Pre-Interview Preparation Checklist

Option B covers the four highest-ROI evening-before tasks: ① Job description vs. CV alignment — highlight the 3–4 skills or experiences they mention most; prepare a story or example for each. This ensures you connect your experience to their priorities. ② 2–3 STAR stories — write out your strongest Situation-Task-Action-Result examples. Interviewers often ask the same questions; having prepared stories means you answer naturally, not nervously. ③ 5 smart questions to ask — "Do you have any questions for us?" is asked in almost every interview. Having thoughtful questions prepared signals genuine interest (e.g. "How does the team handle on-call?" or "What does success look like in the first 90 days?"). ④ Technical check for remote interviews — test camera, microphone, and software the night before. This eliminates a key source of interview-morning stress.

Why not the other options? Cramming LeetCode the night before rarely changes outcomes and impairs sleep — which affects cognitive performance significantly. Memorising press releases isn't how you show company interest (one paragraph of genuine insight beats a fact dump). A 3-hour mock at 11pm will leave you drained.

The evening-before checklist:

• ✓ Re-read the job description — circle the 3 most important requirements
• ✓ Prepare 2–3 STAR stories covering those requirements
• ✓ Write 5 questions to ask the interviewer
• ✓ Know the interviewer's name and role (LinkedIn)
• ✓ Know the company's main product, tech stack (if public), and recent news (one item)
• ✓ Test audio/video (remote) or confirm the interview location/floor/room (in-person)
• ✓ Set two alarms and get 7–8 hours sleep

Option B covers the 30-minute pre-interview technical and mental prep protocol: ① Platform test — join the meeting room early (most platforms allow this) to confirm the link works before the interview starts. Technical problems in the first 5 minutes are disproportionately damaging to first impressions. ② Audio and camera check — use the platform's built-in audio test, not just your system settings. ③ Internet connection — if on Wi-Fi, sit as close to the router as possible. Disable any scheduled updates or uploads running in the background. ④ Close tabs/apps — free up memory and bandwidth; prevent notification sounds or pop-ups mid-interview. ⑤ Open a notepad — you'll want to jot down names, write the question when you're clarifying, or note follow-up items. ⑥ Review your questions — a 2-minute glance at your prepared questions is enough. ⑦ Breathe — 5 minutes of calm (box breathing: inhale 4 counts, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4) measurably reduces interview anxiety.

30-minute remote interview checklist:

• ✓ Join the platform — confirm the meeting link opens and loads
• ✓ Test mic and camera — check audio input and video framing
• ✓ Sit near the router or use ethernet
• ✓ Close all non-essential apps and browser tabs
• ✓ Open a blank notepad (digital or paper)
• ✓ Glance over your prepared questions to ask
• ✓ Have a glass of water nearby
• ✓ 5 minutes of calm breathing before joining

Option A (last-minute coding problem) increases anxiety without adding useful knowledge — at T-30 minutes, thinking is impaired by nerves anyway. Option C (company website) is too late for deep research. Option D is unnecessary if the link was confirmed during scheduling.

Option B describes minimum effective research — the 4 facts that produce the highest impact in an IT interview: ① What the product does — the most embarrassing moment in any interview is not knowing what the company makes. One sentence: "You provide a B2B SaaS platform for infrastructure monitoring." ② Core tech stack — knowing the company uses Go, Kubernetes, and Postgres (for example) lets you reference these naturally: "I saw from your job postings that you use Kubernetes — I've been using it in production for two years." This shows genuine fit. Sources: job description, engineering blog, LinkedIn jobs, Stackshare.io. ③ One piece of recent news — a recent funding round, product launch, outage post-mortem, or engineering blog post. This gives you material for the "why this company?" question and for your own intelligent questions. ④ One informed question about their technical work — "I read your engineering blog post about the migration to event-sourcing — how has that played out in practice?" This is worth more than five generic questions.

Research checklist (IT-specific):

• ✓ What the company does in one sentence
• ✓ Main product / key customers / scale (if public)
• ✓ Tech stack (job description + engineering blog + Stackshare)
• ✓ One recent piece of company news
• ✓ Names and roles of your interviewers (LinkedIn)
• ✓ Office location, floor, parking/transport (in-person)

Option C applies the 2-hour pre-interview time budget that covers the highest-impact preparation without diminishing returns: ① 30 min — Job description alignment — re-read the JD, match each key requirement to a specific experience on your CV. Highlight which of your STAR stories fits which requirement. ② 30 min — STAR practice aloud — not in your head, but spoken. Speaking activates different memory pathways and reveals which parts of your story are unclear or rushed. Time each answer (aim for 2–3 minutes per story). ③ 20 min — Company research — enough for the four core facts (product, stack, news, interview question). More than 20 min here yields diminishing returns for a technical interview. ④ 20 min — Write your questions — prepare 5–7 questions (some will be answered during the interview, so you want backups). Write them down so you don't blank in the moment. ⑤ 15 min — Technical/logistics check — remote: test platform + audio + camera. In-person: confirm address, time, parking, who to ask for at reception. ⑥ 5 min — Wind-down — lay out your things (laptop, ID, notepad), confirm your alarm, and stop preparing. Over-preparation in the final hour increases anxiety without adding knowledge.

Why not Option A or D? Cramming LeetCode the night before an interview is low ROI unless you're in a pure algorithmic-coding role. For most IT interviews, behavioral prep and company knowledge yield faster returns than grinding more problems. Option D ("reviewing every concept") leads to surface-level revision of dozens of topics rather than deep, confident recall of a few.

Option A is the professional standard post-interview follow-up: ① Email the recruiter (not the interviewer directly) — the recruiter manages the process. Emailing the interviewer can create awkwardness if they're in deliberations. ② 5 business days is a reasonable wait — most companies give a timeline ("we'll have a decision by end of week" or just "we'll be in touch"). If no timeline was given, 5 business days is the standard benchmark before following up. ③ What to say — a good follow-up email has three lines: thank them for the opportunity, reiterate your interest briefly, and politely ask for an update on timing.

Sample follow-up email:

Subject: Following up — [Your Name] interview for [Role]

Hi [Recruiter Name],

I wanted to follow up on my interview for the [Role] position from [date]. I remain very interested in the opportunity and would love to hear about the next steps when you have a moment.

Please let me know if there's anything further you need from my side.

Best regards,
[Your Name]

Post-interview timeline guide:

• Within 24h: send a thank-you email to the recruiter (brief — 3–4 sentences)
• After 5 business days (no news): send the polite follow-up above
• After second follow-up with no response: move on and keep applying — you're not the only candidate and silence usually means the process is delayed, not that you've been rejected

Option B (LinkedIn DM to the interviewer) can feel intrusive. Option C (waiting indefinitely) prevents you from gaining closure or information. Option D (re-applying) is confusing and creates duplicates in their ATS.