Clarify Before Coding

Always repeat the problem back in your own words. Ask about edge cases, constraints, and expected output before writing a single line. Interviewers value communication over speed.

Think Out Loud

Narrate your reasoning continuously. Silence is the enemy — even a wrong path explained clearly scores better than a magic solution with no explanation.

Brute Force First

State a naive solution first, declare its complexity, then optimise. This shows problem-solving maturity and gives you a working baseline to improve from.

Test Your Code

Trace through your solution with the examples and at least one edge case. Catching your own bugs before being asked shows engineering discipline.

Know Your Complexities

Be ready to state time and space complexity for every solution. Practice estimating whether O(n log n) is acceptable given stated constraints.

Pattern Recognition

Most DSA problems fall into ~15 patterns: sliding window, two pointers, BFS/DFS, dynamic programming, etc. Recognising the pattern is half the battle.