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Let's face it: traditional technical interviews like leetcode-style challenges can feel disconnected from real-world software development. They often focus more on memorization of algorithms than on the practical, collaborative skills engineers use every day.

As I've navigated the tech leadership job market, I've encountered an unexpected emphasis on system design interviews. These interviews have proven to be both challenging and enlightening, pushing me to develop a more structured approach to solving complex architectural problems. Here's what I've learned along the way.

I've learned a few hard earned lessons about what works for distributed teams and what doesn't. They've started to form foundational principles I use to help ensure my teams have the best opportunity to navigate collaborating and working remotely.

Whenever I'm presented with a complex problem my brain immediately tries to generate a mental model to classify and categorize the component parts and help understand the cohesive whole. My favorite approach is using analogy to abstract away hyper-specialized terms or ideas in favor of representing them with generic replacements.

Congratulations! Your engineering team has grown to the point where they must take on more engineers to simply keep up with maintenance demand, let alone tackling the tsunami of new features being requested. Each new team member adds additional overhead, communication becomes harder, and you have to find a way to make things more efficient.

I scan a resume in under a minute. Yes, I'm making quick, snap judgments. But it's a necessity with larger volume. Here's how I do it.

My first interview with an engineer is absolutely critical. I'm just wasting their time if I'm winging it. I need to invest time and effort to make it work.

I always want to hire a great engineer. Who doesn't? I need a no-BS 360° view of their skills to make that a reality. Technical and team interviews are the best way to achieve it.

It all comes down to this. I've reviewed resumes, completed interviews, and collected feedback. But now...now I need to make a decision.

Hiring is worthless unless you can keep great people around.