App Academy Application Process Part II
First Technical Interview
I got invited to chat and code! My first technical interview was scheduled for early in the day, before I would get into work. I woke up and did my best to warm up my brain for the interview. The minutes and seconds leading up to the Skype call were nerve wracking to say the least but when it finally happened, I breathed a sigh of relief, only for the nervousness to round its head even more viciously. The interview was basically the format of the coding challenges (three problems of increasing difficulty), just done through Skype and a cloud text editor. You weren’t allowed to run your code and check for errors or anything, so you really had to know what you were doing.
That said, the number one advice I would give anyone is pretty obvious, but still needs to be said: Know what you’re doing. Understand what each line of code you’re writing does, as well as what type of information is stored in each variable and what results from each method call. Know this without having to run the code. Once you understand this, not only is it much easier to solve problems and ace the interview, but it’s incredibly beneficial for going through and debugging your code.
One of the most emphasized criteria for the technical interview is communication with your interviewer. Make sure to communicate your understanding of the problem, your intent in terms of methodologies on how you’d like to solve the problem, and your thought process as you go through solving the problem. I read somewhere that you should be borderline “annoying” in your narrative with what’s going on in your brain.
I felt that I did well for the first two problems, but I messed up big time on the last problem. I understood the problem, and articulated my intent and got affirmatives across the board when I asked for feedback on my thought process. What I messed up on though, was the overall concept of what the problem was asking for, and for some reason, this happened as I was solving the problem. By the time I realized I messed up, it was too late to go back into my code to make changes. However, my interviewer did give me the opportunity to express how I would go about changing what I’ve done so far to solve the problem. But with less than a minute left to go through my problem and explain how I would fix the problem, I brain farted.
I closed out the interview with a heavy heart and went about my day as I waited to hear back.
Project Euler
I had asked my interviewer when to expect a reply and he stated that it should take them 3-5 days to make a decision on whether or not to move me forward. But no less than two hours later, I received what I call a “conditional rejection.” The conditional rejection basically restricted me from re-applying for 30 days, and within those 30 days, I had to do the first 30 problems from Project Euler. As soon as I would resubmit my problems, I would then be re-entered into the application process where I left off.
Now, given that I was just conditionally rejected, I was extremely bummed out. I decided to take a look at the Project Euler problems that night, and gave a resound, “What the fuck?” The problems were incredibly difficult from everything I’ve been doing. To solve the problems, normal iterations weren’t enough. These problems couldn’t be brute forced and to do many of them, there was some extensive mathematical knowledge that was needed, like theorems and principles of prime numbers that are beyond “What are prime numbers?” After many frustrating attempts that night, and feeling down in the dumps, I hit the lowest that I’ve felt during the entire application process. It was at this point that I said:
And to sleep I did . Waking up the next day, refreshed and much more determined to solve the problems, I went back to how I solved any other problem I couldn’t solve. I looked for the answers. After seeing the answers, I did my best to understand the approach. If there was a mathematical concept I didn’t understand, I learned it and applied it, and I used this system to crank out the 30 problems.
I ended up submitting the problems a lot earlier than 30 days, but that was only because I was advised to basically submit the problems when I was done. After my submission, I again waited with bated breath until I would hear back.
Second Technical Interview
The second interview was absolutely refreshing compared to the first technical interview. The interviewer first off, was way more sympathetic about my situation and my nervousness that followed. He was also more open to giving positive feedback when it was deserved, which did wonders for my self-confidence in being able to attack the interview problems. Needless to say, the second interview went a lot smoother even though it followed the same flow of the first technical interview.
I found myself much more confident in being able to answer the questions, especially since after finishing Project Euler, I started focusing a lot more of my time to advancing my rank in CodeWars and getting as much Ruby practice and exposure as I could.
I closed out the interview feeling much more positive about my prospects. Overall, I felt that my experience in the interview had a lot to do with who interviewed me. While I did feel more prepared the second time around, the hiccups I had during the first time around shouldn’t have happened. I felt this was also due to the fact that I had scheduled it for a time that I normally don’t code, and so while I did warm-up as much as I could, my mind wasn’t up to par. Whereas my second technical coding interview was conducted late afternoon, a lot closer to when I normally do my coding work.
Final Non-Technical Interview
The last interview was a non-technical interview with an interviewer from the admissions team. This interview, as I’m told, was mostly for a sanity check. I won’t go into detail with the questions I was asked, since I’m not entirely sure what I’m allowed to disclose. The interview went very smooth, and I appreciated my time with the interviewer. She was very easy to talk to and didn’t go out of her way to make things difficult.
This last interview was very unexpected for me. I’ve read all over that you normally have up to two technical interviews, and a final technical interview with Kush, the founder of App Academy. The technical portion of the final interview with Kush is supposed to be a bit easier, followed by the culture fit portion of the interview. I didn’t get the chance to interview with Kush, and I’m sure it’s because the interview and application process itself has evolved to the point where Kush is no longer needed to be a part of the interview, and he can now focus on other parts of the bootcamp.
In Closing…
I officially received my acceptance on October 13th for the November 14th cohort, and accepted it without a second thought. I really believe App Academy has a lot to offer and I’m excited for the program to start.
Overall, my application process took 3 months to complete, from when I first submitted my application online on July 20th, to my acceptance on October 13th. I gave myself plenty of time to study and did my best not to rush the process. I learned as much as I could and didn’t settle for superficial knowledge wherever I knew I would benefit from a deeper understanding of the material.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Drop a comment, or connect with me through my various social media sites. Thanks for reading and I’ll talk to you guys next time!
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