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Interview Preparation RoadMap

5 min read

Data Structures and Algorithms

  1. Core Concepts
    • Time and Space Complexity (Big O Notation)
    • Recursion and Iteration
  2. Data Structures
    • Arrays (Dynamic Arrays/Vectors)
    • Strings
    • Linked Lists (Single Linked List, Doubly Linked List, Circular Linked List)
    • Hash Tables/Maps (Dictionaries)
    • Stacks and Queues
    • Trees (Binary Trees, Binary Search Trees, AVL Trees, Red-Black Trees, Tries)
    • Graphs (Directed, Undirected, Weighted, Unweighted, Adjacency List, Adjacency Matrix)
    • Heaps (Min-Heap, Max-Heap, Priority Queue)
  3. Algorithms
    • Sorting Algorithms (Bubble Sort, Selection Sort, Insertion Sort, Merge Sort, Quick Sort, Heap Sort, Radix Sort, Counting Sort)
    • Searching Algorithms (Linear Search, Binary Search, Depth-First Search, Breadth-First Search)
    • Graph Algorithms (Dijkstra’s Algorithm, A* Search, Bellman-Ford Algorithm, Floyd-Warshall Algorithm, Kruskal’s Algorithm, Prim’s Algorithm, Topological Sort, BFS, DFS)
    • Dynamic Programming Memoization, Tabulation (common patterns: Knapsack Problem, Longest Common Subsequence, Coin Change Problem, unique paths)
    • Greedy Algorithms (Activity Selection Problem, Huffman Coding, Dijkstra’s Algorithm, Coin Change Problem)
    • Backtracking (N-Queens Problem, Sudoku Solver, Subset Sum Problem, Permutations and Combinations)
    • Divide and Conquer (Merge Sort, Quick Sort, Binary Search, Closest Pair of Points)
    • Bit Manipulation (Basic Operations, Common Tricks, Applications, useful for optimizing certain problems)
    • Two Pointers, Sliding Window, Fast and Slow Pointers

System Design

System Design for Backend Engineers

  • Core Concepts
    • Scalability (Vertical vs. Horizontal)
    • Reliability, Availability, Fault Tolerance
    • Consistency (CAP Theorem, ACID vs. BASE)
    • Latency, Throughput, Bandwidth
    • Load Balancing (DNS, L4, L7)
    • Caching (Client-side, Server-side, CDN, Distributed Caching like Redis/Memcached)
    • Database Design (SQL vs. NoSQL, Sharding, Replication, Indexing)
    • Message Queues (Kafka, RabbitMQ, SQS)
    • Microservices vs. Monoliths
    • APIs (REST, GraphQL, gRPC)
    • Security (Authentication, Authorization, HTTPS)
    • Monitoring and Logging
  • Common Design Problems:
    • Design a URL Shortener
    • Design a Chat System (WhatsApp/Slack)
    • Design a News Feed (Facebook/Twitter)
    • Design a Ride-Sharing Service (Uber/Lyft)
    • Design an E-commerce Platform
    • Design a Distributed Key-Value Store
    • Design a Rate Limiter
    • Design a Notification System

System Design for Frontend Engineers

  • Core Concepts:
    • Browser Rendering Process
    • Performance Optimization (Lazy Loading, Code Splitting, Image Optimization, Critical CSS)
    • State Management (Redux, Zustand, Context API)
    • Component Design and Reusability
    • API Integration (REST, GraphQL)
    • Security (XSS, CSRF, CORS)
    • Accessibility (ARIA, Semantic HTML)
    • Build Tools (Webpack, Vite, Rollup)
    • Testing Strategies (Unit, Integration, E2E)
    • Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)
    • Server-Side Rendering (SSR) vs. Client-Side Rendering (CSR) vs. Static Site Generation (SSG)
    • WebSockets for real-time communication
  • Common Design Problems:
    • Design a Component Library
    • Design a Real-time Dashboard
    • Design an Infinite Scroll List
    • Design a Rich Text Editor
    • Design a Drag-and-Drop Interface
    • Design a Single-Page Application (SPA) architecture
    • Design a scalable data visualization component

System Design for DevOps Engineers

  • Core Concepts:
    • Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible
    • CI/CD Pipelines: Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, CircleCI
    • Containerization: Docker, Kubernetes (Orchestration, Pods, Deployments, Services, Ingress)
    • Cloud Platforms: AWS, Azure, GCP (Compute, Storage, Networking, Databases, Serverless)
    • Monitoring & Alerting: Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, Datadog
    • Logging: Centralized logging (Splunk, ELK)
    • Networking: VPC, Subnets, Load Balancers, DNS, Firewalls
    • Security: IAM, Secrets Management (Vault), Network Security Groups
    • Scripting: Bash, Python, Go
    • Configuration Management: Ansible, Chef, Puppet
    • Disaster Recovery & Backup Strategies
    • Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Principles: SLOs, SLIs, Error Budgets
  • Common Design Problems:
    • Design a CI/CD pipeline for a microservices application
    • Design a highly available and scalable Kubernetes cluster
    • Design a multi-region disaster recovery strategy
    • Design a centralized logging and monitoring solution
    • Automate infrastructure provisioning for a new service
    • Design a secure secrets management system

Staff Engineer / Principal Engineer Roles

These roles focus less on individual coding problems and more on technical leadership, architecture, and impact.

  • Technical Leadership & Mentorship:
    • Guiding junior engineers, code reviews, setting technical standards.
    • Driving technical initiatives and projects.
  • Architecture & Strategy:
    • Defining long-term technical vision and roadmap.
    • Evaluating new technologies, making build vs. buy decisions.
    • Designing complex, cross-team systems.
    • Understanding business context and aligning technical solutions.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration:
    • Working with product, design, and other engineering teams.
    • Communicating complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
  • Problem Solving & Debugging:
    • Tackling ambiguous, high-impact technical challenges.
    • Deep understanding of system internals and performance bottlenecks.
  • Influence & Impact:
    • Driving change and adoption of best practices across the organization.
    • Measuring and demonstrating impact of technical work.
  • Interview Focus: Behavioral questions, architectural discussions, incident response scenarios, technical deep dives into past projects, how you’ve influenced teams, resolved conflicts, or led major initiatives.

Engineering Manager (EM) / Engineering Leader Roles

These roles shift focus from individual contribution to people management, strategy, and execution.

  • People Management:
    • Hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, career development, coaching, mentoring.
    • Conflict resolution, team building, fostering a positive culture.
  • Project & Program Management:
    • Planning, execution, and delivery of projects.
    • Resource allocation, risk management, stakeholder communication.
    • Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban).
  • Strategy & Vision:
    • Defining team goals, aligning with organizational objectives.
    • Contributing to product strategy and technical roadmap.
    • Budgeting and resource planning.
  • Communication & Collaboration:
    • Effective communication with direct reports, peers, leadership, and cross-functional teams.
    • Representing the team’s interests.
  • Technical Acumen (Contextual):
    • Understanding technical challenges, making informed decisions, providing guidance without micromanaging.
    • Ability to jump into technical discussions and understand trade-offs.
  • Interview Focus: Behavioral questions about leadership style, managing difficult situations, building high-performing teams, strategic thinking, handling failures, fostering innovation, and how you’ve grown engineers.

General Tips for All Roles:

  • Practice Coding: Use platforms like LeetCode, HackerRank, AlgoExpert.
  • Practice System Design: Read books (e.g., “Designing Data-Intensive Applications,” “System Design Interview”), watch videos, and practice whiteboarding.
  • Behavioral Questions: Prepare stories using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) for common questions about teamwork, challenges, failures, successes, and leadership.
  • Understand the Company: Research the company’s products, technologies, and culture.
  • Ask Questions: Always prepare thoughtful questions to ask your interviewers.
  • Mock Interviews: Practice with peers or mentors.
  • Portfolio/Projects: Have a strong portfolio of projects (GitHub, personal website) to showcase your skills, especially for frontend and backend roles.

Behavioral Questions

System Design

Algorithms

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