New Developers: Want to Hack your Coding Interviews? Start with this one simple item.

I have had many different jobs in the past 20 years, and the one thing that has always interested me is interview hacking.

What can I do now to make my next interview easier?

What are the professionals doing to prepare, that amateurs aren’t doing?

What parts of the interview can we replicate ahead of time to level up?

Let’s start this series with one simple thing: An item that can be purchased on Amazon for seven bucks…or you may even be able to find it at your local dollar store for way cheaper.

The Dry Erase Board.

If you know that companies still do whiteboard coding challenges, why aren’t you using a whiteboard RIGHT NOW?

Stop reading this. Skip your Starbucks coffee this morning, drive down the street and buy a mini whiteboard instead. I got mine for $1.

I prefer an 8.5x11 version, so it fits easily in my backpack when I travel, and doesn’t take up too much desk space.

Here are 3 ways you can use this tool:

• If you are doing FreeCodeCamp, rewrite the algorithm solutions on the whiteboard after you complete them.
• If you do morning code challenges in a bootcamp or computer science academy like Lambda School (you can read my first article about Lambda here if you are curious), write the model solution out after you are finished.
• If you are using CodeWars, write out your completed solution, and the top 3 best-practice solutions for each completed Kata. If you aren’t doing this, you should be.

JJ Ashcraft is a graduate of Lambda School’s Immersive Web Development program. He spends his free time skydiving, writing articles and traveling the world. JJ is a Software Engineer at Echobind, a full-service agency bringing together the best web and mobile experts to work on your project. Feel free to check out the playbook and the team’s fact sheet to get more info on what Echobind can do for you.