How to prepare for a technical interview
The usual stages of a software engineering interview, a four-week preparation plan, and how to answer out loud so your thinking is easy to follow.
By the Repofolio team · Published
What does a technical interview usually include?
Processes differ by company, but most software engineering interviews combine some of these stages. Ask the recruiter which ones yours has.
| Stage | What it tests | How to prepare |
|---|---|---|
| Recruiter call | Fit, motivation, logistics | A two-minute story of your experience and why this role |
| Coding | Problem solving, clean code, testing | Practise common problem types out loud, then on a shared editor |
| Take-home task | How you build something real | Small, finished, tested; a README that explains your choices |
| System design (mid-level and up) | Trade-offs at scale | Requirements first, then data, APIs, bottlenecks and failure cases |
| Your own projects | Depth and honesty | Be able to explain every line on your CV and every repository you link |
| Behavioural | Teamwork, conflict, ownership | Four or five real stories, told as situation, task, action, result |
A four-week preparation plan
- Week 1, the job: list the skills the ad asks for, and mark which ones your projects show. Revise the fundamentals of the main language.
- Week 2, coding: solve one or two problems a day, saying your reasoning aloud. Review your mistakes, not only the solutions.
- Week 3, depth: prepare to explain your own projects: why you chose each tool, what broke, what you would change. Practise a design question if the level asks for it.
- Week 4, rehearsal: run full mock interviews under time pressure, then fix the weakest area.
How do you answer so the interviewer can follow?
- Clarify first: repeat the problem in your words and ask about inputs, limits and edge cases.
- Think aloud: say the simple approach, its cost, then how to improve it. Silence makes good reasoning invisible.
- Be concrete: “I added an index on user_id because the query scanned the whole table” beats “I optimised the database”.
- Say what you do not know, then how you would find out. Interviewers trust that more than a guess.
Does preparation differ by level?
Students and juniors are judged on fundamentals, learning speed and their projects, so projects you can explain in depth matter a lot. Mid-level and senior candidates are expected to discuss trade-offs, design and ownership; leads also face questions about people and delivery.
Practising with Repofolio
Repofolio’s mock interviews ask questions for your role and level, or for a job you applied to, by voice or text. If you have not started answering after five seconds the question is read once more, then the interview moves on, as a real interviewer would. Each answer gets a score and feedback, and History shows how you improve. The ATS guide covers the CV that gets you to the interview.
For problem practice, the free Tech Interview Handbook is a widely used, well-organised starting point.