[CS Technical Interview 1] Computer Architecture That Makes Sense

🥲 Getting a developer job, coding tests weren't the end.

As a non-major, when I first prepared for developer employment, I was obsessed only with algorithms and coding tests. I gained some confidence and passed most coding tests. However, I kept failing at the next hurdle, technical interviews.
What was the problem? It was the lack of CS (Computer Science) knowledge. In interviews, CS fundamentals were considered much more important than algorithms.

🗣 For actual interviews, 'speaking practice' was important.

Even after filling in my CS fundamentals, interviews weren't easy. At a certain company's interview, I was asked about floating-point numbers. It was content I had definitely read multiple times in books and thought I understood, but I couldn't utter a single word. That's when I realized it. Passive learning through simply reading and understanding cannot provide answers in real situations.

To succeed in interviews, you need not only to accumulate a lot of knowledge but also the ability to explain this knowledge. This 'ability to explain' can only be developed through practicing to organize concepts in just a few sentences and articulate them out loud. Through this process, you can also discover what you didn't know precisely. Without sufficient practice, you'll encounter the following problems.

1. Conceptual Confusion Type

❓InterviewerWhat are the characteristics of object-oriented programming?
💬 Candidate The SOLID principles. First, S is..(omitted)...

This is a case of confusing similar concepts.
SOLID is an OOP design principle, and the characteristics of object-oriented programming are abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism.
The moment you mix up related concepts, the interviewer judges that 'your fundamentals are shaky.'
This is because it's not just a simple mistake, but rather a signal that the conceptual framework is not properly established.

2. Lack of Specificity Type

❓Interviewer What are the characteristics of TCP?
💬 Candidate It's a protocol that guarantees reliability.
❓ Interviewer What are the mechanisms that guarantee reliability?
💬 Candidate Uh... well... it makes transmission secure... like that...

This is a case where you only know the What, but are missing the How/Why.
You only know the superficial answers and aren't prepared to explain the underlying principles.
TCP establishes communication through connection (3-way handshake), ensures reliability through RDT (sequence numbers, ACK, retransmission, etc.), and maintains quality through flow control and congestion control.
These concepts need to be connected as one cohesive flow in your mind. Without organizing concepts concretely, you cannot prepare for follow-up questions.

3. Getting tongue-tied with basic questions

❓Interviewer What is HTTP?
💬 Candidate Um... it's for sending and receiving data on the web... something like that...?

It's such a familiar concept, but when asked to explain it in one sentence, the words don't come easily.
Words like request, response, server, and client come to mind, but they don't flow together into a natural sentence.
This is because we've never practiced explaining from definition to principles in one coherent flow.
This isn't a lack of knowledge, but an absence of structure.

Just knowing is not enough. It only becomes true skill when you can express it in words.

🔥 That's why I created it. The CS Technical Interview Series That Gets You Talking!

🎯 Recommended for these people

Non-majors · Job seekers · Career changers and others who are preparing for technical interviews and need to be able to articulate CS fundamentals verbally

⚡ Lecture Core Kick

📘 Technical Interview Practical WorkbookProvided

💡 Use it like this

💬 Q. The lecture time is short, but will I be able to learn properly?

🔥 Reviews from students who experienced it first

A truly helpful course.
Already proven by 2,000+ students.

🖐 Hello! Let me introduce myself! 🙇

I created this course thinking of my past self who stayed up all night worrying about fundamentals and felt anxious over every single interview question.

I started as a non-CS major and understand better than anyone the thirst for fundamentals (CS knowledge, programming languages, etc.). Through self-studying countless materials and building my own know-how, I eventually graduated from Seoul National University and now work as a 🧑🏻‍💻 Kakao developer.

Since childhood, I've been more confident than anyone else in combining and reconstructing various materials to create 'my own comprehensive study notes.' This course is precisely that 'ultimate self-study know-how' and a secret notebook born from all my passion and philosophy.

🔥 What makes this course special?

• All of my 'know-how' is included: As a non-CS major, I have fully incorporated my experience and know-how of self-studying CS and programming languages and getting hired at a large corporation. I have included in this course all the methods for how to most efficiently understand complex and abstract concepts and make them your own.

• 'Fundamentals' are key in any development field: Whether you're aiming for game development, AI, web/app development, or any other field, basic computer science knowledge is not optional but essential. This course helps you become a true expert based on solid fundamentals.

• We compete with 'overwhelming quality': I've referenced countless materials including textbooks, famous university lectures, commercial books, and technical interview resources to extract core keywords and reconstruct them in my own unique way. With intuitive diagrams and illustrations, plus easy explanations infused with my practical experience, I promise to make even complex concepts click with that "Ah, now I get it!" moment.

🚀 Introducing the first lecture [Computer Architecture] from the Technical Interview Master Roadmap.

📕 Computer Architecture is a subject that serves as the foundation of all computer science concepts.

• You know binary, but are you confused about how negative numbers/real numbers are stored❓

• Pipelining/Superscalar, you've heard of them but can you explain why they're necessary❓

This course is the one and only solution that will quench that thirst of yours. Rather than simply memorizing concepts, it clearly organizes computer architecture(computer-architecture) with a diagram-centered, flow-centered, and practice-centered approach, helping you transform into 'someone who truly knows'.

🎯 Through this course, you will be able to clearly answer the following questions.

• What components make up a CPU and what does it do?
  → We'll easily explain the roles of the arithmetic logic unit, registers, and control unit, along with the instruction processing flow through diagrams.

• How are RAM and cache different, and why is a hierarchical structure necessary?
  → Explains the structural differences based on memory access speed and location with examples.

• How do hard disks and flash memory work differently and when are they used?
  → We intuitively compare the types, operating methods, and performance differences of secondary storage devices.

• How are instructions structured, and how does the CPU execute them?
  → We organize interview staple concepts like instruction formats, addressing modes, and pipelining with a focus on diagrams.

• How does a computer receive and output data?
  → Explains the control methods of input/output devices and their connection relationships with practical systems.

  
  

  
  

📌 At the end of the course, a practical interview practice chapter awaits you.

You can also practice answering frequently asked technical interview questions like "What does the CPU do?", "Why is cache memory necessary?", and "What are interrupts and why are they needed?" by giving one or two sentence responses on your own.

📖 A curriculum packed with only the essentials

This is the table of contents and key keywords you will learn in this course.

If there are any unfamiliar keywords, make sure to grasp them thoroughly this time. It's free, after all.

✏ Here's what you'll learn

👀 Course Preview

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💡 Curious about other interview preparation courses? Check out the roadmap below :)

🔗 Technical Interview Master Roadmap

Pre-enrollment Reference Information