Blog
Interview prep, system design, behavioural and career advice from engineers who've been there.
general5 Signs You Need Career Coaching (And How It Can Help)
Five signs it's time to get a career coach — from feeling stuck to missed promotions — and what coaching actually changes.
generalAI Interviewers Are Here: How to Prepare for Them
AI interviewers now screen real candidates. How automated voice interviews work, what they assess, and how to perform well when the interviewer is an AI.
generalAmazon Customer Obsession: Interview Questions and Answers
Master Amazon's Customer Obsession questions: what the principle really means, examples interviewers reward, and STAR stories to prepare.
generalAmazon Frugality: Interview Questions and Answers
Amazon Frugality interview questions and answers: show you deliver more with less through constraint-driven STAR stories.
generalAmazon Leadership Principles: Interview Guide and Questions
All 16 Amazon Leadership Principles explained, with interview questions and STAR answer tips for each — the complete preparation guide.
generalAmazon Ownership: Interview Questions and Answers
Amazon Ownership interview questions and answers: prove you act on behalf of the whole company, beyond your own team's scope.
generalAmazon's Software Engineer Interview
What to expect in Amazon's software engineer interview: coding rounds, system design, leadership principles, and how to prepare for each stage.
generalAre Right, A Lot: Amazon Interview Questions and Answers
Amazon 'Are Right, A Lot' interview questions with example answers: show judgment, seek diverse perspectives, and admit when you're wrong.
generalBackend Systems: Architectural Patterns
Backend architectural patterns for system design interviews: monoliths, microservices, event-driven systems, and when to use each.
generalBias for Action: Meaning, Examples and Interview Questions
How to show Amazon's Bias for Action in interviews: what the principle means, example behaviours, and STAR stories that prove you move fast.
generalBuilding Your Story Bank for Tech Interviews
Build a story bank for tech interviews: collect, structure and rehearse STAR stories so you're ready for any behavioural question.
generalCreating a Compelling Personal Brand for Career Success
How to build a personal brand that advances your tech career: positioning, online presence, and visibility tactics that compound.
generalDeliver Results - How to Master this Leadership Principle
How to prove Deliver Results in your Amazon interview: sample questions, strong metrics-driven STAR answers, and pitfalls to avoid.
generalDesign a Payment System: System Design Walkthrough
Design a payment system for interviews: idempotency, double-entry ledgers, PSP integration, reconciliation, and exactly-once money movement.
generalDesign a Rate Limiter: System Design Walkthrough
Design a distributed rate limiter: token bucket vs sliding window, Redis counters, race conditions, fail-open choices, and client communication.
generalDesign a URL Shortener: System Design Walkthrough
Design a URL shortener step by step: short-code generation, storage, redirects at scale, caching, analytics, and the trade-offs interviewers probe.
generalDive Deep - How to Master this Leadership Principle
Ace Amazon's Dive Deep questions: how to show analytical depth, example interview questions, and STAR stories that demonstrate rigour.
generalEarn Trust - How to Master this Leadership Principle
Ace Amazon's Earn Trust questions: what interviewers look for, strong example answers, and how to build trust stories with the STAR method.
generalFrom Code to Cloud: Scaling Engineering Excellence
AMA recap — From Code to Cloud: scaling engineering excellence, with practical lessons on architecture, teams and delivery.
generalFrontend Engineering: Architectural Patterns
Frontend architectural patterns explained: component architecture, state management, rendering strategies and how to discuss them in interviews.
generalGoogle's Software Engineer Interview: A Complete Guide
How Google's software engineer interview works: screening, coding rounds, system design, Googleyness, hiring committees, and how to prepare.
generalHandling Competing Job Offers: Timing and Tactics
How to run multiple interview processes in parallel, align offer timelines, ask for extensions, and use competing offers without burning bridges.
generalHave Backbone, Disagree and Commit: Amazon Interview Questions
Prepare for Amazon's Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit: sample questions, what bar raisers look for, and how to frame respectful disagreement.
generalHire and Develop the Best: Amazon Interview Questions
Amazon 'Hire and Develop the Best' interview questions: prove you raise the bar through mentoring, feedback and hiring decisions.
generalHow Alizey Landed Her Dream Job with Tech Interview Coaching
How Alizey landed her dream job with Tech Interview Coaching: her preparation plan, coaching sessions, and interview results.
generalHow to Become a CTO: Insights from Adelina Chalmers
How to become a CTO: career paths, skills and inflection points, with insights from engineering leadership coach Adelina Chalmers.
generalHow to Transition from IC to Engineering Manager
How to move from individual contributor to manager in tech: signals you're ready, skills to build, and how to land the first role.
generalInsist on the Highest Standards: Amazon Interview Questions
Amazon 'Insist on the Highest Standards' questions: show how you raise quality bars and refuse to ship substandard work.
generalInvent and Simplify: Amazon Interview Questions and Answers
Amazon 'Invent and Simplify' interview questions: demonstrate innovation and simplification with concrete STAR examples.
generalJob Search Strategies That Actually Work in 2024
Job search strategies that work: targeted applications, networking, referrals and interview preparation that cut through the noise.
generalLearn and Be Curious: Amazon Interview Questions and Answers
Amazon 'Learn and Be Curious' interview questions: show continuous learning and curiosity with specific, recent examples.
generalMastering System Design Interviews: Key Concepts and Strategies
Master system design interviews: a step-by-step framework, core building blocks, trade-offs, and worked examples from real systems.
generalMeta's Behavioral Interview: Signals and How to Prepare
How Meta's behavioral interview works: the signals interviewers grade, example questions, and how to prepare stories that show impact and growth.
generalML/AI System: Architectural Patterns
ML and AI system architecture patterns: pipelines, feature stores, serving and monitoring — what to know for AI system design interviews.
generalMock Interviews: Why They Work and How to Run One
Why mock interviews outperform solo prep, how to run one properly — realistic conditions, structured feedback — and how to practise with a coach.
generalNetflix Interviews: The Culture Memo Is the Rubric
How Netflix interviews test the culture memo: candor, judgment, the keeper test, example questions, and how senior engineers should prepare.
generalProduct Management: From Execution to Influence and Leadership
AMA recap — product management from execution to influence: growing from delivery-focused PM into strategic product leadership.
generalRSUs and Equity Explained: What Your Offer Is Worth
RSUs, options, vesting cliffs and refreshers explained — how to value the equity in a tech offer and compare packages across companies.
generalSigns You Need a Career Change (And How to Make It Happen)
Signs you need a career change — burnout, stalled growth, misaligned values — and how to plan a switch without derailing your finances.
generalSRE and DevOps Interviews: A Preparation Guide
How SRE and DevOps interviews work: Linux troubleshooting, incident scenarios, SLOs and error budgets, coding rounds, and a preparation plan.
generalStaff Engineer Interviews: What Changes at Staff+
How staff and principal engineer interviews differ: scope and influence signals, deep-dive and design rounds, and how to present staff-level work.
generalStandout Product Manager Resume and Portfolio
Build a standout product manager resume and portfolio: structure, metrics that matter, and examples that get interviews.
generalStrive to Be Earth's Best Employer: Amazon Interview Questions
Amazon 'Strive to Be Earth's Best Employer' questions: show how you build safer, more inclusive, higher-performing teams.
generalSuccess and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility: Amazon Questions
Amazon 'Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility' questions: show judgment about impact, externalities and doing better.
generalSystem Design Interview Prerequisites
The prerequisites for system design interviews: networking, databases, caching, queues and scaling fundamentals to learn first.
generalSystem Design of Netflix: Streaming at Global Scale
System design of Netflix: CDN and Open Connect, encoding pipelines, personalisation and how streaming works at global scale.
generalSystem Design of Twitter: A Deep Dive
System design of Twitter/X: timelines, fan-out, the social graph and caching — a deep dive into large-scale feed architecture.
generalSystem Design of Uber: Real-Time Dispatch at Scale
System design of Uber: matching riders and drivers, geospatial indexing, surge pricing and the architecture behind real-time dispatch.
generalSystem Design of WhatsApp: Messaging at Billion-User Scale
System design of WhatsApp: connection handling, message delivery and ordering, offline storage, group fan-out, and end-to-end encryption.
generalTech Salary Negotiation: A Playbook for Engineers
How to negotiate a tech offer: timing, scripts, evaluating total compensation, and the counter-offer moves that raise packages without risk.
generalTechnical Program Manager Interview
How Amazon's Program Manager interview works: rounds, example questions, and the skills to demonstrate, from stakeholder management to delivery.
generalThe Engineering Manager Interview: A Complete Guide
What engineering manager interviews cover — people, delivery, technical judgment, org design — with example questions and a preparation plan.
generalThe STAR Method: A Complete Guide for Tech Interviews
Master the STAR method for behavioural interviews: what it is, how to structure Situation, Task, Action, Result, and worked tech examples.
generalThink Big - How to Master this Leadership Principle
Show Amazon you Think Big: what the principle means, example questions, and how to craft bold, high-impact STAR interview stories.
generalUltimate Guide to Preparing for Data Analytics Interviews
The ultimate guide to data analytics interviews: SQL, statistics, case studies and take-homes, with a preparation plan for each round.