SDE Sheet For Freshers — Your Free Guide On SDE Preparation

Becoming an SDE is more like visiting a new country without a tour guide. That’s exactly how I struggled three years back after completing BTech in Computer Science. Once I finished my graduation, I had the domain knowledge and skills, but didn’t have a clue on where to start on my SDE journey. I searched on Google but that could only get me a bunch of interview questions for freshers. Luckily, that’s about when I received a connection request on LinkedIn from one of my seniors in college who guided me throughout the entire process of getting placed as an SDE fresher.

I have journaled my progress from the day one of starting preparation till the day of my interview and compiled this SDE Sheet. As a free guide on SDE preparation, this SDE sheet for freshers focuses on building foundations and solving problems to acing in SDE interviews in leading companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google. No! You don’t need to follow this preparation formula inch-by-inch, instead you can come up with an approach that works the best for you. So, here’s your guide to becoming an SDE:

General Advice on How To Be a Software Engineer/Developer

1. One area where you may lose a lot of time, or atleast I did, is going through tutorials after tutorials without actually practicing. Although the number of hours you spend watching tutorials doesn’t corelate to learning, be sure to try out every solution you find on a tutorial and supplement your knowledge with implementation.
2. If you have already attended a few interviews, you’d realize that the majority of fundamentals questions are common in every interviewer. So, for your next interview, don’t miss out on practicing common interview questions, as well as having a solid foundation on your problem-solving skills, especially related to DSA.
3. The key to solving any question, notably from DSA, is patience. Solutions to even the toughest problems are readily available on Google, but before resorting to that mean, be sure to spend enough time trying to figure it out all by yourself. If it’s from a topic you already know, revise the topic instead of looking at the answer.
4. This one’s especially important for your portfolio — If you are publishing your code, ensure that your code is modular and has meaningful variable names and explanation wherever possible. On that note, if you are not sure which projects will give you an edge, here are 10 Simple Web Development Project Ideas For Beginners.
5. Finally, just a week before your interview, have a quick recap of your past projects. Yeah, I know, how could you possibly forget your self-projects, right? But what’s more important is to map situational questions such as the most challenging part of the project, or what are the things you learnt, or where you enjoyed, etc.

If you want to become a software developer, here’s another great article on How To Become a Software Engineer.

SDE Sheet — Your Step-By-Step Roadmap For SDE Preparation

Step 01 — Improve your problem-solving skills with various programming languages

Problem-solving skills are must-haves in programming. Especially for Java developers, it means finding solutions to coding challenges, compilation and debugging errors and working through logic puzzles in Hackathons. If you are a Java developer, be sure to read this article showcasing 6 Easy Tips On How To Improve Problem Solving Skills In Java.

Step 02 — Polish your answer to interview questions on software development

Avid developers are wizards in more than a dozen languages — Python, JavaScript, Ruby, and C++ — to name a few. Not to forget programming tools such as ReactJS, Spring Boot and concepts like DSA. Since interview questions are mostly fundamentals, here are sets of few questions from mainstream programming languages, concepts, and tools:

Practice These 15 Java Interview Questions To Land Your First Job

15 Data Structure Interview Questions To Practice Before Your Interview

20 Interview Questions And Answers For ReactJS Developers

30 interview Questions And Answers For Spring Boot

30 Full-Stack Developer Interview Questions And Answers

Step 03 — Achieve an absolute mastery over your soft skills

As we have heard from top-level recruitment executives, the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) is a method used to assess a candidate’s soft skills and behaviours. Whether its your interpersonal skills, communication skills, or social skills, as a aspiring software developer, you must know The Importance Of Soft Skills In Tech Job Interviews.

Step 04 — Build a solid portfolio to demonstrate your work and skills

Well-rounded portfolios are a vital asset to any programmer, not just for demonstrating your projects and skills, but also during interviews when your entire catalogue of work is just a click away — easy and accessible! If you are building your coding portfolio for the first time, here are 10 Simple Web Development Project Ideas For Beginners.

Step 05 — Build a Resume and add everything your learnt from Step 01 to Step 04

Giving you the first chance to shine on your interview, a well-written resume will form a positive impression. Good resumes not just include contact details, qualifications, and experiences, but also projects, volunteerships, soft skills, as well as awards, features, publications, and recognitions. Here’s How To Create An Awesome Resume In Minutes.

Wrapping Up

On your way to becoming a software engineer, it’s important to know that the industry is wildly adaptive with new technologies emerging rapidly in the programming domain. Thus, alongside mastering the existing knowledge and skills in coding, it’s key to adapt your knowledge and skills to tools, tech, and resources that haven’t emerged yet.

To continue your preparation with this SDE sheet, here’s another article on How To Become a Software Engineer.