2017 Coding Interview Crunch: Planning Stage Two

Kalvin T. Lam
Aug 25, 2017 · 2 min read

Initial thoughts: I have a solid foundation in DS&A. I am fairly confident that I have the tools and the mental ability to tackle most easy/medium questions. Now, for this next phase, I will aim to perfect and hone my problem solving skills, to be able to breeze past easy/medium questions and to be able to tackle hard ones. I will also put in good time into building stuff on the side! I haven’t had the chance to dive into that aspect of coding yet, and I’m enthused to see what I will learn.

August 25 — Jane Street Interview

August 26 — Blitz day

August 27 to September 1 — BOLT

18 true days, let’s separate it into chunks of 3 days with a focus on each and then one day catchup. Each cluster is 12 hours of preparation, 4 hours per day. Each cluster gives me 6 hours for CTCI and 6 hours for CS193x.

With four hours per day, I want to divvy it up about half and half, for algorithms and building side projects (working on CS193x). I’ll have 5 clusters to reinforce and learn new materials. My rough goals are to finish CTCI and to blitz through half of CS193X. Ambitious goals, but I will need the drive. Looking toward the future, if, in October I can finish CS193X, then I will have the tools, in November/December, to start building stuff that I want to build. That’d be really awesome.

C1: September 2 to September 4

  • CTCI: Chapter 3, Stacks and Queues
  • CS193X: Lecture 4/10, 4/12, 4/14, Start HW #1

C2: September 5 to September 7

  • CTCI: Chapter 4, Trees and Graphs
  • CS193X: Lecture 4/17, Finish HW #1 (due 4/19), Lecture 4/19, 4/21

September 8 — Catchup

C3: September 9 to September 11

  • CTCI: Chapter 5, Bit Manipulation
  • CS193X: Lecture 4/24, 4/26, 4/28, Finish HW #2 (due 4/28)

C4: September 12 to September 14

  • CTCI: Chapter 6, Math and Logic Puzzles
  • CS193X: Lecture 5/1, 5/3, 5/5, HW #3 (due 5/8)

September 15 — Catchup

C5: September 16 to September 18

  • CTCI: Chapter 7, Object-Oriented Design
  • CS193X: Lecture 5/8, 5/10, 5/12

Last minute prep: September 19

  • CTCI: Chapter XI, Advanced Topics
  • CS193X: Lecture 5/15, HW #4 (due 5/17)

September 20 — Two Sigma Onsite

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