Lambda School List of Interview Questions and Process

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What questions are you asked during the lambda school interview process? In this article, I will reveal 6 questions that you are asked during the interview and why they ask you those questions. The reason why I am putting this out there is so that you are prepared for your over the phone interview. I wish something like this was available when I first applied to lambda school. These questions does not encompass potential future questions and they might differ from the questions you are asked, but it will provide you with an overall idea of what type of questions to expect and help you to prepare for whatever questions they might throw at you.

When you apply to lambda school, you will gain access to pre-course work that is applicable to which program you applied for. Lambda school wants you to finish the pre-course work before you schedule your interview. The pre-course work is essential to your success at lambda school. Finishing the pre-course shows them that you are serious about becoming their student and it greatly increases your chances of getting accepted.

After filling out your application, based on what your application says and maybe based on your pre-course work performance, lambda school will determine if you could potentially be a good fit for their school. If they determine that you might be the right candidate for their school, then they will send you an email with a link for you to schedule your phone interview with somebody from the lambda school admission team.

Disclaimer: you  might not get asked the exact same questions in the exact same order, so don’t memorize an answer beforehand. These questions is to share with you what questions they asked me and to give you a general sense of what type of questions to expect. This way, you can do some mental preparation and not be caught off guard by the questions like I did.

The interview itself is about 10 minutes long. Once you have made it to the interview stage, lets discuss what questions to expect.

Question 1: what is your experience with programming and online courses?

This question is to access whether or not you have any prior experience with online course. Lambda school is not an online course, it is a live interactive class with a live teacher and other live students. But still, having prior experience with online courses is an indication that you have an understanding of how online education works.

They also want to know if you have ever finished an online course or if you are the type of person that jumps from course to course. If you tell them you have finished an online course before and where you took the online course from and what subject you learned even if it is not related to programming, it will increase your chances of getting accepted.

They do not want people that jump from online course to online course. If you are the type of person that has a hard time finishing a self-paced online course, then you will really really have a hard time finishing lambda school because lambda school is very rigorous, 40 hours a week, every week for 9 months. They want people who has the tenacity and patience to go through and finish an online course not course jumpers.

The question relating to your experience with programming is to access your level of knowledge with computer science field. This is not a determining factor because lambda school is designed for absolute beginners and the pre-course work will help get you up to speed before your school program starts. If you have prior programming experience, that is great and that is a plus factor. But if you are a complete newbie to programming, you don’t have much to worry about.

Although I have admit that based on their pre-course work and their overall tone, they prefer people with some prior programming experience. Having a programming experience will increase your chances of getting accepted because it proves to them that you know what you are getting yourself into. As opposed to somebody with no programming experience that probably have no clue what they are about to get themselves into.

Question 2: what is your time commitment to the program and the school?

They ask you this question because lambda school is a live interactive class that starts at 8am pacific time and ends at 5pm pacific time, Monday through Friday for full time students. And 6pm to 9pm Monday through Thursday, and your choice of Friday, Saturday, or Sunday class for part time students. So, if you are a full time student, it is like having a full time job. If you are a part time student, it will be physically and mentally exhausting to sit down and learn after a long day at work.

They want to know if you have things that you are committed to that will prevent you from attending class at the specified time. Remember that lambda school is not an online course, so it is not self paced and you can not take class whenever you want. You have to be present at all times during class hours and you must attend 95% of classes in order to succeed and remain in the program. This means that you cannot miss more than one class a month. They want to make sure you have free time and is available to attend all classes. If you miss too many classes, they will kick you out of the school program.

If you tell them something like you have a basketball you have to coach at 4pm every day, or you have a spin class at 11am everyday, you most likely won’t get accepted because you obviously don’t have free time to take classes. The main point is that when you start lambda school, they want to make sure you don’t have anything that is time conflicting with your lambda school schedule.

Question 3: can you attend lambda next after lambda school is over?

Lambda next is their career preparation program. Lambda school wants to help you get a job using the education they provided you. Lambda next is a couple of weeks where they work with you to help you fine tune your resume, social media profiles, linkedin profile, and teach you how to apply for a job, negotiate a wage, and pass the job interview process.

Lambda school is heavily invested in you getting a job because they only make money when you the student get a job. So, they want to make sure you are willing to participate in lambda next and put in the work effort necessary to find a job. They don’t want people who are going to get a masters degree or a PhD immediately after lambda school. They want people who are ready to go into the workforce after lambda school. So, being able to attend lambda next is crucial to your job success after lambda school and lambda want you to be successful in your job search which is why they insist and wants you to attend lambda next.

Question 4: What is your plan to support yourself financially while you are in school?

The reason why the ask this question is because lambda school itself is a full time gig if you are a full time student. So, you don’t have time to work full time and earn money while you are in lambda school and this is a big problem especially if you have family that depends on your income. Lets be honest, just because you are in school doesn’t mean your bills disappear or pay themselves with magic money. They want to know how you are going to pay your bills while you are in lambda school.

They want to know if you have an emergency fund and how long that emergency fund is going to last you. If your emergency fund runs out as soon as you finish lambda school, then you are in trouble because this will negatively affect your job search. Instead of focusing on your job search after lambda school, you will find yourself scrambling to make money to pay your bills which might lead you to go back to your old job full time and therefore, you won’t have a lot of time to search for jobs and do interviews. The longer you work at your old job to make money just to get by during your job search, the longer it takes you to look for a job, and the more you loose your motivation to look for a new job with your new found skills.

They want to know if you can work nights and weekends to support yourself. They want to know if you have a spouse that can financially support you while you are in school. At the end of the day, the just want to know your game plan to pay your bills while you are in school.

Now, if you are attending the part time program, then this is not a problem because if you are in the part time program the assumption is that you work a full time job and are going to school part time. The part time program is ideal for people with families to support financially and can’t afford to step away from their current jobs for 9 months or longer.

Question 5: Why should lambda invest in you?

The reason why they ask you this question is because lambda school is a true investment into their students. Unlike traditional schools where you pay them 6 figures upfront in student loans to get an obsolete degree that doesn’t pay enough to cover your basic living expenses, lambda school educates you first and then you pay them back once you get a job. If you don’t know how lambda school works, here is a quick explanation. You have two payment options.

• Option 1: you pay $20K upfront before attending lambda school and they will still help you get a job. Once you get a job with your education, you won’t have to pay lambda school another dime. Or what makes lambda school stand out and different from all other schools…

• Option 2: You go to lambda school for free and once you graduate and get a job with your education making $50K a year or more, then you pay lambda school back 17% of your gross income before taxes for 2 years. After 24 payments, you don’t have to pay lambda school another dime ever. The maximum amount of money you could ever pay lambda school is $30K.

• If you get a job paying less than $50K per year, then you don’t pay lambda school anything for your education. If you get a job without using your education, then you don’t pay lambda school anything. For example, if you go through the data science program and then after lambda school you get a job as an electrician making $80K per year, then you don’t pay lambda school anything because the job you have is unrelated to the education you received from lambda school.

• This process is called income sharing agreement and it is not a loan, so there is no interest on the money you pay them back. With this process, you share a percentage of your income with lambda school after you go through lambda school and get a job instead of taking out a massive amount of loan upfront to pay them for your education and then deal with the ramifications and interest later whether you get a job or not. This income sharing agreement is active for 5 years. After 5 years, if you don’t get a job with your lambda school education, then your income sharing agreement expires.

As you can see, lambda school has the best school system available in the world of tech training right now. They are taking the risk of learning technology and getting a job in the tech field away from students and they are taking that risk unto themselves. They are eliminating the barrier that is stopping many talented and bright people from pursuing a career in technology. They are putting a lot of faith and trust in their system of educating their student and helping them get a job. They are betting on their students to be successful in the marketplace.

So, this brings us back to the original question. Why should they put their faith and trust in you? Why should they take on the risk of educating you? Why should they believe in you enough to give you a chance to pursue a new career in tech? why should they invest in you?

That is a question you have to answer for yourself.

Question 6: Any question you have for them?

Now that you have an idea of what type of questions to expect during your lambda school interview process, it is up to you to meditate on these questions and then come up with any questions you might have for them.

Thank you so much for reading. Let me know in the comment section below how your interview went or if you have an interview coming up soon. If you have any questions about lambda school, let me know in the comment section below.