Technical interview questions are frequently very different from any conventional job interview, so if you’re thinking about a career in technology, you’ve stumbled upon the right article, as we will provide you with the perfect technical interview handbook. Questions about behavior, situations and technical problem-solving are frequently included in technical interviews. Understanding these materials will prepare you well for your technical interview.
Knowing what to expect during a technical interview will help you carefully plan your responses to highlight your abilities and expertise, regardless of how experienced you are in the technology sector or whether you are just getting started.
This article covers the typical technical interview questions, how to prepare for a tech interview, interview advice, and sample responses.
All about a technical interview
An interview for a position in the tech sector, such as information technology, is referred to as a technical interview. Technical interviews can last from an hour to a full day and can be conducted over the phone, online, or in person. Interview questions may include typical interview questions, brainteasers, technical competency tests, and problem-solving challenges.
The interviewer will evaluate your technical knowledge, abilities, and skills concerning the requirements of the particular position you are seeking during the technical interview. In addition, to assess your technical expertise and talents, the interviewer will also consider how you approach problem-solving and how well you’ll fit into the company’s culture.
Typical technical interview inquiries
Several styles of questions may be asked during a technical interview, including:
- Interview behavioral issues
- Questions for situational interviews
- inquiries regarding your schooling
- technical knowledge and experience inquiries
Please continue reading for examples of responses to inquiries about technical knowledge and expertise, as well as information on why employers ask these kinds of questions and what they are looking for.
Behavioral interview questions
Technical interviews are typically conducted the same manner as other types of interviews, with a sequence of generic and behavioral interview questions designed to discover more about the candidate and how they will fit into the company’s culture.
When answering behavioral interview questions, it is essential to use the STAR interview technique by distinctly determinating a “situation, task, action, and result” of a personal experience pertinent to the inquiry. You can anticipate the following behavioral interview questions during a technical interview:
- What specific duties and tasks did you complete on your most recent project?
- What are you most proud of, and what part did you play?
- Which do you prefer: working alone or with a group?
Questions for situational interviews
The interviewer may ask you a few situational interview questions after asking you a few behavioral interview questions. These questions provide you with a fictitious circumstance and ask how you would handle it. The interviewer wants to determine from your answers to these questions if you have thought ahead about potential obstacles at work and how you would take them.
By choosing a comparable circumstance you’ve experienced in the past, you can utilize the STAR technique to find the answers to these questions. During your technical interview, you can be asked the following typical situational interview questions:
- What would you do if you were given a mission but weren’t sure how to do it?
- Elaborate on when you went above and beyond the regular chores while working on a project.
- How would you handle the challenge of working on a team project with a challenging co-worker?
Interview inquiries about education
When an interviewer inquiries about your schooling, they are interested in the special technical training and education you have received and how they have helped you prepare for the position you seek. Remember to highlight any unique credentials, coursework, training, and academic achievements pertinent to the job you are applying for while responding to these questions. The following are some typical technical interview inquiries about your education:
- How well-prepared for this career was your education?
- What technological credentials do you possess?
- What do you do to preserve your technical knowledge and certifications?
Example questions and answers for technical interviews
The interviewer will continue questioning your technical knowledge, abilities, and experience after asking you behavioral and situational interview questions and learning more about your educational history.
It’s crucial to demonstrate your capacity for plain-language technical concept communication and to outline your work procedures while responding to these queries. Here are some typical technical interview questions and sample replies. The specific technical questions you can expect to be asked will vary depending on the technical requirements of the role.
- Which programming language are you most acquainted with?
- What exactly is a SAN used for, and how?
- When is denormalizing database design appropriate?
- How do continuous integration tools fit into the automated build process?
Which coding language are you most familiar with?
To assess if you have a thorough understanding of how to use the language they expect you to use and whether you feel comfortable using more than one language, the interviewer will likely ask you a question about the coding languages you are familiar with. Identifying the precise coding languages, you have experience with and are familiar with while responding to this question is crucial. Choose a specific programming language that you are most familiar with, and explain why.
Example: “Although I am familiar with various programming languages, including SQL, Python, C++, and Visual Basic, JavaScript is the one with which I have the most practical expertise. I learned JavaScript as my first coding language, and I’ve used it on several projects over the past ten years, so it’s the one I feel most at ease with.”
What exactly is a SAN used for, and how?
Your technical knowledge of a particular network you will need to be familiar with to succeed in your role is being tested in this interview question. It’s crucial to explain in detail what SAN is, what it does, and how you would utilize it in the position you are applying for when responding to this question.
Example: “Storage Area Network is referred to as SAN. This is a fast, specialized network that provides storage block-level network access. SANs boost storage efficiency and effectiveness, application availability, performance, and data security and protection.”
When is denormalizing database design appropriate?
This more difficult technical interview question gauges your ability to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of using Denormalization for database efficiency. Denormalization will affect a database’s capabilities; thus, it’s critical to understand its advantages and disadvantages and determine when it is suitable.
Example: “Denormalization is a database optimization method used to enhance the performance of a database for particular queries. Denormalization may be necessary when a database needs to be improved to satisfy your application’s needs. Before deciding to employ Denormalization as an optimization strategy, it is crucial to ensure if it is required for scalability or performance because it will affect the capabilities of your database.”
How do continuous integration tools fit into the automated build process?
This question will test your knowledge of continuous integration technologies and how they are utilized in the automated build process. Clearly define continuous integration in your response before describing how it is applied to the automatic build process.
Example: “Developers must integrate code into a common repository numerous times during the day as part of the continuous integration process. Every time the code is incorporated, the automatic build validates it. This makes it possible to find bugs and issues in the software early on.”
How do continuous integration tools fit into the automated build process?
This question will test your knowledge of continuous integration technologies and how they are utilized in the automated build process. Clearly define continuous integration in your response before describing how it is applied to the automatic build process.
Example: “Developers must integrate code into a common repository numerous times during the day as part of the continuous integration process. Every time the code is incorporated, the automatic build validates it. This makes it possible to find bugs and issues in the software early on.”
Understand the many approaches to problem-solving
Some technical interview questions have multiple possible valid responses. Explain your approach to problem-solving when responding to a question with various ways to arrive at a solution, and make it evident that you are familiar with all of them.
If more information is required, ask.
It’s acceptable to ask the interviewer for clarification if you need more details to respond to a question they’ve asked you fully. This will exhibit that you can determine when more information is required and that you aren’t hesitant to seek clarification when necessary.
Explain any responses you don’t understand.
It’s acceptable to inform the interviewer you don’t know the answer to a question if it comes up during a technical interview. However, if this were a challenge you encountered at work, you should elaborate on your response and describe how you would gather the data for the solution. This will demonstrate to the interviewer that you can look for information to address issues when unsure how to proceed.
Prepare to demonstrate your abilities.
Demonstrating your knowledge and abilities through a series of brainteasers, whiteboard coding challenges, or remote coding assignments is a common component of technical interviews. It’s vital to be ready for at least one brain teaser question or whiteboard challenge during your first technical interview, even though this phase usually happens during the second or third interview. It’s crucial to keep in mind when answering these technical interview questions to describe your thinking and the actions you took to get to your conclusion.
Ultimately, it’s simply a job interview.
Most people experience anxiety before speaking engagements, presentations, or interviews.
My body is getting tense as a result of that automatic fight-or-flight response.
Just an interview, nothing more. So accept your nerves. They’re merely getting you ready to give your best effort. You’ll succeed if you continue to practice, learn new things, and follow this technical interview handbook!