Cracking the Coding Interview 6th PDF Free Download

Cracking the Coding Interview Summary

Cracking the Coding Interview, 6th Edition is here to help you through this process, teaching you what you need to know and enabling you to perform at your very best. I’ve coached and interviewed hundreds of software engineers. The result is this book.

Learn how to uncover the hints and hidden details in a question, discover how to break down a problem into manageable chunks, develop techniques to unstick yourself when stuck, learn (or re-learn) core computer science concepts, and practice on 189 interview questions and solutions.

These interview questions are real; they are not pulled out of computer science textbooks. They reflect what’s truly being asked at the top companies so that you can be as prepared as possible. WHAT’S INSIDE?

• 189 programming interview questions, ranging from the basics to the trickiest algorithm problems.
• A walk-through of how to derive each solution, so that you can learn how to get there yourself.
• Hints on how to solve each of the 189 questions, just like what you would get in a real interview.
• Five proven strategies to tackle algorithm questions, so that you can solve questions you haven’t seen.
• Extensive coverage of essential topics, such as big O time, data structures, and core algorithms.
• A behind the scenes look at how top companies like Google and Facebook hire developers.
• Techniques to prepare for and ace the soft side of the interview: behavioral questions.
• For interviewers and companies: details on what makes a good interview question and hiring process.

About the Author

Gayle Laakmann McDowell is the founder and CEO of CareerCup and the author of Cracking the PM Interview and Cracking the Tech Career.

Her background is in software development. She has worked as a software engineer at Google, Microsoft, and Apple. At Google, she interviewed hundreds of software engineers and evaluated thousands of hiring packets on the hiring committee. She holds a B.S.E. and M.S.E. in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School.

She now consults with tech companies to improve their hiring process and with startups to prepare them for acquisition interviews.

Cracking the Coding Interview Introduction

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Something’s Wrong

We walked out of the hiring meeting frustrated again. Of the ten candidates we reviewed that day, none
would receive offers. Were we being too harsh, we wondered?

I, in particular, was disappointed. We had rejected one of my candidates. A former student. One I had
referred. He had a 3.73 GPA from the University of Washington, one of the best computer science schools
in the world, and had done extensive work on open-source projects. He was energetic. He was creative. He
was sharp. He worked hard. He was a true geek in all the best ways.

But I had to agree with the rest of the committee: the data wasn’t there. Even if my emphatic recommendation
could sway them to reconsider, he would surely get rejected in the later stages of the hiring process.
There were just too many red flags.

Although he was quite intelligent, he struggled to solve the interview problems. Most successful candidates
could fly through the first question, which was a twist on a well-known problem, but he had trouble
developing an algorithm. When he came up with one, he failed to consider solutions that optimized for
other scenarios. Finally, when he began coding, he flew through the code with an initial solution, but it
was riddled with mistakes that he failed to catch. Though he wasn’t the worst candidate we’d seen by any
measure, he was far from meeting the “bar:’ Rejected.

When he asked for feedback over the phone a couple of weeks later, I struggled with what to tell him. Be
smarter? No, I knew he was brilliant. Be a better coder? No, his skills were on par with some of the best I’d
seen.

Like many motivated candidates, he had prepared extensively. He had read K&R’s classic C book, and he’d
reviewed CLRS’ famous algorithms textbook. He could describe in detail the myriad of ways of balancing a
tree, and he could do things in C that no sane programmer should ever want to do.

I had to tell him the unfortunate truth: those books aren’t enough. Academic books prepare you for fancy
research, and they will probably make you a better software engineer, but they’re not sufficient for interviews.
Why? I’ll give you a hint: Your interviewers haven’t seen red-black trees since they were in school
either.

To crack the coding interview, you need to prepare with real interview questions. You must practice on
real problems and learn their patterns. It’s about developing a fresh algorithm, not memorizing existing
problems.

Cracking the Coding Interview is the result of my first-hand experience interviewing at top companies and
later coaching candidates through these interviews. It is the result of hundreds of conversations with candidates.
It is the result of the thousands of questions contributed by candidates and interviewers. And it’s the
result of seeing so many interview questions from so many firms. Enclosed in this book are 189 of the best
interview questions, selected from thousands of potential problems.

My Approach
The focus of Cracking the Coding Interview is an algorithm, coding, and design questions. Why? Because
while you can and will be asked behavioral questions, the answers will be as varied as your resume. Likewise,
while many firms will ask so-called “trivia” questions (e.g., “What is a virtual function?”), the skills developed
through practicing these questions are limited to very specific bits of knowledge. The book will briefly
touch on some of these questions to show you what they’re like, but I have chosen to allocate space to areas
where there’s more to learn.

My Passion
Teaching is my passion. I love helping people understand new concepts and giving them tools to help them
excel in their passions.

My first official experience teaching was in college at the University of Pennsylvania, when I became a
teaching assistant for an undergraduate computer science course during my second year. I went on to TA
for several other courses, and I eventually launched my own computer science course there, focused on
hands-on skills.

As an engineer at Google, training and mentoring new engineers were some of the things, I enjoyed most. I
even used my”20% time”to teach two computer science courses at the University of Washington.

Now, years later, I continue to teach computer science concepts, but this time with the goal of preparing
engineers at startups for their acquisition interviews. I’ve seen their mistakes and struggles, and I’ve developed
techniques and strategies to help them combat those very issues.

Cracking the Coding Interview, Cracking the PM Interview, Cracking the Tech Career, and CareerCup
reflect my passion for teaching. Even now, you can often find me “hanging out” at CareerCup.com, helping
users who stop by for assistance.

For More Computers Books

Product details:

Edition	6th Edition
ISBN	0984782869, 978-0984782857
Posted on	July 1, 2015
Format	pdf
Page Count	687 pages
Author	Gayle Laakmann McDowell