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This past summer I did a couple interviews for a position that sounds similar to this one. If the interviewer is like me, these tips will be helpful:

-Do some of the Project Euler problems: http://projecteuler.net/index.php?section=problems . Think about how you could optimize your solutions. -Read/skim through the 'language reference' section (http://www.php.net/manual/en/langref.php) of the PHP manual, paying particular attention to the PHP5 section on classes/objects.

-Familiarize yourself with a couple of the popular PHP5 frameworks (cake, symfony, codeigniter), just do get a general idea of how object-oriented web applications are done. If you have time, play around with one of the sample apps or build something simple (i.e. a blog).

-Make sure you're comfortable with all the relevant PHP and SQL vocabulary--not just the definition, but also the application.

Specifically, here are some questions from my usual set of technical questions: -Explain the difference between private, public, and protected, and give an example where each is useful. -Explain the difference between an abstract class and an interface, and when each is useful. -Explain the difference between an inner join and an outer join. -What is the difference between GET and POST? -In as much detail as you can, explain what happens between the time when you type "http://www.google.com" into your address bar and press enter, and the time when Google's homepage appears on your screen. (Looking for basic knowledge of DNS, routing, TCP/IP, and more specific knowledge about the HTTP protocol)

-(Given a small db written on the whiteboard,) write a handful of SQL queries (testing knowledge of joins, group by, having, subselects)

-Two PHP coding questions, one solved by writing a recursive function and one to write a basic class for string-processing.

I'd also ask a few questions about HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

Hope this helps, and good luck!



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