How flashcards helped me to get a dream web dev job with paid relocation

Hi!

I'm Ilyas Seisov - web dev.

Want to share a quick story how flashcards helped me to get a dream web dev job & relocation package for my family and I.

I've been searching for remote job for 18 months. Applied to over 1000 remote and relocation jobs, got around 20-30 interviews. Failed at most of them.

And one thing I noticed is that I was failing not a hard live algorithms problems, but at simple Q&A i.e. "What are portals in React?", "Explain GET in HTTP".

Once, I nailed the weak spot, I started looking for training method and stumbled upon flashcards (active recall). This scientific method helps to remember information for good. There are series of scientific research papers on this subject, the earliest mention at 1885.

How exactly I was preparing

Step 1: I identified exact topics which I would tested on

I simply emailed HR and asked what topics should I prep for. And surprisingly I would get the list.

Step 2: I used ChatGPT to generate flashcards on topics

I asked AI to generate 20-30 flashcards and serve them one by one. But one thing I didn't like is that ChatGPT would guide me wrong 1-2 times out of 10. Later I started to enrich the context with official docs URL.

By using those two steps my performance skyrocketed. And as a grand finale I passed 4 rounds of interview and got $5,500/mo job with paid relocation. The tech recruiter said that I made 95% score on the test. Thank you flashcards.

And this experience has given me an inspiration to create 99cards.dev. The platform with over 4900 flashcards and 24 web dev categories.

One of the beta testers said: "Personally, I would use the app if I were a developer — both to refresh my knowledge and to prepare for technical interviews. At the same time, there is definitely room for UX improvement."

You can try 99cards.dev at no risk today.

Hope it help you to prep for your next interview!

Ilyas