Introduction

I am currently working at Yahoo, one of the top Internet companies in the world. I also had the chance to work at PayPal, the dominant company in online payments.

When I lost my job in 2008, I had more than 30 phone interviews and several onsite interviews. Just to mention a few names, I interviewed with Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, Symantec, nVidia, Linkedin, and a few more.

As long as you are applying for a technical software position, whether it is QA or development, then forget about the silly "most asked" interview questions such as "tell me about your strengths and weaknesses." In this short article, I will only mention a few basic points that a software engineer should be aware of before interviewing at companies like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc.

Not only did I interview at many computer software companies, but I also participated in interviewing candidates who applied to our team, so the advice is from the heart.

Academic Strength

This is one of the most important points, if not the most important point. A company like Google or Microsoft tests candidates in data structures and algorithms over the phone. When I interviewed with Google, they shared a Google Doc with me and requested me to write code and debug it. They ask about key topics in data structures and algorithms, such as hash tables and running time.

Moral of the story: If you want to increase your chance to pass those interviews, then you need to be very strong in coding, debugging, and testing from an academic point of view. I doubt that work experience itself can save you if the interviewer asks you about some tricks in algorithm design. This needs a lot of practice to master.

Communication Skills

Software development is team-based, so you need to have the appropriate written and verbal communication skills.

Moral of the story: If you are a nerd, that is not enough; you need to interact with people.

Personality

If you have everything discussed earlier but are hard to deal with people, fail to work within a team, or have an attitude, then good luck.

Conclusion

As you can see, do not worry too much about what you should wear on the interview day. Those folks look for smart, hardworking problem solvers. Believe me.

Why should I hire you?