which part of the STAR answer should take up the majority of your speaking time and how much?
The Action section, detailing what you specifically did. (approx. 60-70% of time)
Your team is running behind schedule. Your manager asks you to cut corners on testing to meet the deadline. How do you approach this scenario?
Push back professionally: Explain the risks of skipping tests (e.g., introducing bugs, long-term technical debt), and suggest alternative compromises (e.g., reducing scope, prioritizing core features, or running fewer/only critical tests).
You have back-to-back interviews with 4 different people in one day. What is this known as and how do you prepare for each conversation?
A "loop".
Research each interviewer's role/background beforehand, prepare multiple STAR stories, tailor questions for each person (ask engineers about tech, managers about team culture, etc.). Stay energized, eat beforehand, have water, take bathroom breaks. Treat each conversation as fresh and engaged.
What is the purpose of a hash function in a hash table?
maps a key to an index in the hash table, allowing fast data retrieval. It helps distribute entries uniformly to minimize collisions and achieve an average lookup, insertion, and deletion time of O(1).
Explain having "fluffy" or vague achievement statements on a resume, why is this a mistake? Provide an example and how it can be fixed.
"Fluffy" statements: Failing to use metrics or quantifiable results (e.g. "Improved performance" instead of "Reduced latency by 15%").
Employers can't gauge your accomplishments and results, making your measurable impact appear less tangible.
Provide an example of a situation described in STAR and another in RATS format.
e.g.
STAR: During a group web app project, our API was too slow under load. I analyzed and optimized database queries, adding caching and async handling.
The result was a 70% faster response time and a top project grade.
RATS: Reduced app’s crash rate by 80% by identifying memory leaks during stress testing and collaborated with developers to patch them to ensure app stability before the final product demo.
You're in a behavioral interview and the interviewer seems disengaged, checking their phone. How do you handle this situation and keep the conversation professional?
Don't take it personally, they might have an emergency or be having a bad day. Continue delivering strong answers concisely. You might politely acknowledge it: "I want to be respectful of your time, would you like me to keep my answers brief?" or "Is now still a good time, or should we reschedule?" Stay professional and bring your best energy regardless of their engagement.
What is the difference between a system design interview and a coding interview? Which 2 general experience-levels typically encounter each type?
Coding interview: Focus on implementing algorithms and data structures. Solve specific problems (e.g., "reverse a linked list"). Common for all levels including new grads.
System design: Design high-level architecture for complex systems (e.g., "design Twitter"). Focuses on scalability, trade-offs, databases, APIs, load balancing. Typically for mid-level+ engineers, sometimes skipped for new grads/interns.
Name 7 Neetcode 150 subtopics
Tries, Heaps/Priority Queues, Graphs, Dynamic Programming, Backtracking, Arrays & Hashing, Two Pointers, Sliding Window etc.