Interview prep in three hours

Most interview-prep advice assumes you have two weeks. You usually have three days. Here's how to spend three actual hours that disproportionately improve your performance.

Hour 1: Re-read the JD, then the company's most recent 10 minutes of public output

Re-read the JD slowly. List the must-haves and pick the top 3. For each, draft a single STAR story (Situation, Task, Action, Result) you can tell in 90 seconds. Write the result first; the rest tightens around it.

Then spend 20 minutes on the company. Specifically:

• Their last engineering blog post, podcast appearance, or conference talk
• The CEO's last LinkedIn post
• The most recent funding round or product launch press release

You're looking for one specific reference you can drop naturally into the conversation. "I saw you launched the multi-region failover in March — what surprised the team about the rollout?" That single question signals you read past the careers page.

Hour 2: Three behavioral stories, told out loud

Behavioral interviews are pattern-matching. You'll get some variant of "tell me about a time you..." and the interviewer is silently checking whether your answer has structure.

Pick three stories from your last two years that cover:

1. A conflict you handled (peer or stakeholder, not a manager)
2. A project you led end-to-end with a measurable outcome
3. A time you made a clear mistake and recovered

Tell each one out loud, on a timer. 90 seconds. If you ramble past 90, your story has too many characters or you're burying the result. Trim until you can hit 90 with breathing room. Record yourself if you can stand it; the playback is uncomfortable and useful.

Hour 3: The question loop and your three asks

Most candidates lose the offer on the questions you ask back. The bar is higher than you think. Three good ones:

• "What does success look like in the first 90 days?" (forces a specific answer; weeds out vague managers)
• "How is this team structured today, and where do you see it growing in the next year?" (tells you whether you'd be the only senior, or one of many)
• "What's the biggest unresolved technical debate on the team right now?" (great conversation starter; reveals how the team thinks)

Pre-write at least five so you can vary by interviewer. Engineering managers want different questions than tech leads.

Also write down your three asks before the loop:

1. Compensation expectation (a number, not "competitive")
2. Start date (give a real one)
3. One non-negotiable about the role (remote/hybrid, scope, on-call rotation, whatever it actually is)

The minute the loop ends and they ask "anything we can clarify on our side?", you have your three asks ready. Answering "I don't have anything right now" is a missed leverage moment.

What to skip in three hours

• Don't grind LeetCode. If the loop has algorithmic interviews, you needed to start two weeks ago. In three hours, focus on communicating clearly while you think — that's what gets you a "raise" signal.
• Don't memorize the company's history. The recruiter will give you a backgrounder; you don't need more.
• Don't change your CV. Whatever's on it got you the interview; further tinkering distracts from preparing for the room you'll actually be in.

Three hours, focused. Better than three days, scattered.