Final Week Preparation — The 7-Day Interview Countdown

Day-by-Day Countdown

Day 7 (One Week Out) — Audit Your Weak Spots

Run through your mock session logs. Identify the 2-3 topics with the lowest scores. These are your focus for the week.

Actions:

• Review your error log from all 5 mock weeks
• List your top 3 weaknesses
• Set daily goals for each

Day 6 — Drill Weakness #1

Spend 4 hours on your weakest topic only.

• Read the pattern guide
• Solve 5 problems (timed, 20 min each)
• Re-solve any you got wrong without hints

Day 5 — Drill Weakness #2 + Review Patterns

Morning: 3 hours on weakness #2. Afternoon: Skim all pattern cheatsheets (sliding window, two pointers, BFS, DP, union-find, trie, heap, monotonic stack).

Day 4 — Full Mock Interview

Do a complete 2-hour mock under real conditions:

• No IDE autocompletion
• Camera on (if solo, use a mirror)
• Talk out loud the entire time

Score yourself honestly. If score < 4.0, identify the single biggest issue.

Day 3 — Behavioral Prep

Spend 2 hours on behavioral stories:

• Review your 10 STAR stories
• Time yourself telling each (target: 2 min each)
• Practice the "Why this company?" answer (1 min)
• Review the company's recent news / products

For Amazon: Review all 16 LPs and map each story to 1-2 LPs. For Google: Prepare your "What would you work on at Google?" answer. For Meta: Know 3 recent Meta product launches and their engineering challenges.

Day 2 — Light Coding Review + Rest

Morning (1 hour): Solve 3 easy/medium problems you've solved before. Goal: build confidence, not learn new things.

Afternoon: Rest. No new material.

Evening: Lay out everything you need for the interview.

Day 1 (Interview Day) — Peak Performance Protocol

Morning:

• Light breakfast, no heavy food
• 20-min walk or light exercise
• Review your cheatsheets for 30 min only

1 hour before:

• Solve 1 easy problem to warm up your brain
• Review 3 STAR stories you'll likely use
• Reread the company's core values

30 min before:

• Stop coding
• Breathe, stretch
• Remind yourself: "I've prepared for this"

During the interview:

• Speak first: "Happy to be here — should I jump right in?"
• Clarify before coding, always
• If nervous, slow down intentionally — you sound better

What NOT to Do in the Final Week

• Don't learn new algorithms you've never practiced
• Don't do mock interviews on Day 2 and Day 1
• Don't cram the night before (diminishing returns after 8pm)
• Don't solve > 10 problems per day (quality over quantity)
• Don't read negative interview experiences on Glassdoor

Final Checklist

Week before:
[ ] Identified top 3 weaknesses
[ ] Drilled each weakness
[ ] Completed 1 full mock
[ ] Reviewed all STAR stories
[ ] Researched target company

Day before:
[ ] Solved 3 easy warm-up problems
[ ] Reviewed cheatsheets (not new material)
[ ] Prepared logistics (link, time zone, equipment)
[ ] Got 8 hours of sleep

Interview day:
[ ] Warm-up problem
[ ] 3 STAR stories reviewed
[ ] Company values reviewed
[ ] Arrived (logged in) 5 min early