My Next Hop vs Anki and Flashcard Apps for Interview Prep

Anki and spaced-repetition flashcard apps are genuinely effective at one specific thing: building durable recall. If you need to remember that OSPF uses a 4-byte Router ID or that BGP's default local preference is 100, spaced repetition is a well-proven method for making that stick.

What Spaced Repetition Is Genuinely Good At

The problem is that recall isn't what a network engineering interview actually tests. Flipping a card and recognizing the answer proves you can recognize it — it doesn't prove you can produce it, unprompted, out loud, in a coherent structure, to someone who keeps asking 'why' until the edge cases surface. Those are different skills, and the gap between them is exactly where interviews are won or lost.

Recognition Isn't Production

My Next Hop uses the same SM-2 spaced-repetition scheduling Anki does — that part isn't reinvented, because it works. The difference is what the cards are for and where they come from: they're generated automatically from your own weak answers after a scored practice session, not a generic deck someone else built, and they exist to reinforce material you're actively producing by voice, not to replace that production practice with pure recognition.

Same Algorithm, Different Purpose

If you're building foundational recall — protocol numbers, well-known ports, RFC names — flashcards are still a reasonable tool. Once you're preparing for an actual panel, the main event needs to be producing the answer, not recognizing it.