1 of 16

Slide Notes

DownloadGo Live

Whiteboarding

Published on Nov 18, 2015

Whiteboarding tips for Ruby on Rails Code Fellows

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Whiteboarding

For Ruby on Rails Code Fellows
Photo by herzogbr

Congrats!

You got an interview...
Photo by kiwanja

Don't Freak Out

Photo by bark

developer

So you want to be a
As a developer, you are challenged with hard problems that you don't know the solution for everyday. How are you going to tackle that?

Interviewers are not trying to trick you. They are asking you hard problems to see your problem solving skills. If the questions are easy, they don't get to see that.
Photo by Dave_B_

Employer Expectations

  • You know how to approach problems
  • Ask questions
  • General knowledge
  • Troubleshooting
  • You're fun to work with!

toolkit

Arm your
It may seem like they can ask you anything, but with some basic knowledge you will be armed to tackle the unknown. I went through the beginning of Cracking the Coding Interview to pick out the most important things new Ruby on Rails developers should know.
Photo by Wonderlane

Data structures

  • ***** ARRAYS *****
  • ***** HASHES *****
  • Stacks and Queues
  • Linked List
  • Tree

algorithms

  • Merge Sort
  • Quick Sort
  • Depth First Search
  • Binary Search

Concepts

  • Object Oriented Design
  • Recursion
  • Big O
Photo by -Snugg-

practice

Photo by drewgstephens

steps

  • Ask questions to clarify the problem
  • Describe your algorithm - draw examples
  • Pseudocode 
  • Convert to code
  • Test by running examples
Photo by nateOne

tips

  • Don't give up
  • Make a simple solution work
  • Don't worry about the complexity of your solution
  • Practice on a whiteboard
  • Explain why you are choosing data structures
Photo by thejaymo

Panic mode tips

  • Restate the problem
  • Write the examples on the board
  • Write more examples on the board
  • Look for a pattern in examples
  • Keep talking
Photo by b'jesus

Untitled Slide

Photo by Vijay Gunda

Resources

  • Programming Interviews Exposed
  • Cracking the Coding Interview
Photo by CIMMYT

Good Luck!

Photo by Marcus Vegas