In the past few months, I have interviewed at 40+ companies. Some of the big companies where I have interviewed are:
- Amazon
- TwoSigma
- VISA
- Charles Schwab
I will be giving you guys a few important resources that will help you improve your performance in your coding interviews.
1. Prepare by reading
Read the following books. Hover the cursor to download the books:
- Cracking the coding interview: This book is a popular guide to programming interviews which includes code examples, information on the latest languages, sorting and design patterns, tips. This guide covers what software companies and IT departments want their programmers to know and includes plenty of helpful hints to boost your confidence.
This book is also written as an answer for anyone to pick up programming language and be productive and help you to crack the interview. You will be able to start from scratch without having any previous exposure to any programming language. By the end of this book, you will have the skills to be a capable programmer, or at least know what is involved with programming interview and how to read and write code. - Programming Interviews Exposed: This classic book uncovers what interviews are really like at America’s top software and computer companies and provides you with the tools to succeed in any situation. The authors take you step-by-step through new problems and complex brainteasers they were asked during recent technical interviews.
- Data Structures by GeeksForGeeks: This is the ultimate data structures book which contains all the GeeksForGeeks articles on Data Structures.
- Algorithms by GeeksForGeeks: This is the ultimate data structures book which contains all the GeeksForGeeks articles on Algorithms.
- Leetcode Premium book: The book gives a very comprehensive explanation of the problem, the thoughts about how to solve it, and also provides detail and clean code with different time and space complexity. Very good for technical interview preparation.
2. Prepare by watching Videos
Check out the following youtube videos:
- Hackerrank’s Cracking the Coding Interview Algorithm Playlist: I personally hate Hackerrank platform for coding but their video series on Algorithms are really good, where all the videos are explained by the author of the Cracking the coding interview book.
- GeeksForGeeks Programming Interview Questions Playlist: This playlist contains some really good interview questions specific to big companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc.
- Tushar Roy’s Videos: Check out Tushar Roy’s videos on Algorithms and data structures. Tushar Roy explains each and every video in detail by using the whiteboard and explaining each and every step on the whiteboard.
3. Glassdoor
Check out Glassdoor interview experiences for the specific companies. You will come to know what kind of questions you should be expecting. Whenever I have an upcoming interview I quickly check-out this website to get some information out about the interview process.
4. Careercup
CareerCup is a website where you can find sample interview questions for companies. Check out Careercup website for the sample interview questions for the specific companies which will tell you what kind of questions you should be expecting.
5. Let’s Leetcode (Online Coding Assessment)
LeetCode is a website where you can practice real coding interview questions. It has 900+ interview questions which will help you improve your data structure and algorithmic skills.
6. Pramp (Telephonic coding interview)
Pramp is the best place to practice live coding interviews. Pramp is an online community of software engineers, developers and hackers to practice live coding interviews, for free. Pramp is a peer-2-peer platform, where you are paired with software engineers for live practice interviews based on their background, availability and practice needs. Pramp automates the whole process and takes care of scheduling, peer matching, and interview prep content. Pramp provides users with integrated HD video chat, real-time collaborative code editor and detailed peer-feedback.
6. Whiteboard Coding
Whiteboard coding is a practice in technical interviews for a software engineer position, where you are asked to solve a certain programming problem by writing out (either in pseudocode or actual code in a certain language) your attempt at a solution on a whiteboard by hand. I would recommend buying a whiteboard and practice coding on the whiteboard with your friends. Whiteboard coding practice is very important for onsite interviews. Check out Irfan Baiqu’s whiteboard coding video series which gives you an idea of how to do whiteboard coding interviews. Check out Google’s whiteboard coding interview video. I think whiteboard coding is excellent to draw out your thoughts on the board and impress the interviewers.
7. My Github
Check out my Github Repo on CodingInterviews: https://github.com/jayshah19949596/CodingInterviews which contains all the interview questions that I have encountered in company interviews. The repo contains questions from LinkedIn, Coursera, Twilio, TwoSigma, VISA, and many more. I will be maintaining this repo. I have made this repo public so that you guys get exposure to the interview questions and do well in your coding interviews. 😊
8. Strategy during the coding interview
- Clear the coding question with the interviewer so that you are clear what you have to do
- Ask for edge cases
- Discuss all the solutions that come into your mind
- It’s okay to start with a naive solution if nothing else comes to your mind
- Express your thoughts
- Write the code
- Test your code on one of the inputs to make sure your code is not breaking
- Discuss the Time and Space Complexity of the code
9. PRACTICE…PRACTICE… PRACTICE!!!!
And my last piece of advice is to practice a lot.