Coding interview preparation

2022-04-12 10:25:31 Advanced!

LeetCode list for each of the patterns. I found it pretty useful, feel free to make a copy of the list and use it.

2 Heaps
Arrays
Backtracking
Dynamic Programming
Fast & Slow pointers
Graph Traversal
In-place traversal of LL
K-way merge
Merge Intervals
Modified Binary Search
Sliding window
Top K elements
Topological Sorting
Tree BFS
Tree DFS
Two Pointers

Good Luck & Happy Coding!! Open / Comment

2022-04-10 21:38:48 Open / Comment

2022-04-08 11:05:27 Which programming language should I use on interview?

Companies usually let you choose, in which case you should use your most comfortable language. If you know a bunch of languages, prefer one that lets you express more with fewer characters and fewer lines of code, like Python or Ruby. It keeps your whiteboard cleaner.

Try to stick with the same language for the whole interview, but sometimes you might want to switch languages for a question. E.g., processing a file line by line will be far easier in Python than in C++.

Sometimes, though, your interviewer will do this thing where they have a pet question that’s, for example, C-specific. If you list C on your resume, they’ll ask it.

So keep that in mind! If you’re not confident with a language, make that clear on your resume. Put your less-strong languages under a header like ‘Working Knowledge.’ Open / Comment

2022-04-04 14:12:01 Hidden Python Features for Beginners

1. Merge Dictionaries

>>> d1 = {"a":1, "b": 2}
>>> d2 = {"c":3, "d":4}
>>> dict(d1, **d2)
{’a’: 1, 'b’: 2, 'c’: 3, 'd’: 4}
>>> {**d1, **d2}
{’a’: 1, 'b’: 2, 'c’: 3, 'd’: 4} Open / Comment

2022-04-03 23:22:49 Best suited IDE's for programming languages:

1. JavaScript => VSCode
2. Python => PyCharm
3. C# => Visual Studio
4. Java => IntelliJ IDEA
5. Ruby => Ruby Mine
6. C & C++ => CLion Open / Comment

2022-04-01 14:07:01 Open / Comment

2022-03-31 13:56:01 Why do programmers like using Java?
Java, in my opinion, is the most royal language that doesn’t suffer an inferiority complex, unlike most other languages.

Other languages feel they need to bend over backward and satisfy the needs of the lazy developers who want to write as short and ambiguous reserved language words and variable/method/class names as possible.

Other languages require a huge amount of mental mapping that has to happen in the developer’s head in order for the developer to read and “compile” the code in their head, because of the shortcuts they take.

Other languages allow the developers to shoot themselves in the foot, and as most developers are really bad at what they do, the amount of shot feet is unbearable.

Code is written once and read 10–1000 times. Java is verbose and prose-like and lets you focus on logical thinking, rather than mind-mapping.

Java is official, ceremonial, royal and with high self-esteem - it gets the job done and it gets the job done right. You adhere to Java’s strict rules and so many amazingly good practices, and Java won’t let you down.

Java doesn’t use heaps of illogical syntax sugars that you have to memorize by heart, which otherwise don’t make any sense.

Java is versatile in the regards to that it can run everywhere.

Java is the perfect object-oriented language, it predisposes the user to craft code using the design patterns, the SOLID principles, the clean code and clean architecture, which makes it great for serious business, it makes it great for education and many of the best books on software engineering are written in Java because of that.

Java has a great name, too.

Kaloyan Roussev
Android Developer Open / Comment

2022-03-29 13:48:01 How much time did you spend preparing for Google's interviews?
I spent six weeks preparing. Google was the only place I wanted to work. I had never used any real computer science constructs in my 30 years of work experience.

I got a whiteboard and markers and spent every day working on problems from Cracking the Code Interview. I solved the problems using C++ templates, to force myself to focus on the algorithms and notice what assumptions I was making about the underlying data types.

I had two weeks to prepare for the phone interview. After that I asked for a month to prepare for the on-site interviews.

Understand time/space complexity analysis. Know the time complexity of the basic data structures, especially hash tables. Learn to manage the space on the whiteboard. Think about where the computer will be repeating the same work twice, since that is probably where you can optimize.

The interviews are really not very hard. Don't panic.

p.s. I was hired.

Answer by
Bruce R. Miller
Google employee Open / Comment

2022-03-28 13:54:01 Java HashMap vs TreeMap vs LinkedHashMap Open / Comment

2022-03-27 13:54:01 How Long Should I Prepare for a Coding Interview?
Coding interview preparation time largely depends on the interviewee's level of experience. If you're an entry-level programmer, it's a good idea to spend at least twelve weeks preparing. If you have more experience, 4-8 weeks is suggested for interview prep.

Study the company's programming language and tools of choice. Practice a couple of coding challenges each day — don't let your practice be a cram session right before your coding interview. Finally, as you practice, make sure to time yourself to see how you are progressing. Open / Comment