Table of Contents
So, it’s time for the interviews to happen. How are you going to prepare for it? You are probably scratching your head and trying to understand the best way to go about it. Think it through. There are so many algorithms, data structures, basic programs, terminologies, practice papers to go through — it’s insane. How can a single person be able to do all these things? You are after all, just a human being.
Well, we have got your back. Instead of going back to class 9 books and trudging through everything you have done to date, you should be better off by narrowing down the search to a couple of amazing books — 5, to be exact. They will brush up on your basics, make your problem-solving skills more efficient and develop confidence that will help you ace any interview. All you have to do is read them up with a strategy — an independent plan. Here are five books that you can go through before your interviews:
1. Programming Pearls
This book focuses on correctness, algorithms, performance and problem-solving skills. THe Programming Pearls book by Jon Bentley may be old, but as they say, old is gold. It will brush up your basics, and it has some great resources meant to get your programming knowledge a much-needed boost. Get that boost and you will get an extra edge in your interviews.
2. Elements of Programming Interviews
This book is meant for more advanced levels of programming. Written by Tsung-Hsien Lee, Adnan Aziz and Amit Prakash, this book is gold for more people preparing for face-to-face interviews. Specially designed for people going for interviews, Elements of Programming Interviews prepares programmers for top companies like Amazon and Google. You can even use it with Cracking the Coding interview book meant for telephonic interviews.
3. The Algorithm Design Manual
Algorithm Design can be an important part of your interview and if you are looking for one of THE Best books on it, you have to go for The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven S. Skiena. It explains the algorithm design beautifully and in a technical manner, one of the reasons why it is difficult. But then, you would require a companion book which you can use with other books like Elements of Programming Interviews. This is your goldmine.
4. Cracking the Coding Interview
Completely designed for interviews, Cracking the Coding Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell provides different interview insights based on companies like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc. It also talks about the skills that these companies look for in an employee. As for the remaining knowledge, like Java, SQL, Database, and OS, the book also provides small insights into them, making this quite a compact book with all kinds of information loaded in it.
5. Programming Interviews Exposed
This book is one of the best books to summarize all the basics and important bits in programming. It is not as complex and might seem too simplistic for advanced programmers, but the format of this book and the way it covers the essentials like array, conding, binary strings and trees, are phenomenal. It is the kind of book that you will be reading while you are travelling for the interview and making those last minute touches.
So, just go through these books, browse the internet and make sure you are fully pumped before the interview. And if you feel you’re stuck somewhere, don’t hesitate in reaching out to us at Coding Ninjas — we’ve got your back!
