Short, tactical guides on coding rounds, system design, behavioral storytelling, and AI-assisted interviewing. Everything we wish we'd known before our own interviews.
Skip the 500-page textbooks. Here's the minimum viable system design knowledge that will get you through 80% of FAANG and senior-engineering rounds — with patterns, trade-offs, and a one-page reference you can actually memorize.
Amazon's behavioral round is the one most candidates underestimate. Here's the exact prep system that works — with 16 Leadership Principles mapped to real stories, the STAR-framework upgrade Bar Raisers actually want, and what "dive deep" really means.
Grinding 500 LeetCode problems is the slow way. Master these 15 patterns and you'll recognize 90% of coding round questions on sight — with complexity analysis, template code, and the signal-words that tell you which pattern to reach for.
A $200/hr human coach or a $30/mo AI tool — what's the honest answer? We compare accountability, feedback quality, speed, and the specific rounds where each wins. Plus: what the research on AI-assisted skill acquisition actually shows.
Being a non-native speaker in a 45-minute English interview is a distinct skill separate from engineering ability. Here's how to structure answers, manage stress, use silence strategically, and use AI tools ethically as a "vocabulary backup" without leaning on them as a crutch.