Cracking the code interview
I wrote this just after the monthly essay so If I made a review of the book it’s going to be a copy of that one so, I’m just going to point out a few things that I consider very important.
Prep map before the interview
1+ years before
- Build projects outside of school/work. (I’m currently starting one).
- Learning multiple programming languages. (I feel that having the basics of computer science or data structure are more important).
- Expand your network. (I didn’t used to do it but after the advice of my mentor I started to do it).
- Build a website/portfolio showcasing your experience (need to work on that).
- Internship and classes (I’m on it).
- Focus work on meaty projects.
3–12 months before
- Continue to work on projects (never stop actually)
- Create a draft or a resume (Done).
- Make a target list of prefered companies (Done).
- Read intro sections of the book (Yep)
- Learn and master Big O (I’m currently taking the time complexity of every code I write to practice, that lighting talk and further presentations really helps)
- Implement data structures and algorithms from scratch (merge quick and counting sort, binary search, and some exercises with trees).
- Form mock interview group with friends to interview each other (Interviewmania I and Interviewmania II also evaluation and mock interviews).
1–3 months
- Do mini projects to solidify understanding of key concepts (at open source contribution I learned a lot)
- Do several mock interviews (I need to practice more).
- Continue to practice interview questions (Working on it)
- Create a list to track mistakes you’ve made solving algorithms (I tend to brute force at first, I thought that it was a mistake before read the chapter VII of the book, brute force then optimize it’s a good approach, make it work then make it prettier)
4 weeks
- Create interview prep grid (I’ve done it for my mock interview, challenges and how to solve them, weakness and what I’m currently doing to solve them, strength and an example, leadership what are you going to do to contribute to the team, conflicts, an example how it was solved and the result, enjoyed, learning skills or social skills).
- Review update resume(already done, hope to add more thing in the next weeks)
The day before, the day of and after are going to wait, but going through this list made me realize that I,ve been working in a very efficient and specific way the past four months without even noticed , I just need to keep practicing and if everything goes well I’m going to make a review of chapter VIII.