← Anthropic Interview Insights
This is basically asking you to describe your entire engineering process in one shot, which sounds manageable until you realize how much ground it covers.
Start by clarifying the problem's scope and constraints with the interviewer, then outline a modular design that separates concerns (e.g., core logic, I/O, config, tests). Emphasize reproducibility, documentation, and trade-offs, and walk through your implementation plan step by step, showing how you'd validate with tests and analyze complexity.
Pro tip: Treat the exercise as a mini production project: set up a clear project structure, use type hints and docstrings, and include a README with setup and run instructions. This demonstrates that you write code for others to read, run, and maintain—exactly what Anthropic values.
Ask questions to understand the problem's scope, expected inputs/outputs, performance needs, and any constraints (e.g., time, dependencies). Confirm assumptions and edge cases before designing.
Sketch a high-level design: separate core logic, I/O, configuration, and utilities into modules or notebook sections. Choose data structures based on access patterns and complexity, and justify trade-offs.
Write clean, documented code with error handling, logging, and configurable parameters. Use type hints and docstrings, and handle edge cases gracefully.
Write unit tests for core functions, covering normal and edge cases. Run tests in Colab, and use assertions or a testing framework. Analyze time/space complexity and note potential optimizations.
Pin dependencies, provide a requirements.txt or environment.yml, and include a README with setup and usage instructions. Structure the notebook with clear sections and markdown explanations for reviewers.
AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.