[0xfaded]

I want to point out this passage:

"But I was accepted, while all of my friends weren’t. I just thought that it was because I prepped a lot for the interviews and my preparation paid off."

It's likely that the preparation did pay off and possible that the author was as smart as her friends but not confident enough to believe it.

I've always been a snarky know-it-all, and honestly when I don't have the answers I tend to extrapolate (read bs). It was only after talking to a long time friend who identified as having impostor syndrome I realised that this behaviour could be harmful.

She is a software engineer, beat me in school and should be running rings around me.

Take it from a snark, confidence doesn't always mean smarter.