New Grad SWE Interview: A 2-Week Plan
A new grad SWE interview in two weeks is a triage problem, not a finish-the-curriculum problem. You will not learn every pattern. You can raise signal on the patterns that appear most, plus communication and one solid behavioral set.
This plan assumes ~3–5 focused hours per day. If you have less, cut volume—not sleep. If you have more time before the loop, stretch Week 1 patterns instead of adding random hard problems.
Outcomes to optimize
- Reliable easy→medium DSA with spoken complexity
- Freeze recovery habit (clarify → brute force → improve)
- 4 STAR stories (conflict, failure, teamwork, learning)
- Résumé fluency: every bullet explainable
- 2–3 timed mocks
- Logistics ready (accounts, environment, ID)
Week 1 — foundations and patterns
Daily template (≈4 hours)
| Block | Time | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Warmup | 20m | 1 easy you already know—narrate out loud |
| Core | 90m | 2 mediums in one pattern family |
| Review | 40m | Re-solve yesterday’s miss cold |
| Behavioral | 30m | One STAR out loud |
| Light | 20m | Complexity flashcards / edge-case checklist |
Pattern order (Week 1)
| Day | Pattern |
|---|---|
| 1 | Arrays / hashing |
| 2 | Two pointers / sliding window |
| 3 | Stacks / intervals |
| 4 | BFS / DFS on trees & grids |
| 5 | Binary search (boundaries) |
| 6 | Heaps / top-k |
| 7 | Mixed review + 1 mock (45–60m) |
Skip exotic DP topics until Week 2—and only if your mocks show need. Silent grinding without narration wastes the scarce resource: interview communication. After each medium, speak complexity and one edge case even if the code “worked.”
Week 2 — mocks, gaps, behavioral polish
| Day | Focus |
|---|---|
| 8 | Mock #2 + gap list (max 3 topics) |
| 9 | Gap topic A + behavioral set run-through |
| 10 | Gap topic B + system design lite (if required) |
| 11 | Gap topic C or rest-of-patterns triage |
| 12 | Mock #3 (full loop simulation if possible) |
| 13 | Light review + story polish + logistics |
| 14 | Rest / light warmup only—do not cram new topics |
Cap your gap list at three topics. A long gap list is how candidates panic-cram and arrive exhausted. Prefer re-solving missed problems cold over collecting new bookmarks.
Communication rules (every problem)
- Restate + ask 2 clarifying questions
- Brute force first in one sentence
- Optimize with a named idea
- Complexity before coding deep
- Dry-run one example + an edge
Talk track when stuck:
“I’m going to lock a correct O(n²) approach, then see if hashing gets me to expected O(n).”
Behavioral minimum set for new grads
Internship and project stories count. Use:
- Team conflict or disagreement
- Mistake / bug you owned
- Hard deadline delivery
- Learning something fast
STAR with long Action—even if the “org” was a class team. Course projects are fine when Action is specific (you owned the API, you wrote the load test, you resolved the git conflict process). Avoid “we built an app” with no personal verbs.
What to cut without guilt
- Contests as primary prep
- Memorizing 200 solutions silently
- Advanced DP / segment trees unless the company is known for them
- Building a new portfolio app in week two
- Rewriting your résumé every night
- Doomscrolling “interview experiences” instead of one more narrated medium
Company-flavored add-ons
| If loop includes… | Add |
|---|---|
| OA only first | Timed OA pacing drills |
| System design for new grad | 2 sessions: capacity + API basics |
| Hiring manager chat | Why-this-team + internship deep dive |
| Take-home | Calendar block + README quality pass |
| Pairing round | Practice thinking aloud with a friend |
Energy and logistics
- Sleep > one more medium at midnight
- Environment: same IDE constraints as the loop when possible
- Prep laptop, accounts, ID, quiet room day before
- Tell housemates the interview window
- Water and a simple backup network plan
Soft practice note
Two-week ramps fail when practice is silent. If you want a Chrome side panel to rehearse narration and freeze recovery while you grind patterns, Luna Interview is built for calm, structured practice—not for skipping learning or for violating interview rules.
Day-of checklist (interview morning)
- [ ] One easy warmup narrated
- [ ] STAR spines reviewed (not memorized paragraphs)
- [ ] Résumé bullets skimmed
- [ ] Water, charger, quiet space
- [ ] Reminder: clarify → brute force → improve
- [ ] No new pattern cram
Triage ruthlessly—then show clear thinking under time.
Rehearse with an AI interview copilot, then browse commonly reported interview questions.