I'm very curious to see the other answers to this, myself. Some things I've learned so far:
1. Different companies often have very different interview strategies. If you're interviewing with Google or Microsoft, you need to be mentally on your toes and able to solve programming problems and maybe some puzzles. If you're interviewing for a developer position at a large bank, the experience is completely different.
2. Don't focus on getting "the right answer" to the exclusion of everything else. You're not taking a standardized test--you're talking to a human being. Sometimes demonstrating interest will take you farther than being able to answer correctly all the obscure questions that get thrown at you.
If there's anything to take away from this in terms of how to prepare, I'd say its that being alert and engaged is just as important as knowing your stuff. Staying up the night before trying to memorize design patterns is likely to be counterproductive.
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I'm very curious to see the other answers to this, myself. Some things I've learned so far:
1. Different companies often have very different interview strategies. If you're interviewing with Google or Microsoft, you need to be mentally on your toes and able to solve programming problems and maybe some puzzles. If you're interviewing for a developer position at a large bank, the experience is completely different.
2. Don't focus on getting "the right answer" to the exclusion of everything else. You're not taking a standardized test--you're talking to a human being. Sometimes demonstrating interest will take you farther than being able to answer correctly all the obscure questions that get thrown at you.
If there's anything to take away from this in terms of how to prepare, I'd say its that being alert and engaged is just as important as knowing your stuff. Staying up the night before trying to memorize design patterns is likely to be counterproductive.