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How to ace your PHP developer interview: Insider Tips and Tricks

How to ace your PHP developer interview: Insider Tips and Tricks

How to prepare for a PHP developer interview: Insider Tips and Tricks

When it comes to PHP developer interviews, there’s a lot more to consider than just your technical skills. Based on my experience of interviewing PHP developers, here are some tips and strategies that can help you stand out and maximize your chances of success.

Understand the Basics and Beyond

Knowing the basics of PHP is a must, and here I mean the boring stuff that everyone seems to have forgotten, like late & static bindings, magic methods or how to build a PSR-4 autoloader just to name a few. The real key, though, is to go beyond the fundamentals but also to understand how to write optimal code.

PHP is an ever-evolving language, and staying updated with the latest features and updates is crucial. For instance, PHP 8 introduced many new features and optimizations including named arguments, union types, attributes, constructor property promotion, match expression, nullsafe operator, JIT, and improvements in the type system, error handling, and consistency. By showcasing your knowledge of these features during an interview, you demonstrate not just your technical skills, but also your commitment to staying relevant in a fast-paced industry.

But there is one more thing: you need to know how to build a project without using any sort of framework. Heck, if you are a senior you need to know how to build your own framework.

Build a Strong Portfolio

A strong portfolio is your window to showcase your skills and experiences. It’s not just about the number of projects you’ve worked on, but also about the diversity of those projects and the challenges you faced during each one. When describing a project in your portfolio, delve into your specific role, the problems you encountered, and how you solved them. This gives interviewers valuable insight into your problem-solving process and your technical expertise.

If your portfolio contains personal projects my advice is to have a README.md file in each project which mentions what problem is solves, why did you build it and what technical challenges you had. Now, I know that most interviewers won’t look at your Github profile but some of us do. For me, it provides useful insights than I might not get out of the Q&A interview or a 2-4h Hackathon project.

Contribute to Open Source Projects

Contributing to open-source projects is a great way to gain practical experience and demonstrate your commitment to the PHP community. It also provides an opportunity to collaborate with other developers and learn from them. The easiest way to get started with this is too look at the Issues tab on projects like Symfony or Laravel.

Prepare for Technical Challenges

Technical challenges are a common part of PHP developer interviews. Practice solving coding problems on platforms like LeetCode, HackerRank or Codewars. Focus on explaining your thought process and decision-making as you work through the problem. This is often more important than arriving at the correct solution.

Another thing, that you will never use, but it’s useful to know for the interview, is the Big-O Notation. However you can make it useful if you understand what make a piece of code complex and how to optimise it:

<?php 
 
// Big-O Notation: O(n^2) 
 
function hasDuplicates($arr) { 
    for ($i = 0; $i < count($arr); $i++) { 
        for ($j = $i + 1; $j < count($arr); $j++) { 
            if ($arr[$i] == $arr[$j]) { 
                return true; 
            } 
        } 
    } 
    return false; 
} 
 
// Usage: 
$array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2]; 
 
var_dump(hasDuplicates($array));  // Outputs: bool(true)
👇👇👇👇
<?php 
 
// O(n) 
 
function hasDuplicates($arr) { 
    $seen = []; 
    foreach ($arr as $element) { 
        if (isset($seen[$element])) { 
            return true; 
        } 
        $seen[$element] = true; 
    } 
    return false; 
} 
 
// Usage: 
$array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2]; 
 
var_dump(hasDuplicates($array));  // Outputs: bool(true)

Communicate Effectively

Effective communication is key. Practice explaining your thought process clearly and concisely. This is particularly important during technical challenges, where you need to demonstrate not just your coding skills, but also your ability to articulate your approach to problem-solving.

Also I noticed a tendency from candidates to waste time by speaking a lot without outputting much value.

My advice is to give the shortest answer you know and provide an example if you have one.
When you’re unsure of an answer, it’s more beneficial to openly acknowledge your uncertainty. Rather than taking a guess, take the opportunity to walk the interviewer through your thought process. This approach not only showcases your problem-solving skills but also shifts the focus from the fact that you’re guessing to how you’re methodically approaching the challenge.

Ask Questions

Don’t be afraid to ask questions about the company’s tech stack, development processes, and company culture. This not only shows that you’re interested in the company, but also helps you determine if the company is the right fit for you.

Moreover, it’s essential to gauge the work environment and management style during an interview. Here are some questions you can ask your future manager to better understand their style and the team dynamics:

Management Style & Philosophy

  • How would you describe your management style?
  • What do you believe is the key to a successful manager-employee relationship?
  • How do you handle disagreements or conflicts within the team?

Feedback & Growth

  • How frequently do you provide feedback to your team members?
  • Can you describe a time when you helped a team member grow or advance in their career?
  • How do you handle mistakes or failures within the team?

Work-Life Balance & Flexibility

  • What are your views on remote work or flexible hours?
  • How do you handle situations when a team member is feeling burned out?

Team Dynamics

  • How do you foster collaboration and teamwork within the group?
  • Can you describe the team’s current dynamics and how they handle challenges?
  • What qualities do you value most in a team member?

Decision Making

  • How are decisions typically made in the team?
  • How do you ensure that everyone’s voice is heard?
  • Can you provide an example of a tough decision you had to make and how you approached it?

Challenges & Problem-Solving

  • Can you share a recent challenge the team faced and how it was addressed?

Values & Culture

  • What values are most important to you as a manager?
  • How do you handle situations where a team member’s actions are not aligned with the team or company values?

In conclusion, while technical skills are crucial, it’s important to not underestimate the power of a strong portfolio, effective communication, and a genuine interest in the company you’re interviewing with. Follow these tips, and you’ll be well on your way to acing your next PHP developer interview. Good luck!

Andrei