Technical interviews have earned a reputation for being some of the most stressful and intimidating experiences in the modern workplace. For many engineers, data scientists, and aspiring tech leaders, they are a bigger source of anxiety than the job itself. And according to Ryan, co-founder of Interview Kickstart, there’s a good reason for that.
“Technical interviews are amongst the hardest things you’ll ever do,” he says. But he doesn’t stop there. He breaks it down into three major factors that make these interviews especially brutal: the kind of problems you’re asked to solve, the speed you’re expected to work at, and the environment in which the interview takes place. Understanding these three dimensions, he argues, is the first step toward mastering the art of interviewing in tech.
Key Takeaways
- Technical interviews test skills you don’t often use in your day job, like algorithms and large-scale system design.
- Success requires both accuracy and speed—solving complex problems in 20 minutes or less.
- The interview environment is unnatural and high-pressure, making preparation essential.
- Interviewing is a skill in itself, and mastering it can significantly boost career options and compensation.
- Structured preparation and practice are the most reliable ways to overcome interview challenges.
The Questions That Don’t Reflect Your Day Job
Most people assume a job interview will be a natural extension of their day-to-day work. After all, if you’re being hired as a software engineer, shouldn’t the test simply be whether you can write clean, functional code? The reality is far different.
Ryan explains that the questions you face in interviews are designed to push you into areas you rarely encounter on the job. Instead of debugging production code or collaborating on incremental improvements, you’re dropped into the world of algorithms, data structures, and large-scale system design.
“Think about it,” Ryan says.
“In your daily work, you’re not sitting around figuring out how to design YouTube or Twitter from scratch. But those are exactly the kinds of problems you’ll be asked about in an interview.”
These aren’t trivial questions. They require deep knowledge of sorting, recursion, dynamic programming, and system scalability. For engineers on the management track, soft skills, and leadership questions are added to the mix. The challenge isn’t just knowing the concepts—it’s knowing how to apply them in highly abstract, high-pressure scenarios that don’t resemble the tasks you handle at your desk.
This disconnect is what makes technical interviews feel so foreign. They demand an entirely separate set of skills, one that must be deliberately built through preparation. Many professionals discover too late that being competent in their job is not enough to succeed in the interview room.
The Speed Trap
Even if you master the subject matter, another obstacle looms: speed.
A typical technical interview lasts about an hour. The first 10 to 15 minutes might be small talk or a light discussion. After that, you’re on the clock with two tough problems staring back at you. And here’s the kicker: when you’re new to interview prep, one of those problems could take you three hours to solve. In the interview, you’ve got 20 minutes per problem.
That means the skill isn’t just solving problems, it’s also about solving them fast. “You need to be able to crunch this down,” Ryan stresses. You have to develop the ability to recognize patterns quickly, choose the right approach, and communicate your reasoning as you go.
Think about the implications. A candidate who can eventually solve a problem isn’t enough. Companies want someone who can demonstrate sharp, efficient thinking under time constraints. And that means repetition and practice are essential. Just like an athlete preparing for competition, candidates must train themselves to perform at a level of speed and accuracy that feels unnatural at first.
A Pressure-Cooker Environment
If the content and the pace weren’t enough, the environment adds another layer of difficulty.
At work, problem-solving is collaborative. You’re surrounded by colleagues you know. You can take a break, whiteboard ideas, or even mull over a tough problem for hours before landing on the right solution. Nobody’s breathing down your neck with a stopwatch.
An interview is the polar opposite. You’re face-to-face with a stranger, sometimes over Zoom, with a set amount of time to produce a solution. You don’t get a coffee break. You don’t get to ask your coworker for input. And looming over it all is the knowledge that your performance could directly determine whether you land a salary worth hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars.
Ryan calls this the “pressure cooker” effect.
“In an interview, there’s a check of $200,000, $300,000, $500,000—sometimes a million—waiting for you on the other side”
That kind of pressure magnifies every hesitation, every mistake, and every moment of silence.
This is why interview anxiety is so common, even among seasoned professionals. It’s not that they don’t know their craft; it’s that the artificial environment throws them off balance.
Interviewing as a Skill
When you combine all three of these factors – the foreign subject matter, the demand for speed, and the unnatural environment, you begin to see why technical interviews are so hard.
But Ryan is clear: they are not impossible. They just require a shift in mindset.
“Interviewing is a skill that you need to build,” he says. And more than that, it’s one of the most valuable skills you can develop in your career. Unlike many technical skills that may lose relevance over time, the ability to perform well in interviews safeguards your career, expands your options, and puts you in control of your earning potential.
Ryan has seen this firsthand. Professionals who repeatedly failed interviews transformed their outcomes after going through structured preparation. Some even doubled their compensation. The message is clear: with the right practice, the interview process can go from a roadblock to a launchpad.
How to Approach Preparation
So what does it mean to treat interviewing as a skill? Here are a few takeaways from Ryan’s perspective:
- Train for the right problems. Don’t assume your day-to-day work is enough. Seek out algorithm challenges, system design case studies, and practice scenarios that mirror real interview questions.
- Practice under time pressure. The difference between three hours and 20 minutes is huge. You need to simulate interview conditions so that speed becomes second nature.
- Build comfort in uncomfortable settings. If interviews feel unnatural, the only way to improve is to expose yourself to that environment. Mock interviews with strangers, timed problem-solving sessions, and feedback loops can all help normalize the pressure.
- Invest in long-term skill building. Interviewing isn’t just about landing your next job. It’s about creating career insurance. The more confident you are in your ability to interview, the more freedom you have to pursue opportunities on your own terms.
The Bigger Picture
In 2025, the stakes are higher than ever in the tech industry. Top companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix, and OpenAI are fiercely competitive. Compensation packages are lucrative, but they come with grueling interview processes designed to filter for only the best-prepared candidates.
That’s why Ryan emphasizes that interview prep is not a side activity—it’s a central career strategy. For many professionals, the difference between plateauing and doubling their income is the ability to master interviews. And with the right preparation, what once felt like an impossible hurdle can become a gateway to life-changing opportunities.
Final Word
Technical interviews may never feel natural, but they don’t have to feel impossible. By recognizing what makes them hard—the questions, the speed, and the environment—you can start building the skills needed to succeed.
It won’t happen overnight, but with deliberate practice and the right support, you can turn one of the most dreaded experiences in tech into one of the most empowering. As Ryan puts it, “Interviewing is the most valuable skill you can build because it safeguards your career and puts you in a position to tremendously increase your compensation.”
In other words, learning how to interview well isn’t just about getting a job. It’s about securing your future.
Ready to turn interview anxiety into confidence? Join Interview Kickstart’s Fast-Track Interview Prep Course and learn proven strategies to crack the toughest tech interviews. Gain mastery in algorithms, system design, and behavioral skills—all under expert guidance from instructors who’ve worked at FAANG and other top-tier companies.
