14-Day Interview Practice Ramp

This is the day-by-day calendar for the two weeks before a live-coding interview. The default is editor-first practice with comments, working code, focused tests, and one correction. Timed board or observed work appears only when pressure is the skill being trained. The broader method and rubric live in sheet 10.

Keep nearby

• The booklet (booklet.pdf): decision trees and one algorithm per page.
• Sheets 01, 03, 05: standard library, templates, and pattern triggers.
• Sheet 10: interview method and optional pressure protocol.
• Sheet 07: interview-day logistics for Week 2.

The daily editor loop

1. Pick: run just study-spaced 1 and use its printed editor command.
2. Think: write ordinary source comments or docstrings in your own words, then save and explicitly continue.
3. Build: implement in the isolated source and add cases in your test tab.
4. Check: use /continue or just practice-next, then run just practice-test or just practice-repl.
5. Reflect: trace one example and reconcile comments with the code.
6. Close: name one win and one fix, then run just practice-finish "one specific fix". This saves the note and schedules review together.

Four-hour allocation

Time	Work
0:00-0:10	Arrival ritual: breathing + worry dump + reappraisal + choose first draw
0:10-1:40	One or two cold editor reps with comments, code, and focused tests
1:40-1:55	Real break
1:55-2:55	Trace, REPL, and test work on the single largest miss
2:55-3:40	Optional observed or timed rep; otherwise another editor rep
3:40-4:00	One-fix closeout and tomorrow's first draw

Example cycle (fill in your own dates)

This run: Day 1 = Sun Jul 5, 2026, interviews ≈ Jul 20. Adjust the anchor; the shape holds for any two-week window.

Week 1: build the editor reflex

Day	Focus	Problems	Sheets open	Observer
1	Read sheet 10, then easy arrays	arrays two_sum, arrays group_anagrams	10, 03, 01	none
2	Arrays + stacks/queues	arrays product_except_self, stacks_queues valid_parentheses, stacks_queues daily_temperatures	03, 05, 01	none
3	Sliding window + binary search; narrate one recovery from a blank	sliding_window longest_substring_no_repeat, searching binary_search, searching search_rotated_array	03, 05	none
4	BFS/DFS + linked lists	graphs number_of_islands, graphs course_schedule, linked_lists reverse_linked_list	03, 02	none
5	Trees + heaps; first optional human-observed editor rep	trees validate_bst, trees level_order_traversal, heaps kth_largest	02, 03	person
6	Trees/trie + shore up your weakest rubric row	trees trie, 2 review draws	08, 02	person
7	Rest (or one light review rep). Rest is training.	none	none	none

Week 2: breadth plus optional pressure

Day	Focus	Problems	Sheets open	Observer
8	Graphs, the heaviest topic	graphs dijkstra, graphs topological_sort, graphs bellman_ford	03, 06	optional person
9	Dynamic programming	dp coin_change, dp edit_distance, dp knapsack, dp longest_increasing_subseq	03	person interrupts
10	Mixed cold draws; optionally time one editor rep at 35 minutes	just study-spaced 3	07, 05	optional person
11	Backtracking + greedy + strings	backtracking subsets, backtracking n_queens, greedy merge_intervals, strings valid_palindrome	03, 05	person
12	Observed live-coding mock with back-to-back editor problems	3 cold draws	07, 10 (§7 card)	person
13	Taper. Review your best rep notes and run one light editor rep.	1 easy draw	10 (§7)	none
14	Rest. Read the sheet-10 §7 card and sheet 07.	none	10 (§7), 07	none

The target is one improved signal per day, not a perfect score or a completed row count.