On Tuesday, September 9th, UIS graduate student Max Pilipovic-Kljajic gave the first talk in the Computer Science Department’s Learning Hub webinar series. This is the first of nine sessions designed to help UIS Computer Science students prepare for programming interviews and understand the types of problems they may encounter.

Pilipovic-Kljajic, an international student from Australia, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Eastern Illinois University and is pursuing graduate studies at UIS. Passionate about programming, he explained, “I see programming as art, and I enjoy sharing my knowledge online as a way to connect with others and open doors for opportunities.”

The webinars aim to introduce programming concepts that are essential for interview preparation. Pilipovic-Kljajic shared that his own interview experiences were technical and fast-paced, which motivated him to create the series. “I started this series to give more insight to students in college about ‘Getting Ready for Interviews,’” he said. “This topic isn’t really covered in college, and it’s something I had to figure out on my own later in my journey to land a role as a software engineer. I wanted to provide guidance that I wish I had earlier.”

Tuesday’s session focused on two fundamental programming concepts: arrays and hashing. These are among the most popular methods for storing data in a program. During the webinar, Pilipovic-Kljajic explained the concepts, highlighted common interview questions and pitfalls, demonstrated best practices, and performed live coding exercises to show practical solutions. He also recommended using LeetCode.com to practice coding challenges likely to appear in interviews.

For more information about this webinar series, students can visit UIS Connections.