Welcome to the Interview Loop series where we go over each step of your interview loop.

• Intro to the Apps Developer Interview Loop
• Initial Phone Screen
• Technical Phone Screen
• The Coding Exercise
• The Algorithm Interview
• The System Designs Interview
• The App Specialty Interview
• The Hiring Manager Closing Interview

Remember, while some job interviews may include all these sessions, others might involve a subset. Prepare accordingly.

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While not systematic, an app specialty interview isn’t uncommon especially with startups.

This interview is meant to vet your actual skills for the jobs. In practice, you’ll often be asked to live code using your primary apps development framework. For example, if you’re a Flutter developer, you might be given some basic code and asked to add new screens and functionalities to it. Some companies also ask you to build these features on top of the coding exercise that you may have coded earlier during the process.

And while there’s a lot you can do to prepare for every other session described in this guide, the app specialty goes at the core of what you can do on the job, and mostly reflects your current skills. There is however a couple things you can do to ensure you maximize your chances.

Always have your environment ready

One common mistake developers make for this interview is to not have their environment ready to code. You’d be surprised how many developers simply aren’t on the right machine, or may be used to code on Mac but are taking the interview on Windows and don’t have their keybinds ready.

Your interviewer will be looking at how proficient you are at using your IDE and the quality of you code, so maximize your chances by ensuring that you have a work environment you’re already comfortable with and that everything is setup so you can be as efficient as possible.

Also make sure you have a device or emulator ready to actually run the code. Launch everything before the interview starts so you don’t have to waste time booting an emulator and you can focus on the questions you’re being asked.

Anticipate the coding tasks

While this interview can be pretty open ended, you should still be asking your contact at the company what to expect before the interview starts.

If details are sparse, you can usually anticipate what you’ll be asked. There is often overlap with the kind of functionalities you’d be asked to build in a coding exercise so make sure to review what to expect.

Also look at what the company’s technical challenges are and extrapolate from there. For example, if you’re interviewing with a social media company, there’s a good chance that one of their main technical challenges is to make a reactive news feed that scrolls well. For a ridesharing or transportation company, it could be about making things move on the map.

As always, the more preparation you can do ahead of time, the easier getting into this will be. If you know what to expect, spend some time before the interview building what you know you’ll be asked so you can be proficient when coding it live.

Over communicate

While this interview is primarily about coding, your interviewer is still evaluating your communication and collaboration skills.

Make sure to think out loud. Explain what you’re doing. Talk about what you would do if you had more time and what tradeoffs you’re making.

There’s a good chance your interviewer would become a coworker of yours if you land the job, so make it that they would want to work with you.

Conclusion

Those who are good at their craft will usually nail this interview. Remember that you’re still evaluated on your professionalism, communication and collaboration skills. Make sure to ask questions before and during the interview to give yourself the best chances, and always have your environment ready ahead of time!

Crushed the app specialty interview? You’re ready to move on to the final step and land your next job.