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This is a straight-to-the-point, distilled list of technical interview Do's and Don'ts, mainly for algorithmic interviews. Some of these may apply to only phone screens or whiteboard interviews, but most will apply to both. I read this list before each of my interviews to remind myself of the key points.

Prepare pen, paper and earphones/headphones.

Find a quiet environment with good Internet connection.

Ensure webcam and audio are working. There were times I had to restart Chrome to get Hangouts to work again.

Request for the option to interview over Hangouts/Skype instead of a phone call; it is easier to send links or text across.

Decide on and be familiar with a programming language.

Familiarize yourself with the coding environment (CoderPad/CodePen). Set up the coding shortcuts, turn on autocompletion, tab spacing, etc.

Prepare some questions to ask at the end of the interview.

Dress comfortably. Usually you do not need to wear smart clothes, casual should be fine. T-shirts and jeans are acceptable at most places.

Stay calm and composed.

Introduce yourself in a few sentences under a minute or two.

Mention interesting points that are relevant to the role you are applying for.

Sound enthusiastic! Speak with a smile and you will naturally sound more engaging.

Repeat the question back at the interviewer.

Clarify any assumptions you made subconsciously. Many questions are under-specified on purpose. A tree-like diagram could very well be a graph that allows for cycles and a naive recursive solution would not work.

Clarify input format and range. Ask whether input can be assumed to be well-formed and non-null.

Work through a small example to ensure you understood the question.

Explain a high level approach even if it is a brute force one.

Improve upon the approach and optimize. Reduce duplicated work and cache repeated computations.

Think carefully, then state and explain the time and space complexity of your approaches.

If stuck, think about related problems you have seen before and how they were solved.

Don't ignore information given to you. Every piece is important.

Don't jump into coding straightaway.

Don't start coding without interviewer's green light.

Don't Appear too unsure about your approach or analysis.

Explain what you are coding to the interviewer and what you are trying to achieve.

Practice good coding style. Meaningful variable names, consistent operator spacing, proper indentation, etc.

Type/write at a reasonable speed.

As much as possible, write actual compilable code, not pseudocode.

Write in a modular fashion. Extract out chunks of repeated code into functions.

Ask for permission to use trivial functions without having to implement them; saves you some time.

Keep in mind the hints given by the interviewer.

Demonstrate mastery of your chosen programming language.

Demonstrate technical knowledge in data structures and algorithms.

If you are cutting corners in your code, state that out loud to your interviewer and say what you would do in a non-interview setting (no time constraints). E.g., I would write a regex to parse this string rather than using split() which may not cover all cases.

Practice whiteboard space-management skills.

Don't remain quiet the whole time.

Don't spend too much time writing comments.

Don't use extremely verbose variable names.

Don't interrupt your interviewer when they are talking. Usually if they speak, they are trying to give you hints or steer you in the right direction.

Don't write too big (takes up too much space) or too small (illegible).

Scan through your code for mistakes as if it was your first time seeing code written by someone else.

Check for off-by-one errors.

Come up with more test cases. Try extreme test cases.

Step through your code with those test cases.

Look out for places where you can refactor.

Reiterate the time and space complexity of your code.

Explain trade-offs and how the code can be improved if given more time.

Don't immediately announce that you are done coding. Do the above first!

Don't argue with the interviewer. They may be wrong but that is very unlikely given that they are familiar with the question.

Ask questions. More importantly, ask good and engaging questions that are tailored to the company.

Thank the interviewer.

Don't ask about your interview performance. It can get awkward.

Don't end the interview without asking any questions.

Record the interview questions and answers down as these can be useful for future reference.

Send a follow up email to your interviewer(s) thanking them for their time and the opportunity to interview with them.