Hacking the Programming Interview
2 min readNov 27, 2021
An exhaustive list of interview preparation materials, as well as tips and tricks for cracking programming questions at top product companies and hottest startups.
The system:
Software companies can be classified into a pyramid based on the level of difficulty in their programming interviews, with the least desirable companies at the bottom of the pyramid and the most elite companies at the top.
Determine your preparation time:
Platforms (Spend most of your time here):
- LeetCode — geared up for interviews.
- Hackerrank — most companies test their applicants using HackerRank, HackerEarth.
Go-to websites:
- LeetCode discuss, LeetCode study guide — hands down the best place to get piles of resources and bytes.
- Algoexpert
- Tech interview handbook
Problem set:
- Top frequency LeetCode 170
- Striver’s SDE Sheet
- The above two sets should do most of the work. Attend LeetCode contests for faster and real-time iterations on coding rounds.
- Tech Dose 170 (as same as Top Frequency LeetCode 170)
- Top frequency 450 (if obsessed with LeetCoding)
- Top 70 team blind (additional)
- Top 50 sheet (additional)
Books:
- Cracking the Coding Interview — 189 Programming Questions & Solutions
- A pro-tip here for a speed run is to split two chrome tabs, one for questions, other for solutions.
Algorithm patterns:
- 14 Patterns to ace any coding interview
- Grokking the coding interview
- Recursion, BackTracking, Dynamic Programming — 1
- Recursion, BackTracking, Dynamic Programming — 2
- Dynamic Programming — 1
- Dynamic Programming — 2
- Graph template for DFS, BFS, cycle detection, topological sort
- Must do math
Big O:
Resume:
- Templates: overleaf, rezi
- Feedback
- ATS checker
