Interviews

Referrals and interview performance — the last mile.

1. 01

   Behavioral interviews

   The non-technical round that quietly decides technical offers.

   • The STAR method, and why interviewers actually use itSituation, Task, Action, Result — a structure for turning "I worked on X" into a story an interviewer can actually evaluate.
   • Answering 'Tell me about yourself' without ramblingThe opening question every interview has — and the one most people improvise badly because it feels too easy to prepare for.
   • Talking about failure without sabotaging yourself"Tell me about a time you failed" — the question most people either dodge or over-punish themselves on. Neither works.
   • Questions to ask your interviewer"Do you have any questions for me?" is not a formality — it's your last chance to evaluate the job and demonstrate you've been paying attention.
2. 02

   System design fundamentals

   Curated preparation, not a whiteboard tool — what system design interviews are actually checking for, in plain language.

   • What system design interviews are actually testingNot whether you can draw boxes and arrows — whether you can reason about tradeoffs out loud, under ambiguity, with a real person watching you think.
   • The four levers: latency, throughput, consistency, availabilityThe vocabulary every system design conversation actually runs on — most tradeoffs are just these four pulling against each other.
   • Caching, load balancing, and horizontal scaling, brieflyThe three techniques that show up in almost every system design answer — what each one actually buys you, and what it costs.
   • Walkthrough: designing a URL shortenerA small, concrete worked example that ties the previous three lessons together — the classic first system design problem, done properly.