[liquidcool]

Shocked to hear nobody asked about past projects, that's usually the core of the interview. What are they asking instead? If behavioral questions, are you practicing those?

And if they are not asking about algorithms, you're likely not interviewing at startups or major software companies. I know startups tend to go for experienced engineers, but you still have established s/w companies.

Short answer is to contribute to a popular open source project, that should raise eyebrows. I find meetups are also motivating. Finally, I have a developer career course (link in profile). Will help focus your efforts.

[_b36s]

I'll be honest. I can only remember one company actually asking me about my projects. They invited me on-site for a $15/hr position. Then randomly, out-of-the-blue prompted me to bring up my code, somehow, on their laptop. I obviously didn't have it, besides some poorly looking code hosted on Github.

"What are they asking instead?"

SAT score. Why did I choose my university, instead of going to a higher ranked one? Expected salary. Favorite programming language. Most commonly, how well I know the skills listed in the job description, what I'm interested in learning, and whether I'm more interested working with front end or back end. Tell me about yourself. I did once get actual STAR questions from Quicken Loans

An example of an interview (more like a phone screen) I had with Booz Allen Hamilton:

1) "Why did you leave your last job after 2 months?" (it was obviously a 2 month contract)

2) "Are you more interested in front or back end, or more full stack?"

3) "Will you be able to pass the background check?"

4) "Have you ever worked for the government?"

5) "How well do you know the referrer?"

6) "How did you find about this job?"

With an on-site at a software shop for a .NET role. Note: that they gave me a take-home project to do, then never discussed it:

1) "How well do you know this <skill>?"

2) "What do you read to learn about new stuff?"

3) "How do you know when to stop researching and instead actually do the coding?"

4) "Do you play video games?"

5) "Tell me about yourself."

With an on-site at a travel company -- that you probably haven't heard of -- for a VB.NET role:

It was simply a "tell me about yourself" to the CEO, and a couple of implementing some functions on paper, and writing some SQL. I aced the writing portion.

I've applied to startups, most of the time. They generally ask tech knowledge/trivia.