Implement a 2D convolution (the forward pass) from scratch.
Coding conv2d shows you understand what a CNN layer really computes rather than just being able to name it. Interviewers watch for correct output-shape math, tidy stride and padding handling, and awareness of the im2col trick frameworks actually rely on.
Updated Sep 2026 · Grounded in real GenAI, LLM, and AI/ML engineering interview loops and written to a senior-engineer editorial bar.
Coding conv2d shows you understand what a CNN layer really computes rather than just being able to name it. Interviewers watch for correct output-shape math, tidy stride and padding handling, and awareness of the im2col trick frameworks actually rely on.
Lead with where the obvious approach breaks, because that is the judgment they are screening for — most candidates jump straight to the happy path and lose the room.
Then walk the failure back through the pipeline in order, naming the one metric the customer's exec sponsor actually cares about before you propose the fix.