Technical Interview Prep | Formation

Every interview type. One adaptive plan.

Our adaptive prep tech reads your target companies, interview timeline, mentor feedback, and diagnostic performance to build the sharpest plan for you. Here’s a sampling of what we get you ready for:

01

Coding Interview

Sharpen your algorithms with mentors, peers and personalized daily coding drills to systematically cover the full range of problems and walk into your coding interviews ready.

02

AI-Assisted Coding Interview

More companies hand you an AI pair and judge how you direct it. Practice prompting, verifying, and shipping working code under time pressure so AI-assisted rounds play to your strengths.

03

Systems Design Interview

Practice utilizing a diverse set of distributed technologies to architect scalable infrastructure and defend design choices in order to demonstrate your engineering seniority and experience.

04

Object Oriented Design

Practice discussing and defending design choices using object-oriented design principles and real-world practical tradeoffs in time-bound interview environments.

05

Recruiter Screen

Develop your personal pitch with feedback directly from recruiters at top tier tech companies. Know exactly what they’re looking for and how to frame your experience to zip through this step of the process.

06

Hiring Manager Interview

Hiring managers probe the scope of your past engineering work to gauge your level and fit on the team. Work with Formation’s network of top tier hiring managers to select and frame your past work in a way that strongly reflects your experience level.

07

Negotiation Coaching

Once you get an offer (or multiple!), work directly with our career coaches with 3+ years experience recruiting at top tier companies to know exactly what to expect and how to maximize your offer.

08

Job Hunt Support

Interviews are only half the battle. Get your resume interview-ready, receive matched roles in your inbox daily, and track every application, referral, and follow-up in one place until you sign.

Fellows like you have landed life-changing roles. You can, too.

Sofie

Software Engineer

“I walked out with three offers from FAANG companies. It’s a testament to the work that Formation did and the work that I did with them. I went from being a zero to hero in terms of my ability to perform in coding rounds.”

Shane

Software Engineer

“I don’t think I would have landed my Amazon role at the L5/SD2 level without it. The biggest takeaway is that all of this stuff is learnable.”

Aditya

Deployment Strategist

“This was an amazing program and it helped me prepare so well for this next role. I felt so confident and calm during my interviews.”

Sinuhé

Senior Software Engineer

“Formation made my job search a lot quicker and more efficient. I ended up getting two offers—one from Microsoft and another from Walmart—for senior roles.”

Drew

Senior Software Engineer

“The most value I gained was from practicing real interviews, being really vulnerable, and being willing to say, ‘Please tell me everything that was wrong with this and how I can improve.’”

Amaya

Software Engineer

“Prior to Formation I was mostly grinding out LeetCode problems, but I found that I hit a wall at some point, and it’s because I wasn’t really getting any feedback on what I was doing. Being able to gauge my performance via sessions and mocks helped me to break through that barrier.”

Mike

Software Engineer

“I was much more comfortable in the technical interviews. Being comfortable with the technical concepts meant that I could focus on solving the problem.”

Dalila

SDE II

“Before joining, I spent a year navigating the job hunt on my own, struggling to make meaningful progress. Formation connected me with a supportive community of peers and mentors who generously shared their knowledge and resources. Their guidance was instrumental in helping me succeed in my interview process.”

Brandon

Data Engineer

“Formation provided me with the skillset, community, and confidence to tackle my interviews. I never felt pressured to progress to another section if I didn’t feel ready, and I always got a lot of support when I got stuck.”

Common Questions

How can Formation help me get interviews?

We work closely with you to identify companies and specific roles that align with your skills and interests. We are a small team that is well-connected in the industry, so once we see a great match, we'll try our best to help you find a path to the right people.

In addition, our adaptive prep algorithm goes well past identifying the highest-value reps for you at any given time. Once you enter our Job Hunt stage, our algorithm works to identify five job openings each day that uniquely match your profile and pipe them directly to you, so you can apply with confidence to roles you're a great fit for.

What will I get at Formation that I can't get from grinding LeetCode on my own?

We understand — there are a lot of resources out there, even free ones. But time is of the essence when you're job hunting.

If you're employed and looking for a new role, you can't afford to waste a minute developing a skill you don't need or taking an interview you're not prepared for. If you're not employed, you may be up against a tight timeline, and time spent on anything not optimized exactly for you can add weeks or months to your job hunt.

That's where we come in — we're like a GPS for your job hunt. You tell us where you want to go, and we tell you the most streamlined, effective path to get there.

Instead of fumbling around on LeetCode or wasting real interviews as practice, we tell you exactly what to practice and when, provide uncapped resources and community to unblock you, and give you mock interviews so you're completely confident you're ready to nail your next one. We personalize your job hunt and land you amazing results — more efficiently than you can do on your own.

How will Formation help me prepare for interviews?

Formation provides unlimited access to as many mock interviews as you need to feel fully confident going into your real interviews. While other companies primarily cover DS&A interview content, Formation's mock interviews prepare you for 16 types of interviews candidates may encounter.

Do I get to do mock interviews with Formation? How many mock interviews do I get?

Definitely! Not only do we provide mock interviews, we give you access to as many as you need to build full confidence ahead of your job hunt. And that's not just 1 or 2 interview types like other options on the market — our mock interviews prepare you for 16 different types of interviews you may encounter.

Do you actually offer unlimited mock interviews?

We have no limit on the total number of mock interviews you can do during your time at Formation. That said, mock interviews are best used as a tool to assess skill level and progress, so we offer them at strategic times to maximize the efficacy of your prep.

Before you start actual interviews, we deliver personalized practice for the common interview types you'll face — DS&A, system design, behavioral, and more. Once you demonstrate mastery of an interview type's key topics, we'll give you a weekly mock interview testing your skills — as many as needed until a senior mentor verifies you can reliably perform at the bar for industry-level interviews.

Once you begin scheduling real-world interviews, you can schedule even more mocks to assess your readiness for those big moments. After each mock, your Mentor provides customized practice recommendations targeting your weak spots. To leave ample time to apply that feedback, we recommend one mock per interview type per week at this stage — and you can schedule as many as you need until you land the role you decide to accept.

Some services require you to accept the first job offer you receive. Is this true at Formation?

No. We work with you until you land the right role. We also help you negotiate offers and even reject offers that are not the best opportunities for you.

What language or tech stack do Formation Fellows use? Is there a preferred language at Formation?

We support all of our Fellows' preferred languages and focus on helping Fellows understand concepts over mastering a language. However, sessions will be run in Python or JavaScript, so we encourage all Fellows to be familiar with one or the other. While those are the main languages, sessions do not cover language-specific topics nor are they syntax-focused — instead, they are focused on problem solving and the structure of code. For project work, we use React, Node, and React Hooks and adapt the stack to modern trends.