Phases Of A Coding Interview
Congratulations, you are ready to put your skills to practice! In a coding interview, you will be given a technical question by the interviewer. You will write the code in a real-time, collaborative editor or on a whiteboard , and have 30 to 45 minutes to solve the problem. This is where the real fun begins!
Your interviewer will be looking to see that you meet the requirements of the role. It is up to you to show them that you have the skills. Initially, it may feel weird to talk while you code, as most programmers do not make a habit of explaining out loud their thoughts while they are typing code.
However, it is hard for the interviewer to know what you are thinking by just looking at your code. If you communicate your approach to the interviewer even before you start to code, you can validate your approach with them. This way, the two of you can agree on an acceptable approach.
Preparing for a remote interview
For phone screens and remote interviews, have a paper and pen or pencil to jot down any notes or diagrams. If you are given a question about trees and graphs, it usually helps if you draw examples of the data structure.
Use earphones. Make sure you are in a quiet environment. You do not want to be holding a phone in one hand and typing with the other. Try to avoid using speakers. If the feedback is bad, communication is made harder. Having to repeat yourself will just result in the loss of valuable time.
What to do when you get the question
Starting to code
Research About The Company
When we go for an interview, most people research about the job role and responsibilities. But, no one researches about the company. Researching about the company helps to get an idea about the works and projects done till the date. It also helps to get a brief idea about the jobs and skills required for the company. And more than that, it builds your confidence levels and feels quite confident while attending the coding interview. When we are clear about all these things, it is simple to crack the coding round and impress the interviewer easily.
When we have a complete understanding of the second tip of the article, let’s understand the next tip in the article, “tips to crack a coding interview.”
How To Crack The Coding Interview With Practicing Only 30 Questions
As we always suggested in our previous posts, its extremely helpful to practice with coding questions when preparing an interview. Basically you can start with some very general questions from books like Cracking the Coding Interview or Website LeetCode. And then when it gets close to your interview date, questions from past interviews of your target company will be more helpful.
But people may wonder how many questions do I need to prepare? What is the most efficient way to practice with each question? Obviously memorizing answers to those questions will never work and over the past I saw many people practicing in highly inefficient ways that could only make them feel as if they were improving.
Quality is always better than quantity. If you can take full advantages of each question you prepared, you dont need to practice with hundreds of questions in order to crack the coding interview. In that spirit, Ill give you the most practical tips and hacks now:
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Cracking The Top 40 Facebook Coding Interview Questions
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Crackingcoding interviewcodingCracking the Coding Interview
Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions is a book by Gayle Laakmann McDowell about coding interviews. It describes typical problems in computer science that are often asked during coding interviews, typically on a whiteboard during job interviews at big technology companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.New content will be added above the current area of focus upon selectionCracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions is a book by Gayle Laakmann McDowell about coding interviews. It describes typical problems in computer science that are often asked during coding interviews, typically on a whiteboard during job interviews at big technology companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Facebook and Palantir Technologies.
- Number of pages: 500
- Genres: Computer Science · Science · Technology · Reference · Non-fiction · Business · Coding · Programming · Computers · Software · TechnicalNew content will be added above the current area of focus upon selection
The Importance Of Negotiation
Negotiation can be an uncomfortable conversation, but avoiding it altogether is a disservice to your skills. If youre able to overcome the discomfort that comes with negotiating, one conversation can earn you real value in minutes. According to Gayle, theres nothing to lose. Since its a complex conversation, its easiest to discuss with your recruiter via phone, but its ok to use email if needed. But dont stress too much about the medium youre usingjust make sure you have the conversation!
When determining how much to ask for, put a price tag on the discomfort of the conversation. Start by asking for their offer, plus a little extra. If youre not sure what to target, ask for comparables from friends. Just remember: anything additional you get from that conversation is more than you started with. And dont worry about employers rescinding offers because you chose to negotiate. So long as you stay professional, the worst they can do is say no to your ask.
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Think Carefully About Languages
And when it comes to languages: try not to cling to one language alone. Instead, plan to go into the interview focusing on one or two languages that you already know well. For backup, plan to have a few other familiar options in your back pocket. The language you master does matter to some degree .
But instead of focusing only on what you already know, in the interview, its important to stress that you can continue to learn more languages over time. Dont identify yourself by the language youre most familiar withlike calling yourself a Java engineer. If theres a gap in your language proficiencies, make it clear that, given a month, you should be able to add any language to your arsenal.
Gayle Laakmann Mcdowells 5 Tips For Cracking The Coding Interview
As COVID-19 continues to change the hiring landscape, we sat down with Gayle Laakmann McDowell, author of Cracking the Coding Interview, to dig into remote interviewing tips and best practices. The conversation focused on advice for developers currently searching for new roles.
With over 3,000 participants tuned in, the audience shared their questions about interviewing remotelyfrom tackling video interviews, to navigating unconscious bias and pay negotiation. These are the highlights Gayle shared for job seekers and interviewers alike:
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Introducing Cracking The Coding Interview Tutorial Series
Quantity of coding challenges is certainly important. However, one way to increase your chances of acing your interview even further is by solving the right type of interview challenges. Weve teamed up with author Gayle Laakmann McDowell who wrote the best-selling book Cracking the Coding Interview. Together, weve curated a video tutorial series of roughly 20 challenges to ensure you pass with flying colors. Cracking the Coding Interview tutorial series is now available, featuring Gayle in 20 video tutorials. In the series, Gayle offers not only video tutorials but also valuable advice, like three strategies to tackle algorithms and a seven-step process to solve algorithm challenges.
To begin our analysis, we pinpointed our question: Is there any correlation between developers who solved a lot of challenges and developers who passed coding assessments? And how does performance relate to seniority?
What Are The Disadvantages Of Online School
1. Online courses require more time than on-campus classes.2. Online courses require good time-management skills.3. Online courses require you to be an active learner.4. Online courses give you more freedom, perhaps, more than you can handle!5. Online courses require you to be responsible for your own learning.
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Cracking The Coding Interview
Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and SolutionsCracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions is a book by Gayle Laakmann McDowell about coding interviews. It describes typical problems in computer science that are often asked during coding interviews, typically on a whiteboard during job interviews at big technology companies such as , Apple, Microsoft, , and Palantir Technologies.
First published in 2008, it has been translated into seven languages: Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Spanish, and Korean. It describes solutions to common problems set in coding job interviews. The sixth edition of the textbook was published in 2015.
How To Crack The Coding Interview
by Lindsay·October 1, 2021
, These days you need to crack the coding interview to get an excellent job as a professional developer. Gone are the days that a simple resume, college degree, and discussion with a manager get you that development gig. Instead, almost every company will now be testing your knowledge, skills, and ability to work in a time crunch and have the pressure of multiple people watching you code.
Youre going to have to do a coding interview, and youre going to have to crack it.
But how do you crack the coding interview and land your next job? You can find the answer from AlgoMonster.
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Tip #: For Interviewers Distribute Your Hints Thoughtfully
For interviewers, its tricky to decide when to give a hintand when to hold back. The goal is to make sure that you have the right type of question to ease that tension.
When youre choosing interview questions, try to choose questions that have different hidden levels in them. That makes it easier to transition from one step to the next. That way, its easier to give the candidate hints when they’re stuck. Just remember: youre trying to assess the best version of the candidate. If they get thrown off, its unlikely that youll get to see the full extent of their skill setso be patient.
Gayle has a few go-to interview questions that she suggests. One of her favorites?:
Given two strings A & B, find how many permutations of B exist in A as a contiguous sequence
The reasoning: theres a simple, naive brute-force solution to this problem. But theres also another level that involves some level of hashing. If you help guide the candidate effectively, you can learn a lot about their skill set based on how they answer the question.
Rounds In An Interview:
In a technical interview, the interviewer makes an evaluation of the following:
- What does it take to become a great product manager and great leader?
- How can you reliably ship products that make a difference in the world?
- How do you build your product intuition, hone your execution, strengthen your leadership, and develop your strategic skills?
- What does it take to lead and inspire teams?
- When is people management the right career move?
- How does excellence in those skills translate into career success?
Become the applicant Google cant turn down
HOW IT WORKS:
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Advice With Cracking The Coding Interview
Hey all! Rising Sophomore.
Recently started studying from CTCI to get ahead and improve my technical interviewing skills. I’m not taking Data Structures/Algorithms until this upcoming semester, and found it pretty difficult to follow along with the book. It’s not that I haven’t looked at other resources to learn the material before I attempt to solve the problems, but rather I’m not sure how to go about solving them. Often times I’m stuck between implementing the data structures that CTCI talks about by myself and coding the questions out on paper. I’ll also arrive to a certain solution, only to find out that CTCI book implements it in a different way, leaving me no idea of whether my solution would be considered acceptable or not.
I’m basically looking for some tips on how to use the CTCI book efficiently, especially before the stress of the upcoming semester begins to add to my workflow. Thank you so much!
Prep For The Problem Solving Round
The first round you should prepare for is a problem solving round, which usually involves questions around algorithms and data structures. For this round, there are plenty of resources that you can practice from. You can start with Gayles book, Cracking the Coding Interview, or try the interview prep kit on the HackerRank community. Gayle also suggests trying the Cracking the Code Interview video seriesa series where Gayle outlines key concepts from her book in quick 5-12 minute snippets.
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What People Are Saying
| I wish I had read this book 90 days ago. I wouldnt have blown a great job that I really wanted. This book goes beyond the usual answers to questions likely to be asked. Instead of telling you what to think it teaches you HOW to think. If I had read this book first and knew what was coming I think I would have nailed it.- J. Braun, Amazon.com | |
| Bought this book 3 weeks before interview. Read the book twice with careful hand-writing practice on each question. Got Amazon offer. The interview had 4 questions and one was in the book.- Larry, Amazon.com | This book is a must-have for any interview candidate. Not only does it give practice problems and detailed answers, but it also gives you good advice about how to approach the problems as well as what to expect. I used this book to prepare for my interviews with Microsoft, and Gayles insight gave me a great idea of how to prepare and how to ace the interview. I recommend this book to anyone who has a coding interview in their future.- Michelle, Amazon.com |
Ask Relevant And Thoughtful Questions
During the coding interview, you will write code, solve problems, and discuss this all with the interviewers. If there is any misunderstanding on your part, then ensure you ask questions. Nobody is perfect, and this shows you are confident enough to clarify things .before starting, which is essential as a coder.
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Getting Prepared For A Negotiation
Overall, make sure you’re prepared for the discussionand be ready to talk about the compensation you expect for the role. Look up comparables online through resources like Glassdoor or Levels.fyi, but take them with a grain of salt. Published salaries arent always aligned with what people are getting, since some calculate salaries differently than you may, depending on the unique components that make up their compensation. The best way to gauge an appropriate salary is once again to ask your friends in similar roles. It can be uncomfortable, but if you admit its awkward, and explain your reason for asking, most friends are willing to share.
Its also important to know that in New York, California, and many other states in the US, law prohibits employers from asking about your salary history. And if you ask for a salary range for the role, theyre required to provide you with that information. Understand your state law and know your rights going into the conversation.
If youd like to watch the full session recording, tune in here. Go forth and crack the coding interview from anywhere!
Collecting The Best Resource For Learning
Cracking the coding interview is not easy, so one of the best ways to enhance your coding skills is with learning! Learn coding with the help of books, youtube content, blogs and courses.
Here is the list of top five books that can be a great resource to crack the coding interview
- Programming Interviews Exposed by John Mongan, Noah Suojanen Kindler, Eric Giguère
- Cracking the Coding Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell
- The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven S Skiena
- Elements of Programming Interviews by Amit Prakash, Tsung-hsien Lee, Adnan Aziz
- Programming Pearls by Jon Bentley
Some of the free online courses to crack coding interviews are listed below:
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Practice With Mock Interviews
The steps mentioned above can be rehearsed over and over again until you have fully internalized them and they become second nature to you. A good way to practice is by partnering with a friend and taking turns to interview each other.
A great resource for preparing for coding interviews is interviewing.io. This platform provides free and anonymous practice interviews with Google and Facebook engineers, which can lead to real jobs and internships. By virtue of being anonymous during the interview, the inclusive interview process is unbiased and low risk. At the end of the interview, both the interviewer and interviewee can provide feedback to each other for the purpose of helping one another improve.
Doing well in mock interviews will unlock the jobs page for candidates, and allow them to book interviews with top companies like Uber, Lyft, Quora, Asana, and more. For those who are new to coding interviews, a demo interview can be viewed on this site. Note that this site requires users to sign in.
Another platform that allows you to practice coding interviews is Pramp. Where interviewing.io matches potential job seekers with seasoned coding interviewers, Pramp takes a different approach. Pramp pairs you up with another peer who is also a job seeker. The two of you take turns assuming the roles of interviewer and interviewee. Pramp also prepares questions, and provides solutions and prompts to guide the interviewee.
