New Grad Interview Prep: A Guide for CS Students

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If you are a CS student approaching graduation (or looking for internships), the interview preparation process can feel overwhelming. There are coding problems, system design, behavioral questions, resume optimization, networking, and application strategy — all while taking classes and working on school projects.

This guide gives you a concrete timeline and strategy. It is written for CS students at American universities targeting software engineering roles at tech companies, but the principles apply broadly.

The timeline

Tech hiring moves early. If you wait until senior year fall to start preparing, you are already behind. Here is a realistic timeline:

Sophomore year: Build foundations

Take your data structures and algorithms course seriously. This is interview prep in disguise. The material in your DSA class maps directly to coding interviews.
Start a side project. It does not need to be groundbreaking. A full-stack web app, a mobile app, a CLI tool — anything that shows you can build something end-to-end.
Apply for sophomore-level internships. Google STEP, Meta University, Microsoft Explore, and similar programs exist specifically for underclassmen. The bar is lower than regular internships.

Junior year summer: Internship prep

Start LeetCode in June or July. Do 2 to 3 problems per day, focusing on patterns rather than memorizing solutions. Cover arrays, strings, linked lists, trees, graphs, dynamic programming, and backtracking.
Applications open in August. Most major tech companies open new grad and internship applications between August and October. Apply early — many companies review on a rolling basis.
Aim for a strong internship. A junior-year internship at a well-known company is the single biggest factor in new grad hiring. It gives you a return offer safety net and makes your resume stand out everywhere else.

Senior year: New grad applications

Apply in August through October. New grad applications for the following year typically open in late summer. Applying in the first wave gives you the most spots and the most time to prepare.
Interview season: September through December. Most on-sites happen in this window. Plan your coursework accordingly — do not take your hardest semester when you are also interviewing.
Return offer deadline pressure. If you have a return offer from your internship, it usually expires in October or November. Use it as leverage, but do not let it stop you from exploring other options.

What to study

Coding interviews (the priority)

For new grads, coding interviews carry the most weight. You will typically face 2 to 3 coding rounds in a full interview loop. Focus on these topics in order of importance:

Arrays and strings. Two pointers, sliding window, prefix sums, sorting
Hash maps and sets. Frequency counting, grouping, lookups
Trees and graphs. BFS, DFS, traversals, shortest path
Dynamic programming. Start with 1D problems, then 2D. Focus on recognizing the pattern, not memorizing solutions.
Linked lists, stacks, queues. Implementation details, common patterns
Binary search. On sorted arrays, on answer space

A realistic study plan: 100 to 150 LeetCode problems over 2 to 3 months, with emphasis on medium difficulty. Quality matters more than quantity — understand each solution deeply.

The gap between solving problems alone and performing in a live interview is bigger than most people expect. You need to practice thinking out loud, managing time, and handling the pressure of someone watching. AI coding mock interviews bridge that gap by simulating a real interview with voice interaction and a code editor.

Behavioral interviews

Even for new grads with limited work experience, behavioral interviews happen. You will be asked about group projects, class projects, hackathons, and any internship experience. Prepare 4 to 6 stories using the STAR method. Read our behavioral interview questions guide for details.

System design (light)

Most new grad interviews do not include a full system design round, but some companies (especially for candidates with internship experience) will ask lightweight design questions. Know the basics: client-server architecture, REST APIs, databases, caching, and how a web request flows from browser to server and back.

The recruiter screen

Your first contact with most companies is a 10 to 15 minute recruiter call. This is where many new grads get filtered out — not because they lack skills, but because they cannot articulate their background clearly. Practice your pitch: who you are, what you have worked on, and what you are looking for. AI recruiter screen practice helps you refine this quickly.

Your resume

For new grads, the resume is often the biggest bottleneck. You can be a strong candidate and still get rejected before an interview because your resume does not communicate your skills effectively.

What to include

Education. School, degree, expected graduation, GPA (if above 3.3), relevant coursework
Experience. Internships, research positions, teaching assistant roles. For each, describe what you built and the impact.
Projects. 2 to 3 meaningful projects with technical details. "Built a React + Node.js app with real-time chat using WebSockets, deployed on AWS with CI/CD" is better than "Built a web application."
Skills. Languages, frameworks, and tools you can actually discuss in an interview. Do not list things you used once in a tutorial.

What to skip

Objective statements
High school information
Non-technical jobs (unless you have no other experience)
Soft skill claims ("hardworking, team player") — show these through your stories, do not list them

Application strategy

Do not just apply to FAANG and hope for the best. A practical strategy:

Tier 1 (5-10 companies). Dream companies. Apply early, prepare thoroughly.
Tier 2 (10-15 companies). Strong companies you would be happy to work at. These are your realistic targets.
Tier 3 (5-10 companies). Safety applications. Companies that are less competitive but still offer good new grad programs.

Apply to 25 to 35 companies total. More than that leads to scheduling chaos. Fewer than that is risky.

For each tier, schedule interviews strategically: do your Tier 3 interviews first to warm up, Tier 2 in the middle, and Tier 1 last when you are at peak performance.

Common mistakes new grads make

Starting too late. The most common mistake. You need months, not weeks, to build coding fluency.
Only doing LeetCode. Coding skills are necessary but not sufficient. You also need behavioral stories, a polished resume, and the ability to communicate during interviews.
Not practicing out loud. Solving problems on paper is different from explaining your approach in real time. Practice with AI mock interviews or study partners.
Comparing yourself to others. Someone in your class has a Google internship and 500 LeetCode problems solved. That is irrelevant to your own journey. Focus on consistent daily progress.
Ignoring soft skills. Communication matters. The candidate who clearly explains a decent solution beats the candidate who silently writes an optimal solution.

Bottom line

New grad interview prep is a marathon, not a sprint. Start early, be consistent, and focus on the fundamentals: coding problems, clear communication, and a resume that shows what you have built. The students who get offers from top companies are not geniuses — they are the ones who started preparing months ago and practiced every day. Start now, regardless of where you are in the timeline.

Not sure how many practice sessions you need? Read our guide on how many mock interviews you should do. For a deep dive on the AI practice approach, see the complete guide to AI mock interviews.

Frequently asked questions

When should CS students start preparing for interviews?

Start learning data structures and algorithms during your sophomore year. Begin active interview prep (LeetCode, mock interviews) 2 to 3 months before applications open. For summer internships, that means starting in June or July. For new grad roles, start in May or June of your junior year.

How important are internships for getting a new grad offer?

Very important. Most top companies convert interns to full-time at rates of 50 to 80 percent, and having a recognizable internship on your resume makes it significantly easier to get interviews elsewhere. If you cannot get a FAANG internship, any software engineering internship helps.

Can I get a software engineering job without a CS degree?

Yes, but it is harder. You will need to demonstrate equivalent knowledge through projects, open source contributions, or bootcamp credentials. The interview process is the same regardless of your background, so strong coding and system design skills are what ultimately matter.