Ask HN: good, quick algorithms course to prepare for big tech interviews?

143 pointsby zxcvvcxzvor 15 Jahren27 comments

I'm going to be interviewing for a professional work experience year as a university student (engineering) at several big software tech companies. I studied mainly electrical engineering, and it's been a while since my computer science algorithms days. I've still coded pretty much every week, but I can't remember specific stuff like merge sort, binary heaps, etc (plus I don't know what I need to know).

I hear algorithms-type questions come up a lot, so I would like to prepare really well as quickly as I can. What good sources would HN recommend?

Thanks.

28 comments

smhollowayvor 15 Jahren

I heard good things about "Algorithms For Interviews" by Adnan Aziz and Amit Prakash - http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Interviews-Adnan-Aziz/dp/14... (about $20)

ahalanvor 15 Jahren

some online materials and books: http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-learner-friendly-reso...

some interview questions: http://www.quora.com/What-questions-are-Java-Software-Engine...

msinghaivor 15 Jahren

Agreed! The Links are great!

arturntvor 15 Jahren

For out of college candidates you have two dominant types of problems: algorithms, and data-structures.

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~jrs/170/ http://webcast.berkeley.edu/playlist#c,d,Computer_Science,63...

Nertimvor 15 Jahren

If you have time, get Programming Pearls by Jon Bentley (http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Pearls-2nd-Jon-Bentley/dp/...)

lazvor 15 Jahren

This isn't the only prep that you'd need, but this is a good one to get your mind in the right place.

(I've given ~2 "big tech" interviews a week pretty solid for the past 6 years)

laluservor 15 Jahren

Although a great book, I don't think there is enough material covered to prepare one for a tech interview.

qdot76367vor 15 Jahren

In terms of ways to exercise your knowledge, go through old ACM Programming Competition questions too. They'll most likely be harder than you'll get in a phone or whiteboard, but it gets you in the mode of thinking for it (finding the fastest solution, smallest space, etc...):

http://www.ntnu.edu.tw/acm/ProblemSetArchive.html

Also, poke around GlassDoor (http://www.glassdoor.com). There's "interview reviews" up on there, and for larger companies, a lot of times there's just straight up questions and answers. So that can give you a good feel of who's asking what level of stuff. It's somewhat grain of saltish since a lot of the reviews seem to end with "no offer given", but it's still interesting.

spaghettivor 15 Jahren

Programming Interviews Exposed is great: http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Interviews-Exposed-Secrets...

http://www.careercup.com/ is also helpful.

Lastly you can look around http://programmers.stackexchange.com

akronimvor 15 Jahren

If you can't remember merge sort, quick sort or heaps, a easy starting point is wikipedia, and then code them up in your language of choice. It shouldn't take long, and you'll learn it better by doing than by reading about it.

antimoravor 15 Jahren

There is a GRE Subject Test for Computer Science that covers broad set of questions:

http://www.ets.org/gre/subject/about/content/computer_scienc...

You can use this as your guidance.

Here is a practice test that you can look into. It has some questions on algorithms: http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/GRE/pdf/CompSci.pdf

farnsworthvor 15 Jahren

I like Cracking the Coding Interview: http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-Fourth-Progr...

And The Algorithm Design Manual by Skiena: http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-Fourth-Progr...

msinghaivor 15 Jahren

http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Manual-Steven-Skiena/... - skiena

Gaylevor 15 Jahren

The fifth edition of Cracking the Coding Interview came out a few weeks ago. The correct link is http://www.amazon.com/dp/1466208686.

ArtemKovalvor 15 Jahren

I think second link (Skiena) is the same as first one.

[deleted]vor 15 Jahren

vanelsasvor 15 Jahren

I have just started reading the bible of algorithms:

http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Manual-Steven-Skiena/...

Not a quick win but a comprehensive, in-depth algorithm book :-)

philwelchvor 15 Jahren

I've heard good things about that book, but to be fair The Bible Of Algorithms can only be Knuth's TAoCP.

technogeek00vor 15 Jahren

The bible is definitely TAoCP, but its a little long to read before an interview, maybe select sections.

jharjonovor 15 Jahren

Judging by your choice of word, I think you might be a University of Toronto student. If you're a University of Toronto student doing the PEY program, then the tech interview for the big companies should be pretty easy. I think the hardest they managed to throw when I was doing interviews for PEY was how to reverse a string in Java.

If you're aiming for smaller companies or startups, they actually have harder technical questions.

Also, don't skimp on the preparation for the non-technical part of the interview. Prepare to answer soft questions (e.g. your previous team work experience, etc), practice talking about your past project experiences, practice making eye contacts and sounding confident, etc.

lasr21vor 15 Jahren

If you have time you can practice at http://www.topcoder.com or also http://projecteuler.net/

zachgalantvor 15 Jahren

http://openclassroom.stanford.edu/MainFolder/CoursePage.php?...

This course is CS 161 at Stanford: Intro to Algorithms. It's got a lot of short videos, so you can pick which ones you wanna watch. Also, I took the class, the prof is really good.

arckiearcvor 15 Jahren

Thanks a lot for posting this. I love that the lectures are broken up into smaller chunks, it makes the whole subject much easier to watch.

rdlvor 15 Jahren

I like the Algorithm Design Manual by Skiena

_arpan_vor 15 Jahren

I would highly recommend reading Programming Pearls by John Bentley. It is an eye opener and gives you too the point tricks to solve problems that companies generally ask.

http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/pearls/ They have a book too.

Also, there is careercup.com. Fantastic site if you want to get a feel of what sort of questions are asked in different companies.

jasiekvor 15 Jahren

You might want to try http://www.spoj.pl/ - there's a repository of algorithmic puzzles and you can submit your solutions in a number of programming languages.

kunalbvor 15 Jahren

For a concise, very readable book that I've used to get myself up to speed with algorithms in preparation for interviews you can try reading Algorithms by Papadimitrou, Dasgupta, Vazirani. You can grab a pdf at [Papadimitrou's website][1].

[1]: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~vazirani/algorithms.html

jergasonvor 15 Jahren

This is the book used for an Algorithms Analysis class at my university (Brigham Young University), and I have been very impressed so far with it. The fact that it is available for free is a great plus as well.