Interview knowledge

Shared notes

Interview knowledge

A frontend to my personal knowledge related to engineering knowledge useful for interviews. Notes on system design, coding and culture interviews, and how AI is changing all of it.

I kept these notes along the way: takeaways from videos, articles and books, mixed with my own experience. Linking them together helped me refresh my knowledge as well as understanding how to showcase it the best way.

Interviewing too? I recommend you build your own knowledge base in your own way. I'm hoping that the library and other tools in here inspire you in your preparation journey.

I'm not claiming that everything written here is a gospel of truth, but rather helpful thoughts and opinions.

127 notes · 66 sources · 28 trade-offs

Start here

Random trade-offConsistency & scale

Generic or Concrete software design: when would you pick each?

Answer it →
ExploreSystem design mapThe building blocks of a typical architecture. Click a component for notes, trade-offs and numbers worth knowing. PractiseTrade-off explorer28 comparisons and “when to use” guides, filterable by what the decision hinges on. ReadLibrary66 articles, videos and books behind these notes, ranked by how much they shaped them.

Traits to demonstrate

Judgement

Ability to demonstrate trade-offs.

This is especially relevant in the AI era.

How AI is changing the interview process

Ownership

What am I looking for

Questions to ask

Intent behind asking a question
Interview questions for me to ask

Meta

Interviewing is hard: Its harder to prove someone that you can do something, than just doing the thing everyday

Plain text is my own writing; framed blocks are quotes or paraphrases, linked to their source. 🌱 🌿 🌳 show how fleshed-out a note is (“est.” means estimated automatically).