Interview Guide | How should we prepare for a Java interview?

Java can never be off-fashion and everyone wants to ace their Java skills for a better role. Proper preparation will definitely help you to look out for various job offers and negotiate better rates. This is the perfect chance for you to widen up your horizons into freelancing/contracting with the confidence that you can constantly get work in any job market with the sought-after hefty paying skills. Here, I have made this guide about Java interview guide for you.

Things to do before attending a Java interview

1. Ponder over your previous experiences and achievements

Just skim over your resumes so that you can offer something better to the company. Consider those situations where you have-

• security roles, fixed execution problems, leaks in memory, and concurrency problems.
• taken a project via full Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) comprising of setting up a Maven repository, SonarQube for better code quality and testing coverage to run TDD.
• Started and won “QuickWins” projects to improve the end-user experience.
• Set up JMeter scripts to performance tune and profile Spring boot restful web-based services employing Hibernate as the ORM tool.
• Created low latency systems using TCP sockets with some non-blockage I/O in an event-driven structure.
• Built the first vertical slices over all the layers and set up the needed patterns with the help of unit testing strategies employing Mockito, Spring Test, JUnit, and HSQLDB for numerous mission-critical JEE apps for the entire team members to use.
• Made compliance reports as PDFs with the help of Jasper Reports.
• Created BigData solutions to store and analyze a hefty volume of data from some external government agencies and systems with Hadoop Eco System, etc.

2. Know your prospective employers’ needs and correlate their needs to your experiences

This way you can easily convince your prospective employer as to how you can add some value. Thoroughly go through the job description and then make your answers accordingly. Put your accomplishments and involvements in the technical key areas column which is extremely important to set you apart from your competitor.

3. Research

Before heading for an interview, thoroughly research the organization you will be interviewing with. Employers often consider that person hiring who shows a keen interest in them.

4. No fixed questions

It is tough to define what questions would be asked there and cannot know everything as Full-stack Java technologies are very swift. You don’t have to remember everything as these interviews are not memory-based contests to look who ace the questions game at their best. The most important thing is the quality and utmost clarity of the answers you provide with great confidence to the key FAQs type questions. It will definitely make you stand out from the competition, however, make your interviewers ignore other shortcomings such as not having ample experience with a specific technology or not being aware of some of the questions.

Full-stack Java/JEE technologies are very vast

The prime decision to make is whether to achieve in-depth knowledge about a few technologies along with certifications. This is mainly for a wider knowledge and market yourself as a full-stack developer with the best skills and enhances in the experience and learning. The latter approach is worthy according to me as it pays off well.

5. Open-ended questions

Open-ended questions do not depend on the right and wrong aspects. It offers you the greatest opportunity to sell yourself with a bunch of quality answers with great practical examples related to it. You just need to focus on the key technical areas to answer open-ended questions.

6. Focus on the foundational technical questions

We have seen most of the interviewers begin with your resume and then turn into some technical questions. Get yourself clear on the basic technical questions and if you seem confused about how to prepare, then look after these 50+ Java-based questions.

7. Common question: What makes you different from other developers?

What could be the best answer to this question as this is very common these days? The idea is to sell yourself as a good professional and not just a techie out there. You need to show yourself as you look for the bigger picture and view things from a technical and business aspect.

8. Preparing well for steps 2, 4, 5, and 6

Doing this will provide you the greater confidence for your interviews. It is overt that every one of us gets nervous while giving interviews. But, think of it as a training session where you are getting a chance to showcase your strengths and weaknesses.

9. A two-way process

An interview is a two-way procedure where both parties get an opportunity to know each other well. After fully preparing yourself and collecting some questions to ask the interviewer, you can simply know if a specific opening is in the appropriate direction for you. It is highly significant to know that an employer will be measuring your soft skills as well as teamwork abilities. A correct attitude is very important as nobody can know everything. Be sure about it whether you know or don’t know the answer to their question. Your soft skills like interpersonal skills, working ability, communication skills, and personality traits like honesty, positivity, passion, will be under check in your interview. These all are required to get things accomplished at your upcoming job.

So, never feel too sad by not performing well in the interview round and just try to maintain balance throughout the interview. Your soft skills and correct attitude are the keys to win.

10. Look for blogs and books that are valuable

These can surely assist you to learn and pace up your career from others’ experiences. However for moderate success in terms of granting yourself to:

• opt from various job offers
• earning a little more
• widening up your horizons as a blogger, contractor, and service provider.

Also, you require to pro-actively implement what you learn by experiencing it yourself.

Wrapping It Up

Completely relying on your previous experience can take you an ample amount of time to get a good grip on the Full-stack Java developer skills along with the key technical areas. The perfect way to speed up your career is to swiftly learn and implement them. It will assist you to showcase yourself in a better light than people who are much qualified than you are. Preparation requires confidence and confidence with correct knowhow and attitude will unlock fresh doors.