Ask what the round actually is

I watched this happen twice in one week.

An engineer sat a technical round expecting concept questions and got a coding exercise. Another prepared for live coding and got forty minutes of theory. Both had done the work. Both had done it for a different room.

Neither had asked.

The fix costs one email, and in fifteen years I have never seen a recruiter mind the question.

Send this: could you tell me the format and length of the session so I can prepare appropriately.

That is the whole thing. It reads as preparation rather than nerves, and recruiters answer it because a prepared candidate makes them look good in front of the hiring manager.

What changes with the answer.

A question round rewards spoken answers. Three topics prepared to depth, not seven prepared thinly, and say them out loud before the day.

A live coding round rewards narration. The first five minutes are not for code. Restate the problem, ask one clarifying question, say your plan in three steps, then type. This feels slower and reads as senior.

A system design round rewards clarifying before deciding. State the constraints back before you draw anything.

If they cannot tell you, prepare for a question round and add the narration habit. That covers both.

Now the part worth more than the format.

When you ask, you often learn who is in the room, and that changes the answer more than the format does. A round with the hiring manager present is a different conversation from one with two peers. The manager is deciding whether to hire you. The peers are deciding whether they want to work with you. Same questions, different thing being measured, and it is worth knowing which before you walk in.

Preparation is not only what you study. It is knowing what you are preparing for.