Technical Interview Tips, Techniques & Questions

Technical interview tips, techniques, and practice sample questions and brainteasers are linked below. They include Microsoft® technical interview questions, brainteasers and programming exercises.

As is typical on the Web, the technical interview tips below are mostly about information technology, as though there are no other technical interviews.

Regardless, technical interviews of all types often consist of brainteasers, riddles and practical questions designed to measure your logic, reasoning, creative thinking, and problem-solving skills.

Some of the most-common technical interview questions are along the lines of "Why are manhole covers round?" and "How would you improve this pen?"

Other questions include those about your particular technical skills and the job for which you're applying. For example, an interviewer might ask a programmer to solve a coding problem.

The same interviewer might ask a tech instructor which is the fastest and least expensive way to deliver technical training to field-service techs. And so on...

See the Interview Center right here at TechnicalJobSearch.com for more interview tips and sample questions. See also Interviews for self-help books on the subject.

Ace the IT Job Interview
As we've discovered and as you're about to below (if you haven't already), there are few, top-notch, information-technology interview tips on the Web, at least not for free. In many cases, authors simply toss in a few IT-related interview tips among the common ones, and then label them as Technical Interview Tips. To help fill in the gaps, we offer this book (among others) at a discount-price from Amazon.com. See also How Would You Move Mount Fuji? and Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job. All three books received high marks in reader reviews at this writing. Click through to read the reviews with no obligation.

Brainteaser Sample
A sample brainteaser and solution about a hallway lined with 100 closed lockers, from an article entitled "It's Not a Job Interview, It's a Subculture!" The article borrows from the book Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job.

Brainteaser Horror Stories
Joe Mabel, a software professional expressing his discontent, tells how typical brainteasers went wrong in actual, technical interviews. Includes the "Pirate Story," "Bear Hunting" and "Spinning Wheel" brainteasers with solutions. We linked you to the middle of his article where the brainteaser horror stories start, but you can easily navigate either direction.

Brainteasers with Answers
Includes a collection of hardware and software, technical interview questions and brainteasers, with hints or answers. Submitted by electronics and computer engineers from real interviews, courtesy of Hitequest.com. Includes tips for getting a job in "High-Tech Heaven" (California's Silicon Valley).

Computer Aptitude Test Sample
A sample of a test designed to measure your aptitude for working with computers. It doesn't test your knowledge of computers, but rather just your capacity for working with them. Courtesy of ComputerAptitude.com and sponsored by various tech schools.

Microsoft Technical Interview Questions and Answers
A collection of technical interview questions, brainteasers and programming exercises with suggested answers. By Microsoft interviewees who also run 4GuysFromRolla.com.

Microsoft Technical Interview Questions and Stories
Submitted by Microsoft interviewees and collected as a hobby by Chris Sells, Content Strategist for Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and author. Chris doesn't provide answers to the questions, because "It seems just too much like cheating..." (Not to mention, Microsoft might fire him.) So, he provides the questions only as a study guide of sorts.

Oracle Technical Interview Questions Answered
Over four dozen technical interview questions with answers for an Oracle DBA job, in a blog written by a database expert, author and public speaker. We couldn't find the "personal section" to which he generally refers in Part 1, but we did find Part 2.

Surviving the Technical Interview
A collection of linked articles with an IT slant, but including some general tips too. Answers the technical interview question "Why are Manhole Covers Round?"

Tech Virtual Interview Practice
Look for the Virtual Interview link to practice answering multiple-choice, "puffball to killer" technical interview questions online at the Monster Technology job bank. Monster offers many more free resources too.

Technical Interview Question Samples
Submitted to TechInterviews.com by readers, HR personnel, job seekers and IT management among others. Some have answers. Question categories include .NET, C++, Database, General, Hardware, Java, Networking, Unix/Linux, VB and Windows.

Technical Interview Question Samples
Programming language, data structure, operating system, and electronics question samples, organized by category.

Technical Interview Question Samples
Networking and UNIX samples courtesy of Keith Sinclair, Australia. Includes answers to some. Includes networking resources too, but we had to link outside his frame to deliver you straight to this page. Keith's homepage inside the frame is here.

Technical Interview Questions for Programmers
Brainteasers for programmers, "which have been floating around some Internet circles" according to the software engineer who provided them. But he indicates that he's not about to answer them for you.

Technical Interview Tips, Questions and Answers
Interview Corner provides interview tips as well as questions and answers posted by its visitors, including many for technical jobs.

Ten Tech Interview Errors
Technical interview bloopers to avoid courtesy of Monster, a top job bank. Monster also offers virtual interviews, where you may practice answering questions online. Register with "My Monster" to manage your job search, post your resume and customize your jobs by email options. It's all free.