Emerson BraunThe interview game changed.
This book changed with it.
The only prep guide rewritten for the AI era — AI system design, prompt engineering, ML fundamentals — by an engineer who's run 500+ interviews and watched the shift firsthand.
What's new in the AI era
Three chapters on interview skills that didn't exist five years ago. In 2026, you will be asked about these.
AI System Design
Design RAG pipelines, agent architectures, and evaluation systems — the fastest-growing interview category.
Prompt Engineering
Write, debug, and optimize prompts for production. The new technical screen.
ML Fundamentals
Embeddings, vector DBs, tokenization, and the RAG vs fine-tuning decision framework. Speak the language.
Everything inside
13 chapters across 4 parts — refined from 500+ interviews and 15+ years in the trenches.
Data Structures & Algorithms
Patterns over memorization — plus Big O and the analysis interviewers expect.
Problem-Solving Framework
A repeatable method to break down any coding challenge out loud.
System Design
Scaling, caching, and trade-offs — with a framework you can run live.
AI System Design
RAG pipelines, agent architectures, and evaluation — the new frontier.
Behavioral & STAR
Stories that land, and the questions to ask back to win the room.
Offers & Negotiation
Turn an offer into upside — and the mindset to keep leveling up.
"The only prep book that actually covers the AI rounds. I walked into my system-design interview and they asked exactly what chapter 7 prepared me for."
15 years evaluating engineers. Now it's yours.
Software Architect with 15+ years shipping production code, 180+ engineers led, and 500+ technical interviews conducted. I've seen what separates the engineers who ship from the ones who only sound like they do.
AI changed both sides of the table. Most prep guides haven't caught up. This one has — and it's free.
The book is just the start
I build an open ecosystem for shipping production AI agents in JavaScript.
Get the book. Free, forever.
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