Where are some good sources for interview preparation?
Here are some of the differences between preparing for competitive programming and interview preparation:
- Interviews are competitive, but they are unlike competitive programming
- CP is more about solo coding and precise performant code that passes all test cases.
- Interviews also need correct and efficient code, but they demand preparation on many other things, e.g. System Design questions, Object Modeling, Concurrency, and of course, Behavioral questions often on collaborative work, your thought process, and your tradeoffs.
- CP doesn’t have a lot of structure, and it takes a while to get confident
- Confidence plays a major role in interviews. Going through structured practice helps you get confident, e.g. a book, a boot camp, a structured website, etc.
- CP doesn’t have enough structure to learn it formally. It needs a lot of practice and motivation to become confident.
- Interviews and Interviewers are different everywhere
- CP is a sport. Most engineers don’t do CP. You may meet a Competitive Programmer at G or F in your interviews, but you’re less likely to meet them at Microsoft or Amazon.
- Amazon focuses a lot on Systems design and behavioral questions. Emphasizing just CP isn’t likely to cut it everywhere.
This can give you a lead on allocating your time to different areas of tech interview prep.
Preparing for a job interview can be a daunting process. First, you have to deal with the excitement and delight that you received the opportunity to interview. After that, there is that fear and premeditated failure in your head. Sometimes, you just need that guidance to help you prepare.
To be completely honest with you, landing your first job is never simple. Many junior engineers dream of breaking into one of the more established software organizations. Finding a job at your desired firm is one of the hardest things you will ever do, therefore you must give it everything you have. There are many reputed institute also teach DSA like geeksforgeeks, Leetcode, Logicmojo etc or many good YouTube channels also helpful for self preparation.
Most computer science grads aspire to work for Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, or Apple, but only a select few programmers succeed in those companies’ challenging coding interviews.
Whatever your point of view, there are strategies you can employ to get ready for an interview. I’m not referring to the general knowledge you may get online; rather, I’m talking about using the internet as a resource to aid in your planning. Including resume keywords is one thing; getting an interview and succeeding in it are quite another. You have to complete this stage in order to get the job you seek. We all have to experience the anxiety of an interview at some point, but because there is always a reward in the end, it is definitely worthwhile. Sometimes all you need is a little assistance to get ready.
I gathered a few of my top coding interview resources to help anyone who is currently studying for their technical interviews. My goal is to steer people in the right direction and help at least one person avoid taking the wrong approach to studying as I did in the beginning.
Logicmojo
Logicmojo provides live classes on data structure algorithms and also provides mock interview sessions. Once you feel confident in your mastery of algorithm design principles and have done enough coding problems, you will be ready to do a few mock interviews. You will then have a live 1-on-1 video session that will take place on the website. You will go over programming questions, practice soft skills, and behavioral questions. Although efficiently writing code is important, being able to build that rapport during the whiteboard interview is going to be what will make or break your interview.
Each time you get through another fundamental, you are one step closer to mastering your coding interview. Data structures and algorithms can be oversimplified by most algorithm courses, but Logicmojo cuts no corners and will give you a strong foundation if you work through it.
It is important for the interviewer to feel like you will be able to get along. This is where Logicmojo comes in, they provide excellent support by providing a similar environment, with faculties who have worked in the past in MAANG or similar product-based companies and have conducted a huge number of interviews.
This course is going to help you with the discussions during a tech interview and should be a part of every engineer coding interview prep that is targeting Top Tier tech companies. It is overall one of the best coding interview platforms and I strongly suggest working through it.
AlgoExpert
You may practice answering various code interview questions on AlgoExpert. Similar to previous tools, AlgoExpert allows you to practice algorithms, space complexity, and data structures while also providing a full visual answer for each issue.
This is crucial for everyone who likes to learn visually and does not want to read endless explanations with several solutions. Each difficulty has a thorough solution in the video that is attached.
Leetcode
An obvious resource for programming interview preparation is Leetcode. To help you prepare for your upcoming coding interview, there are more than 2,300 interview questions available. This contains in-depth instructions on operating systems, linked lists to heaps, dynamic programming, and issues unique to particular tech firms. There are many subjects and questions to choose from, making this one of the most used resources for coding interviews.
For the best practical experience, you can also utilize your favorite programming language.
Grokking the Coding Interview
In the course Grokking the Coding Interview, you learn how to map a new problem to an existing one. Based on the similarity in the approaches required to tackle them, you will master 16 different patterns for coding questions throughout the course. This theory holds that once you become familiar with one of the patterns, you may use it to find solutions to a wide variety of issues. This is useful since you will undoubtedly encounter a question you have never seen before during the actual technical interview. You will pass the coding interview if you can use your knowledge to solve these abstract problems with little to no detail.
Algorithm Design Manual
I have used this book along with the Logicmojo course during my preparation. Be sure to check out and know which sections to skip and which to go in-depth to ensure you fully understand and are ready to tackle the practice coding interview questions.
Since coding interviews are so much more than just solving a coding problem, I recommend this book to help you dive deep into the fundamentals. For each data structure you will learn the math behind it, learn its time complexity & space complexity, and most importantly, learn when it’s ok to break and bend the rules.
Conclusion
There is not one resource that is going to help you pass your technical interview. Having a comprehensive understanding here is key, and narrowing down the tools you use to learn these essential topics is what is going to get you to pass.
