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Gayle Laakmann McDowell

Cracking the Coding Interview: 150 Programming Questions and Solutions Paperback – Aug. 22 2011

by Gayle Laakmann McDowell (Author)

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There is a newer edition of this item:

Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions
$45.21
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Now in the 5th edition, Cracking the Coding Interview gives you the interview preparation you need to get the top software developer jobs. This is a deeply technical book and focuses on the software engineering skills to ace your interview. The book is over 500 pages and includes 150 programming interview questions and answers, as well as other advice.

The full list of topics are as follows:

The Interview ProcessThis section offers an overview on questions are selected and how you will be evaluated. What happens when you get a question wrong? When should you start preparing, and how? What language should you use? All these questions and more are answered.
Behind the ScenesLearn what happens behind the scenes during your interview, how decisions really get made, who you interview with, and what they ask you. Companies covered include Google, Amazon, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook.
Special SituationsThis section explains the process for experience candidates, Program Managers, Dev Managers, Testers / SDETs, and more. Learn what your interviewers are looking for and how much code you need to know.
Before the InterviewIn order to ace the interview, you first need to get an interview. This section describes what a software engineer's resume should look like and what you should be doing well before your interview.
Behavioral PreparationAlthough most of a software engineering interview will be technical, behavioral questions matter too. This section covers how to prepare for behavioral questions and how to give strong, structured responses.
Technical Questions (+ 5 Algorithm Approaches)This section covers how to prepare for technical questions (without wasting your time) and teaches actionable ways to solve the trickiest algorithm problems. It also teaches you what exactly "good coding" is when it comes to an interview.
150 Programming Questions and AnswersThis section forms the bulk of the book. Each section opens with a discussion of the core knowledge and strategies to tackle this type of question, diving into exactly how you break down and solve it. Topics covered include

Arrays and Strings
Linked Lists
Stacks and Queues
Trees and Graphs
Bit Manipulation
Brain Teasers
Mathematics and Probability
Object-Oriented Design
Recursion and Dynamic Programming
Sorting and Searching
Scalability and Memory Limits
Testing
C and C++
Java
Databases
Threads and Locks

For the widest degree of readability, the solutions are almost entirely written with Java (with the exception of C / C++ questions). A link is provided with the book so that you can download, compile, and play with the solutions yourself.

Changes from the Fourth Edition: The fifth edition includes over 200 pages of new content, bringing the book from 300 pages to over 500 pages. Major revisions were done to almost every solution, including a number of alternate solutions added. The introductory chapters were massively expanded, as were the opening of each of the chapters under Technical Questions. In addition, 24 new questions were added.
Cracking the Coding Interview, Fifth Edition is the most expansive, detailed guide on how to ace your software development / programming interviews.

ISBN-10

098478280X
ISBN-13

978-0984782802
Edition

5th Revised & enlarged
Publisher

CareerCup
Publication date

Aug. 22 2011
Language

English
Dimensions

15.2 x 2.6 x 22.9 cm
Print length

508 pages
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Product description

From the Author

I am not a recruiter. I am a software engineer. And as such, I know what it's like to be asked to whip up brilliant algorithms on the spot, and then write flawless code on a whiteboard. I know because I've been asked to do the same thing--in interviews at Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon, among other companies.

I also know because I've been on the other side of the table, asking candidates to do this. I've combed through stacks of resumes to find the engineers who I thought might be able to actually pass these interviews. And I've debated in Google's Hiring Committee whether or not a candidate did well enough to merit an offer. I understand and have experienced the full hiring circle.

And you, reader, are probably preparing for an interview, perhaps tomorrow, next week, or next year. You likely have or are working towards a Computer Science or related degree. I am not here to re-teach you the basics of what a binary search tree is, or how to traverse a linked list. You already know such things, and if not, there are plenty of other resources to learn them.

This book is here to help you take your understanding of Computer Science fundamentals to the next level, to help you apply those fundamentals to crack the coding interview. Because while the fundamentals are necessary to land one of the top jobs, they aren't always enough. For countless readers, this book has been just what they needed.

About the Author

Gayle Laakmann McDowell is the founder / CEO of CareerCup.com and the author of The Google Resume: How to Prepare for a Career and Land a Job at Apple, Microsoft, Google, or any Top Tech Company.
Work ExperienceHer interviewing expertise comes from vast experience on both sides of the desk. She has completed Software Engineering interviews with - and received offers from - Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, IBM, Goldman Sachs, Capital IQ, and a number of other firms.

Of these top companies, she has worked for Microsoft, Apple and Google, where she gained deep insight into each company's hiring practices.

Most recently, Gayle spent three years at Google as a Software Engineer and was one of the company's lead interviewers. She interviewed over 120 candidates in the U.S. and abroad, and, as a software engineer, led much of the recruiting for her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania.

Additionally, she served on Google's Hiring Committee, where she reviewed each candidate's feedback and made hire / no-hire decisions. She assessed over 700 candidates in that role, and evaluated hundreds more resumes.

Education
Gayle holds a bachelor's and master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania and MBA from The Wharton School.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ CareerCup; 5th Revised & enlarged edition (Aug. 22 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 508 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 098478280X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0984782802
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 676 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.2 x 2.6 x 22.9 cm

Best Sellers Rank: #60,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #36 in Hacking
- #38 in Computer Science Textbooks
- #63 in Software Design & Engineering Textbooks

Customer Reviews:
648 ratings

About the author

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Gayle Laakmann McDowell

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Gayle Laakmann McDowell is an author, consultant, and founder focusing on improving tech hiring for both the interviewer and the candidate.

Gayle has worked as an engineer for Google, Microsoft, and Apple. Most recently, at Google, she served on the hiring committee where she interviewed hundreds of candidates and evaluated thousands more. It was here that she discovered the disconnect between candidates, their skill set, and their interview performance.

Though her company, CareerCup, Gayle has worked with many of the top tech companies to reform their hiring practices and implement interviewer training programs.

She is the author and creator the best-selling Cracking the Interview & Career series: Cracking the Coding Interview, Cracking the PM Interview (co-authored with Jackie Bavaro), Cracking the PM Career (co-authored with Jackie Bavaro), and Cracking the Tech Career

Gayle holds a bachelor's and master's in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

She currently consults, writes, and codes from her home in Palo Alto, California. She can be found online at gayle.com, twitter (@gayle), and facebook (@gayle).

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

648 global ratings

5 star		73%
4 star		16%
3 star		5%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from Canada

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John Doe

Great for preparing for interviews and becoming a better software engineer

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 27, 2015

Verified Purchase

If I had to pick one book to prepare for coding interviews with it would be this one.

I'm largely self-taught and I this book was as great at both providing patterns to approach different problems and explaining the recommended solutions. I purchased this book along with "Elements of Programming Interviews" and while I strongly suggest purchasing both books, I feel this one is better for people without a formal computer science background.

I was a bit discouraging when I first started practising with these books but as I worked through them I started to enjoy the process. You eventually start seeing common patterns, become familiar with common algorithms/data structures, and get comfortable 'running' code in your head. These are more than just useful interview skills. Estimating how code scales lets you judge when it's worth increasing code complexity to optimize or when a simple brute force is 'good enough' and once you are in the habit of 'running' code in you head potential errors will start to jump out at you while reading code. I'd recommend both these books for anyone interested in becoming a better software engineer.

Helpful

TorontoniAnn

Good Book - "The" Book for Programming Interviews

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 28, 2015

Verified Purchase

I used this as preparation for a coding interview with a marketing software company. It's a good interview preparation book, but it's helping you fight an otherwise bad system - sometimes the hoops and requirements are annoying. This book is a solid preparation tool for a technical interview. It might try to cover too much in its space. You definitely can't learn something anew from the book, but it's a good refresher for certain skills you do know. The author is very active online, which is great, as she seems to be keeping up on latest trends and topics. It was overall a good resource for me.

Helpful

Maryam

Good Collection of Problems

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 4, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book provides a very good collection of programming problems. It also presents practical strategies to prepare for an interview. The introduction to concepts are not deep though, which is understandable as the book is really more focused on providing a complete set of questions and answers. I recommend it to anyone trying to find a software development position given that 1) you should first study your material and know them very well 2) you need to verify the answers by yourself and understand them before trusting them as in some cases the solutions are not completely correct or clearly described.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

justin coughlin

Read this book did the exercises two weeks later I had 6 job offers

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 13, 2014

Verified Purchase

The problems in this book are fantastic training for interviews at the big tech companies. Google, Twitter and Facebook and the likes will grill you on algorithms and data structures and the run times of your code at least once for phone screen and 4-5 times in a single day at an onsite. You need to be fast and thorough. This book provides you with the practice and solutions that do a really good job of explaining the answers to questions similar to though encountered in a real interview process. I suggest having another book to teach you the fundamentals and theories and then hone your skills by doing the problems in this book.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Cyrus the great

It actually helps you to prepare.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 11, 2014

Verified Purchase

As far as preparation goes, this is the best thing.
It really provides you with essential experience to do the coding interview.

You only need this if you are going for big fishes: Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, etc.
For smaller companies, and especially start-ups, this book is too much and a waste of time;
for those, your hands-on experience is more important.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Umesh Shah

No review needed

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 13, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is one of the best book to prepare for an interview. You will get the different type of programming question that are being asked in the real world. The book will give you solution and also guide you how to tackle new problems.

Helpful

Aman Taxali

Great add-on that lives up to its reputation

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 13, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book provides a great insider's perspective into the psychology of hiring developers and themes covered during programming interviews. However, I don't think this can serve as a replacement for the more formal reads on Algorithms, Data Structures, programming language features/behaviors, etc. Best used as a supplementary aid.

Helpful

rss

I skimmed through the contents and this book looks very ...

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 21, 2015

Verified Purchase

I skimmed through the contents and this book looks very helpful.

It would have been 5 stars had it not been for the fact that the cover was attached to the pages upside down, which is irritating.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

rob

Helpful for big tech cos

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 7, 2017

Verified Purchase

Most big tech cos (at least here in London - e.g. Google, Facebook etc) require whiteboard coding and problem solving, and this is a very easy to read guide to help you prepare for what to expect. Easy to both flick through, or just pick up and glance over - as well as work through systematically.

A lot of this can be found online, and lots of places let you practice with real example questions - but still nice to have (either to read on the train, or just to flick through) - I generally found it helpful for my prep for Google interviews, and generally found the content and style re-assuring given the number of horror stories about these big tech interviews.

Gianluca Tranchedone

A must read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 18, 2013

Verified Purchase

The book is very well written and exposes all the basic key points of a good technical interview preparation process. Moreover, the book is stuffed with common interview problems that are to be fully understood by candidates as similar problems might be presented in their next interview. If you're preparing for an interview, this book will help you understand what knowledge you're lacking and how to train for whiteboard problem solving exercise that are fairly common in technical interview, especially with big companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, etc.

3 people found this helpful

Thomas and Mingyi Miller

Very good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 22, 2015

Verified Purchase

Got a job before i really used the book, however from past interview everything you need to succeed in your first job is in this book, highly recommended.

Dragojevic Aleksandar

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 10, 2016

Verified Purchase

Quite useful. I would recommend reading it before interviewing. But also expanding on the areas it covers where needed.

Simo

Great book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 27, 2014

Verified Purchase

I had a couple of questions during the interview that the author mentioned. It makes me to refresh the right topics before my interview.

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Follow the Author

Cracking the Coding Interview: 150 Programming Questions and Solutions Paperback – Aug. 22 2011

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Product description

From the Author

About the Author

Product details

About the author

Gayle Laakmann McDowell

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Top reviews from Canada

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