Coding Interviews: Questions, Analysis & Solutions

This book is about coding interview questions from software and Internet companies. It covers five key factors which determine performance of candidates: (1) the basics of programming languages, data structures and algorithms, (2) approaches to writing code with high quality, (3) tips to solve difficult problems, (4) methods to optimize code, (5) soft skills required in interviews. The basics of languages, algorithms and data structures are discussed as well as questions that explore how to write robust solutions after breaking down problems into manageable pieces. It also includes examples to focus on modeling and creative problem solving.

Interview questions from the most popular companies in the IT industry are taken as examples to illustrate the five factors above. Besides solutions, it contains detailed analysis, how interviewers evaluate solutions, as well as why they like or dislike them. The author makes clever use of the fact that interviewees will have limited time to program meaningful solutions which in turn, limits the options an interviewer has. So the author covers those bases.

Readers will improve their interview performance after reading this book. It will be beneficial for them even after they get offers, because its topics, such as approaches to analyzing difficult problems, writing robust code and optimizing, are all essential for high-performing coders.

Harry has been a senior software engineer at Cisco since September 2010. His primary work involves development of Cesium, which is a platform for Cisco to monitor and control hardware quality of its partners (OEM/ODM). Prior to joining Cisco, Harry was associated with Autodesk and Microsoft for development of Map 3D and Winforms respectively. Over the years, he has interviewed more than 100 candidates for different corporations. His interest lies in coding interview questions. He has written dozens of blogs on this topic. Harry's published works include a book about programming interview questions in Chinese, which was released in December 2011 with PHEI, China. He has exhaustive knowledge, experience and understanding of code related questions and interviews. He also published a paper in the special issue of CASA 2005 with Wiley.