Tools, Frameworks & Implementation Proficiency Topics
Practical proficiency with industry-standard tools and frameworks including project management (Jira, Azure DevOps), productivity tools (Excel, spreadsheet analysis), development tools and environments, and framework setup. Focuses on hands-on tool expertise, configuration, best practices, and optimization rather than conceptual knowledge. Complements technical categories by addressing implementation tooling.
Relevant Technical Experience and Projects
Describe the hands on technical work and projects that directly relate to the role. Cover specific tools and platforms you used, such as forensic analysis tools, operating systems, networking and mobile analysis utilities, analytics and database tools, and embedded systems or microcontroller development work. For each item explain your role, the scope and scale of the work, key technical decisions, measurable outcomes or improvements, and what you learned. Include relevant certifications and training when they reinforced your technical skills. Also discuss any process improvements you drove, cross functional collaboration required, and how the project experience demonstrates readiness for the role.
Technology Evaluation and Selection
Focuses on evaluating technology options and selecting appropriate platforms or vendors. Key skills include defining business and technical requirements, creating evaluation criteria and decision matrices, running proof of concept trials, assessing total cost of ownership and vendor lock in, validating integration feasibility and operational impact, ensuring security and compliance, planning staged rollouts and migrations, and documenting governance for adoption. Interviewers may probe examples of build versus buy decisions and how pilots were used to de risk technology choices.
Game Engine and Language Proficiency
Demonstrate hands on experience with commercial and open source game engines such as Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot, and similar platforms, and the programming languages commonly used with them (for example C sharp and C plus plus). Describe specific systems, features, or tools you built inside an engine, such as gameplay systems, rendering or shader work, physics integration, animation systems, editor tooling, asset pipelines, or multiplayer and replication logic. Be prepared to discuss engine workflows, scripting versus native modules, performance optimization and profiling, memory and asset management, build and deployment pipelines for consoles or mobile, and familiarity with engine idioms and debugging tools. Emphasize practical proficiency level, trade offs you made, and examples that show depth of experience rather than only naming technologies.
Custom Solution Development
Focuses on designing and delivering bespoke technical solutions to meet specific customer or project requirements. Candidates should explain how they gather requirements, translate needs into technical designs, build prototypes, iterate with stakeholders, validate solutions, and deliver production quality implementations. Discussions may include architectural decision making, trade off analysis, integration with existing systems, customization of third party software, testing strategies, documentation, and how to measure success and maintainability. Provide examples of complex customizations, how constraints were managed, and how technical and non technical stakeholder feedback was incorporated.
Documentation Tools & Technology Stack
Proficiency with technical writing and publishing tools commonly used at FAANG companies (Confluence, JIRA, Git/GitHub for version control, Markdown, API documentation tools like Swagger/OpenAPI, CMS platforms, knowledge bases, etc.). Discuss how you've contributed to tooling decisions or process improvements.
Hands On Projects and Problem Solving
Discussion of practical projects and side work you have built or contributed to across domains. Candidates should be prepared to explain their role, architecture and design decisions, services and libraries chosen, alternatives considered, trade offs made, challenges encountered, debugging and troubleshooting approaches, performance optimization, testing strategies, and lessons learned. This includes independent side projects, security labs and capture the flag practice, bug bounty work, coursework projects, and other hands on exercises. Interviewers may probe for how you identified requirements, prioritized tasks, collaborated with others, measured impact, and what you would do differently in hindsight.
Team Specific Technical Stack and Backend Systems
Discuss the team's specific technologies mentioned in the job description (Node.js, Python, Java, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, AWS, Azure, etc.). Ask about their backend architecture, how they handle scalability and reliability, deployment practices, and monitoring/alerting. Inquire about recent technical decisions or challenges they've faced. Show interest in learning their specific tech stack and systems. Ask realistic questions about the ramp-up period and learning curve.
Technology Stack Knowledge
Assess a candidate's practical and conceptual understanding of technology stacks, including major programming languages, application frameworks, databases, infrastructure, and supporting tools. Candidates should be able to explain common use cases and trade offs for languages such as Python, Java, Go, Rust, C plus plus, and JavaScript, including differences between compiled and interpreted languages, static and dynamic type systems, and performance characteristics. They should discuss application frameworks and libraries for frontend and backend development, common web stacks, service architectures such as monoliths and microservices, and application programming interfaces. Evaluate understanding of data storage options and trade offs between relational and non relational databases and the role of structured query language. Candidates should be familiar with cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure, infrastructure components including containerization and orchestration tools such as Docker and Kubernetes, and development workflows including version control, continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines, testing frameworks, automation, and infrastructure as code. Assess operational concerns such as logging, monitoring and observability, deployment strategies, scalability, reliability, fault tolerance, security considerations, and common failure modes and mitigations. Interviewers may probe both awareness of specific tools and the candidate's depth of hands on experience, ability to justify technology choices by evaluating trade offs, constraints, and risk, and willingness and ability to learn and evaluate new technologies rather than claiming mastery of everything.
Technical Skills & Tools Inventory
Be ready to discuss specific tools and platforms you're familiar with: marketing automation (HubSpot, Marketo, Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign), CRM systems (Salesforce, Pipedrive), analytics tools (Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude), data visualization (Tableau, Looker, Power BI), testing platforms (Optimizely, VWO), or data management platforms. For each tool, be specific about what you actually did (created reports, set up workflows, troubleshot issues, etc.), not just 'familiar with.' If you lack certain tools, mention your ability to learn technical systems quickly and provide examples of how you've picked up new platforms.