Step by Step — How I Prepared for PY109 Interview
I passed the PY109 interview last week.
During my assessment preparation, I was very fortunate to receive a lot of help from LS staff and fellow students, to whom I am incredibly grateful.
I hope by sharing what worked for me, it may help you to figure out a system that works for you.
Facts
- I am an average test taker and experience as much anxiety and self-doubt as the next person. I can only pass an assessment if I really know the material.
- I had no coding background prior to LS and don’t consider myself particularly gifted at coding.
- English is not my first language.
Also Fact
This plan took me from stuttering, not knowing how to start when presented with a code snippet, to a “Passed” in the span of a few weeks.
Disclaimer
This is an assessment prep plan. It is not meant to help you learn from ground zero (that’s a different plan ;)).
The purpose of this plan is to find and close knowledge gaps and hone the skills needed to demonstrate what you already know in the interview. Skills such as:
- Proficient use of technical language
- Speaking clearly with precision and confidence
- Managing assessment-induced anxiety
Many of the study techniques shown below were graciously shared by fellow LS-ers. I only organized them into an action plan that worked for me.
How I prepped for PY109 interview:
Summary
- Two passes of LSBot Targeted Review: the first time typing in my answers, the second time using dictation.
- Redid all practice problems until 100% mastered.
- Created my own study guide.
- Attended multiple TA and SPOT sessions.
Step One: Gather Information & Resources
This was my arsenal, and I took stock before making battle plans.
Testing content: Intro to Python book, PY101
About interview: types of questions, time limit, expected results, etc.
Resources:
- PY109: Study guide, LSBot Targeted Review, Quiz
- PY101: Quiz (lesson 2), Practice problems & Code review exercises (lesson 3)
- PY101–109 Small Problems
- TA-led & SPOT study sessions
Additional resources:
- Additional questions generated by LSBot
- SpotWiki questions
- Recorded TA-led session
- Medium articles
Step Two: LSBot Targeted Review + Study Guide
LSBot Targeted Review (first pass) + Study Guide
The topics on LSBot Targeted Review (PY109 : topic 6–10) match those on study guide.
For each topic, I attempted the questions first without consulting my notes. This served as an initial recall practice. Based on what was asked in the questions, I then read the relevant course material and my notes, and summarized them in the study guide for each corresponding topic.
After this, I attempted the LSBot question again, reading LSBot’s feedback and paying extra attention to where I got something wrong or could improve. I then followed up with the prompt below and compared LSBot’s answer with mine, this time focusing on improving my answer with correct terminology and precise language.
prompt: Please provide an interview-friendly answer that is based on my answer.
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LSBot Targeted Review (second pass)
This time around, instead of typing my answer, I used dictation to provide my answer verbally.
To start dictation on Mac, press fn(🌐) or ctrl twice, though yours may differ. I believe the shortcut for windows is win + H.
To best simulate the interview environment, I started the dictation before reading the question. This is the prompt I entered before answering any question:
prompt: I’m going to transcribe my answer, please excuse the transcribing error. The purpose of this exercise is to prepare for PY109 interview. Please critique my answer and delivery for clarity and precision. Please also ask any follow-up questions that are common in interview for this question and based on my answer. Make sure to provide solutions for any follow-up questions you ask.
By the end of this process, I had a study guide nicely put together. I also summarized common assessment questions for topics such as “variable as pointer” and “variable scope,” based on what I had seen from LSBot and study sessions. I kept a running list of technical expressions I liked and mistakes I repeatedly made.
This was a somewhat demanding process, but it was well worth it. I experienced surprisingly speedy improvement from it.
Step Three: Attend TA/SPOT sessions
This happened concurrently with Step Two and continued right up until my interview.
I attended a total of 5 study sessions, averaging about 1-2 per week leading up to the interview.
- Sign up for TA sessions under events on LS website. Keep an eye out for the call for availability in the py101–109 channel, though this may not happen for every TA session.
- Sign up for SPOT sessions in the-spot channel. Click reply to provide your availability, and make sure to also leave a comment so the SPOT leads can be alerted promptly.
I will simply say that without these study sessions, I would not have passed. For future courses, I intend to attend more of them if my schedule permits.
Step Four: Redo Practice problems
Although I’m listing this as an individual step, in reality I alternated between practice problems and the second pass of LSBot Targeted Review to avoid fatigue.
I redid all practice problems until I got them 100% correct on the first try, and tried to leave some time between each attempt. I then talked through my logic and solution for the more complicated questions.
After that, I picked up some more technical expressions and ways to improve coherence from LSBot by using this prompt:
prompt: Please walk me through step by step how you come up with the solution as if you are in an interview.
These practice problems I redid are listed under “Resources” in Step One. One set of questions I did not redo and dearly I wish did was the Code Review Exercises from PY101 since my debugging skill was very limited.
Step Five: Take the PY109 Quiz to gauge my readiness
Step Six: Schedule Interview & Prep
I submitted the request on a Thursday night and scheduled the interview for the following Tuesday morning.
For the next three days (Wednesday through Monday), I made sure to work through interview-style questions for an hour around the scheduled interview time. In the meantime, I used this prompt to generate additional questions with LSBot:
prompt: Ask me hard questions regarding [topic] in preparation for PY109 interview. Ask the questions one at a time and wait for my answers before giving feedback.
Step Seven: Take the Interview
The Perspective
Everything above covers techniques; now let’s talk about a few ways of thinking. These helped shift my perspective on assessments and, in turn, eased some assessment-related anxiety.
1. To move on to the next course, you only need a “non-capstone pass” .
It’s always the goal to achieve “passed” as it translates to the level of mastery desired. However, if you’re a perfectionist, or someone who tends to put a bit too much pressure on yourself, it may help to remind yourself that you only need a “non-capstone pass” to move on to the next course. You can always retake the assessment later if you decide to go for capstone.
2. It’s ok to make mistakes in the interview.
You run the code and the outcome is not what you expected? This is all too common. No one is expected to be 100% correct the first time, every time. As long as you are “in control” of the situation and actively troubleshooting, this is not necessarily a bad thing.
Lastly, I want to ask you:
3. What can you gain from an assessment?
Taking away the luck component, a well-designed assessment should:
#1 Confirm the things you do know.
#2 Reveal the things you don’t know well enough.
#3 Reveal the things you didn’t even know you didn’t know.
#1 provides well-deserved reassurance, but the latter two are where the real learning happens.
We usually don’t easily forget the details around events that cause emotional discomfort. Assessments are no exception. You tend to remember, for an impressively long time, the things you missed in an assessment.
With that in mind, whenever I missed a question in a study session or on my own, I practiced thinking “I’m about to gain something!” Once I found out the answer, I practiced relishing the joy of learning something new. Over time, my brain was rewired to quickly let go of the temporary discomfort in anticipation of something awesome.
When I did get stuck in the interview, this instinct kicked in. I was able to quickly recover from the awkwardness and felt genuinely excited to find out how the problem could be solved and the knowledge I was about to receive.
Prepare thoroughly so there are plenty of #1 moments to secure a "passed."
Expect and embrace the moments of #2 and #3, because they gift you something that will benefit you for a long time to come. The short-lived euphoria prompted by the word “passed” pales in comparison.
Good luck, though I know you will not need it.
