Interview roadmap
Prepare for full stack and backend interviews with a focus on interview performance rather than exhaustive theory. Ordered by how often things actually get asked, not by how tidy the topics look.
Pareto track
135 topics of 354, picked against what September 2026 interview reports say is actually being asked. The bet is that these carry most of the outcome, and that going deep on them beats going wide on everything.
The heaviest signals behind the cut: the Node event loop is reported as the single most-tested concept at every level, so all five of its topics are in. React rounds expect you to raise useEffect cleanup and fetch race conditions unprompted. Live coding converges on a debounced input and a reusable fetch hook, so the polyfill drills are out and those two are in. Database rounds ask for indexes, EXPLAIN, N+1, transactions and isolation, not normal forms. Docker and CI are trimmed to basics rather than dropped, because shipping without them reads badly for someone claiming production ownership.
A judgement call built on those reports, not a measurement. The list is one block in lib/roadmap.ts, so it is meant to be argued with. Nothing is deleted: switch to Full and every topic is still there, with your ticks intact.
Standing rules
The pass bar
A topic is not done because you read it. Tick it when all three are true.
- Explain it in three minutes, with no notes.
- Answer three follow-up questions on it.
- Write one code example from scratch.
Spaced revision
Re-explain each module aloud on day 3 and again on day 10 after learning it. Ten minutes each time.
The day
- DSANon-negotiable, every day
- Learn one module
- Explain it aloudNo notes
- Mock Q and A, or machine coding
- Spaced revision of an older module
- Log mistakes
160 minutes a day.
Phase 01
JavaScript core
Async, closures and this come first. They get asked more than everything else here combined.
Phase 02
TypeScript
Before React, because every React answer below is written in it.
Phase 03
React
Hooks, then performance, then rendering, then SSR.
Phase 04
Node.js
Event loop, then middleware and auth, then streams, then workers, then sockets.
Phase 05
Databases
Phase 06
Low level design
Phase 07
System design
A full distributed chat system is a five year question. It is off the list on purpose.
Phase 08
Docker and deployment
Last, and lowest weight. Do not let it eat a week.
Phase 09
Project deep dive and mocks
Runs continuously from week two, not at the end. Highest return of anything on this page.
Daily
DSA
45 minutes a day, every day. Not a phase, and not something to catch up on later.
Problems solved
Target is 50: 35 easy and 15 medium.
Progress is saved in this browser only.