Book of the Week: Programming Interviews Exposed

28 Apr 2016

programming_interviews_exposed I gave advice to someone seeing an internship to read Programming Interviews Exposed and Cracking The Coding Interview, but I confess I haven’t read those books myself. This week, I read Programming Interviews Exposed to see if I gave bad advice. Personally I hate coding interview questions, but they seem to be the norm if you’re looking for a software engineering job. The only way I can keep it from being the norm is by building a successful software company that doesn’t use these type of coding interview questions. In Silicon Valley, monkey see, monkey do. This is another book that takes an effort to be inclusive and not assume that all programmers are male. Isis Anchalee and Tracy Chou would be proud. The first part of the book describes the job hunt in general, which is great if you’re a new graduate, because you have no idea what to expect and have no idea of what to do. Each chapter on questions first covers the topic before diving into the questions. This gives you the opportunity to learn about the topic. Each question is followed by a detailed solution. List of Topics

Since you’ll probably be answering these questions on the whiteboard and whiteboarding is harder than typing in a terminal, I suggest you use the questions in a interview simulation. You should get another person to ask you the question and try to whiteboard it out. Then later, you can read the detailed solution to make sure you got all the points. When an interviewer is interviewing you, they have a checklist in their mind that they are trying to check off as you progress through the problem. Purchase Programming Interviews Exposed on Amazon.com or check it out from your local library.