I know that we should prepare for coding questions of the sorts of medium and hard ones from leetcode. i know good communication skills and analytical skills are important too. but what else matters? like havinng and being active on github, or doing pet projects in personal time? or being up to date with technology knowledge or technology business news? or having worked in great projects in the past companies? what are the other secret sauces?
None of the extras you listed matter in a coding intervew. In the behavioral round side projects will give you a few talking points. What does matter is system design.
Github, personal projects don't matter unless you are a new grad. Being up to date with tech news also doesn't matter much for getting in. Great projects can be important if you are going for higher levels. There is no secret sauce. It's just a combination of algorithm skills, system design skills, communication and luck.
how did u prep for design? thought I did well but they didn't like my design