How to prepare for a technical interview

A technical interview tests how you think and explain, not encyclopaedic knowledge. Here is a plan for a few evenings of preparation.

Interview stages in IT

Recruiter screening: experience, expectations, English. See how to pass a screening.
Technical interview: questions on your stack, a walk through your experience, sometimes live coding.
Take-home task: not everywhere; agree on the scope before you start.
Final talk with a manager or the team: values, work, conditions.

What to review

The fundamentals of your language and framework: how things work under the hood at your level.
Databases: indexes, transactions, typical queries.
Architecture for middles and seniors: how you would design a service you know.
Your own projects: you must explain every line of your CV with confidence.

How to talk about projects

Use a simple pattern: what the task was → what you did yourself → what the result was → what you would do differently. Interviewers like the last one: it shows you learn from experience.

Practising with AI

The best preparation is a mock interview out loud. AutoApply has a free "AI interview" tool: it builds a prompt with your stack, level, CV and the job text. Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, and the AI asks questions one at a time and reviews your answers at the end.

After the interview

Write down the questions you struggled with and work through them the same day. After a few interviews you will see what to review first.

FAQ

Is it fine to say "I do not know"?

Yes, if you then reason out loud about how you would find the answer. Making things up is worse.

How long should I prepare?

A few evenings are usually enough if you work with the stack every day. After a break, longer.