Video interviews are now the default first round for most tech roles. And most developers treat them like an in-person interview — same prep, same approach, just sitting at home instead of an office. That's leaving real edge on the table. Video introduces specific friction that in-person interviews don't have. The candidates who understand this friction and eliminate it consistently outperform equally qualified candidates who don't. Here's what actually matters. Why Video Is Harder Than In-Person Video compression reduces your expressiveness. The energy in a room, the warmth of a handshake — none of it survives a codec. Interviewers on video make stronger snap judgments because they have less signal to work with. What comes through the camera matters more, not less. There's also a split-attention problem. You're managing your audio, your framing, and your background while simultaneously trying to articulate a clean answer to a system design question. That cognitive overhead is real.…