├── .travis.yml ├── front-end └── README.md ├── design ├── search-engine.md ├── README.md ├── collaborative-editor.md └── news-feed.md ├── algorithms ├── heap.md ├── geometry.md ├── bit-manipulation.md ├── queue.md ├── oop.md ├── hash-table.md ├── stack.md ├── graph.md ├── permutation.md ├── linked-list.md ├── sorting-searching.md ├── math.md ├── interval.md ├── dynamic-programming.md ├── topics.md ├── tree.md ├── matrix.md ├── string.md └── array.md ├── utilities ├── python │ ├── tree_mirror.py │ ├── tree_equal.py │ ├── is_subsequence.py │ ├── char_prime_map.py │ ├── graph_topo_sort.py │ ├── union_find.py │ ├── graph_dfs.py │ ├── tree_traversal.py │ ├── rabin_karp_hash.py │ ├── heap.py │ ├── quick_select.py │ ├── binary_search.py │ ├── trie.py │ └── linked_list.py └── javascript │ ├── treeMirror.js │ ├── treeEqual.js │ ├── matrixTranspose.js │ ├── isSubsequence.js │ ├── binToInt.js │ ├── matrixClone.js │ ├── intToBin.js │ ├── intervalsMerge.js │ ├── intervalsIntersect.js │ ├── binarySearch.js │ ├── matrixTraverse.js │ ├── graphTopoSort.js │ ├── deepEqual.js │ └── mergeSort.js ├── .editorconfig ├── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md ├── domain ├── databases.md ├── networking.md ├── software-engineering.md ├── async-loading │ └── index.html ├── snake-game │ └── snake-game.md ├── security.md ├── pagination-sorting │ ├── index.html │ └── data.js └── tic-tac-toe │ └── index.html ├── non-technical ├── cover-letter.md ├── psychological-tricks.md ├── self-introduction.md ├── interview-formats.md ├── negotiation.md ├── questions-to-ask.md ├── behavioral.md └── resume.md ├── CONTRIBUTING.md ├── LICENSE ├── interviewers └── basics.md ├── README.md ├── assets └── book.svg └── preparing ├── cheatsheet.md └── README.md /.travis.yml: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | install: 2 | - gem install awesome_bot 3 | 4 | script: 5 | - awesome_bot **/*.md --allow-dupe --allow-redirect --allow 429 --skip-save-results 6 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /front-end/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Front-end Job Interview Questions 2 | 3 | Front-end Job Interview Questions have been migrated [here](https://github.com/yangshun/front-end-interview-handbook). 4 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /design/search-engine.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Search Engine 2 | == 3 | 4 | ###### References 5 | 6 | - [How Do Search Engines Work?](http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-do-search-engines-work-makeuseof-explains/) 7 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/heap.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Heap 2 | == 3 | 4 | - Merge `K` sorted lists together into a single list. 5 | - Given a stream of integers, write an efficient function that returns the median value of the integers. 6 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/tree_mirror.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | def tree_mirror(node): 2 | if not node: 3 | return 4 | node.left, node.right = node.right, node.left 5 | tree_mirror(node.left) 6 | tree_mirror(node.right) 7 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /.editorconfig: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | root = true 2 | 3 | [*] 4 | end_of_line = lf 5 | insert_final_newline = true 6 | trim_trailing_whitespace = true 7 | 8 | [*.{js,py}] 9 | charset = utf-8 10 | indent_style = space 11 | indent_size = 4 12 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/treeMirror.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | function treeMirror(node) { 2 | if (!node) { 3 | return; 4 | } 5 | let temp = node.left; 6 | node.left = node.right; 7 | node.right = temp; 8 | treeMirror(node.left); 9 | treeMirror(node.right); 10 | } 11 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Code of Conduct 2 | 3 | We have adopted the same Code of Conduct as Facebook that we expect project participants to adhere to. Please read [the full text](https://code.facebook.com/codeofconduct) so that you can understand what actions will and will not be tolerated. 4 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /domain/databases.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Databases 2 | == 3 | 4 | ## General 5 | 6 | - How should you store passwords in a database? 7 | - http://www.geeksforgeeks.org/store-password-database/ 8 | - https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2013/11/20/serious-security-how-to-store-your-users-passwords-safely/ 9 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /domain/networking.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Networking 2 | == 3 | 4 | - Given an IPv4 IP address p and an integer n, return a list of CIDR strings that most succinctly represents the range of IP addresses from p to (p + n). 5 | - Describe what happens when you enter a url in the web browser. 6 | - Define UDP/TCP and give an example of both. 7 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/tree_equal.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | def tree_equal(node1, node2): 2 | if not node1 and not node2: 3 | return True 4 | if not node1 or not node2: 5 | return False 6 | return node1.val == node2.val and \ 7 | tree_equal(node1.left, node2.left) and \ 8 | tree_equal(node1.right, node2.right) 9 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/geometry.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Geometry 2 | == 3 | 4 | - You have a plane with lots of rectangles on it, find out how many of them intersect. 5 | - Which data structure would you use to query the k-nearest points of a set on a 2D plane? 6 | - Given many points, find k points that are closest to the origin. 7 | - How would you triangulate a polygon? 8 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/treeEqual.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | function treeEqual(node1, node2) { 2 | if (!node1 && !node2) { 3 | return true; 4 | } 5 | if (!node1 || !node2) { 6 | return false; 7 | } 8 | return node1.val == node2.val && 9 | treeEqual(node1.left, node2.left) && 10 | treeEqual(node1.right, node2.right); 11 | } 12 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/bit-manipulation.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Bit Manipulation 2 | == 3 | 4 | - How do you verify if an interger is a power of 2? 5 | - Write a program to print the binary representation of an integer. 6 | - Write a program to print out the number of 1 bits in a given integer. 7 | - Write a program to determine the largest possible integer using the same number of 1 bits in a given number. 8 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /non-technical/cover-letter.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Cover Letter 2 | == 3 | 4 | - A short introduction describing who you are and what you're looking for. 5 | - What projects have you enjoyed working on? 6 | - Which have you disliked? What motivates you? 7 | - Links to online profiles you use (GitHub, Twitter, etc). 8 | - A description of your work history (whether as a resume, LinkedIn profile, or prose). 9 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/is_subsequence.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | def is_subsequence(s, t): 2 | """ 3 | :type s: str 4 | :type t: str 5 | :rtype: bool 6 | """ 7 | if len(s) > len(t): 8 | return False 9 | matched_s = 0 10 | for char in t: 11 | if matched_s < len(s) and s[matched_s] == char: 12 | matched_s += 1 13 | return matched_s == len(s) 14 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/queue.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Queue 2 | == 3 | 4 | - Implement a Queue class from scratch with an existing bug, the bug is that it cannot take more than 5 elements. 5 | - Implement a Queue using two stacks. You may only use the standard `push()`, `pop()`, and `peek()` operations traditionally available to stacks. You do not need to implement the stack yourself (i.e. an array can be used to simulate a stack). 6 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /CONTRIBUTING.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | ## Contributing 2 | 3 | When contributing to this repository, if it is a non-trivial change, please first discuss the change you wish to make via creating an issue in this repository. 4 | 5 | As much as possible, try to follow the existing format of markdown and code. JavaScript code should adopt [Standard style](https://standardjs.com/). 6 | 7 | Please note we have a Code of Conduct, please follow it in all your interactions with the project. 8 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/matrixTranspose.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | function matrixTranspose(matrix) { 2 | return matrix[0].map((col, i) => matrix.map(row => row[i])); 3 | } 4 | 5 | const deepEqual = require('./deepEqual'); 6 | 7 | console.log(deepEqual(matrixTranspose([[1]]), [[1]])); 8 | console.log(deepEqual(matrixTranspose([[1, 2]]), [[1], [2]])); 9 | console.log(deepEqual(matrixTranspose([[1, 2], [1, 4]]), [[1, 1], [2, 4]])); 10 | console.log(deepEqual(matrixTranspose([[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]]), [[1, 4], [2, 5], [3, 6]])); 11 | 12 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/oop.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Object-Oriented Programming 2 | == 3 | 4 | - How would you design a chess game? What classes and objects would you use? What methods would they have? 5 | - How would you design the data structures for a book keeping system for a library? 6 | - Explain how you would design a HTTP server? Give examples of classes, methods, and interfaces. What are the challenges here? 7 | - Discuss algorithms and data structures for a garbage collector? 8 | - How would you implement an HR system to keep track of employee salaries and benefits? 9 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/hash-table.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Hash Table 2 | == 3 | 4 | - Describe an implementation of a least-used cache, and big-O notation of it. 5 | - A question involving an API's integration with hash map where the buckets of hash map are made up of linked lists. 6 | - Implement data structure `Map` storing pairs of integers (key, value) and define following member functions in O(1) runtime: `void insert(key, value)`, `void delete(key)`, `int get(key)`, `int getRandomKey()`. 7 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/08/14/uber-interview-question-map-implementation/). 8 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/stack.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Stack 2 | == 3 | 4 | - Implementation of an interpreter for a small language that does multiplication/addition/etc. 5 | - Design a `MinStack` data structure that supports a `min()` operation that returns the minimum value in the stack in O(1) time. 6 | - Write an algorithm to determine if all of the delimiters in an expression are matched and closed. 7 | - E.g. `{ac[bb]}`, `[dklf(df(kl))d]{}` and `{[[[]]]}` are matched. But `{3234[fd` and `{df][d}` are not. 8 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/09/30/uber-interview-question-delimiter-matching/) 9 | - Sort a stack in ascending order using an additional stack. 10 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/char_prime_map.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # For mapping a lowercase character to a prime number. 2 | # Useful for checking whether two strings are anagram or permutations of each other. 3 | primes = { 4 | 'a': 2, 'b': 3, 'c': 5, 'd': 7, 'e': 11, 'f': 13, 5 | 'g': 17, 'h': 19, 'i': 23, 'j': 29, 'k': 31, 'l': 37, 6 | 'm': 41, 'n': 43, 'o': 47, 'p': 53, 'q': 59, 'r': 61, 7 | 's': 67, 't': 71, 'u': 73, 'v': 79, 'w': 83, 'x': 89, 8 | 'y': 97, 'z': 101, ' ': 103, 9 | } 10 | 11 | import functools 12 | 13 | def mul(seq): 14 | return functools.reduce(lambda a, b: a * b, seq, 1) 15 | 16 | def prime_value_of_string(string): 17 | return mul([primes[c] for c in string]) 18 | 19 | print(prime_value_of_string('abcde')) 20 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/isSubsequence.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | function isSubsequence(s, t) { 2 | if (s.length > t.length) { 3 | return false; 4 | } 5 | let matchedLength = 0; 6 | for (let i = 0; i < t.length; i++) { 7 | if (matchedLength < s.length && s[matchedLength] === t[i]) { 8 | matchedLength += 1; 9 | } 10 | } 11 | return matchedLength === s.length; 12 | } 13 | 14 | console.log(isSubsequence('abc', 'abcde') === true); 15 | console.log(isSubsequence('abd', 'abcde') === true); 16 | console.log(isSubsequence('abf', 'abcde') === false); 17 | console.log(isSubsequence('abef', 'abcde') === false); 18 | console.log(isSubsequence('abcdef', 'abcde') === false); 19 | console.log(isSubsequence('a', 'abcde') === true); 20 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/binToInt.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | // Does not handle negative binary numbers. 2 | function binToInt(binary) { 3 | let res = 0; 4 | for (let i = 0; i < binary.length; i++) { 5 | res = res * 2 + (+binary[i]); 6 | } 7 | return res; 8 | } 9 | 10 | console.log(binToInt('0') === parseInt('0', 2) && parseInt('0', 2) === 0); 11 | console.log(binToInt('1') === parseInt('1', 2) && parseInt('1', 2) === 1); 12 | console.log(binToInt('10') === parseInt('10', 2) && parseInt('10', 2) === 2); 13 | console.log(binToInt('11') === parseInt('11', 2) && parseInt('11', 2) === 3); 14 | console.log(binToInt('101') === parseInt('101', 2) && parseInt('101', 2) === 5); 15 | console.log(binToInt('1100011') === parseInt('1100011', 2) && parseInt('1100011', 2) === 99); 16 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/matrixClone.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | function matrixClone(matrix, defaultValue) { 2 | return matrix.map(row => { 3 | return defaultValue === undefined ? row.slice(0) : Array(row.length).fill(defaultValue); 4 | }); 5 | } 6 | 7 | const deepEqual = require('./deepEqual'); 8 | 9 | // Test clone. 10 | const a = [[1, 2], [1, 4]]; 11 | console.log(deepEqual(matrixClone(a), [[1, 2], [1, 4]])); 12 | a[0][0] = 4; 13 | console.log(deepEqual(matrixClone(a), [[1, 2], [1, 4]]) === false); 14 | console.log(deepEqual(matrixClone([[1]]), [[1]])); 15 | 16 | // Test clone with default value. 17 | console.log(deepEqual(matrixClone([[1, 2], [1, 4]], 1), [[1, 1], [1, 1]])); 18 | console.log(deepEqual(matrixClone([[1, 2], [1, 4]], null), [[null, null], [null, null]])); 19 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/graph.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Graph 2 | == 3 | 4 | - Given a list of sorted words from an alien dictionary, find the order of the alphabet. 5 | - Alien Dictionary Topological Sort question. 6 | - Find if a given string matches any path in a labeled graph. A path may contain cycles. 7 | - Given a bipartite graph, separate the vertices into two sets. 8 | - You are a thief trying to sneak across a rectangular 100 x 100m field. There are alarms placed on the fields and they each have a circular sensing radius which will trigger if anyone steps into it. Each alarm has its own radius. Determine if you can get from one end of the field to the other end. 9 | - Given a graph and two nodes, determine if there exists a path between them. 10 | - Determine if a cycle exists in the graph. 11 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/intToBin.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | // Does not handle negative numbers. 2 | function intToBin(number) { 3 | if (number === 0) { 4 | return '0'; 5 | } 6 | let res = ''; 7 | while (number > 0) { 8 | res = String(number % 2) + res; 9 | number = parseInt(number / 2, 10); 10 | } 11 | return res; 12 | } 13 | 14 | console.log(intToBin(0) === 0..toString(2) && 0..toString(2) === '0'); 15 | console.log(intToBin(1) === 1..toString(2) && 1..toString(2) === '1'); 16 | console.log(intToBin(2) === 2..toString(2) && 2..toString(2) === '10'); 17 | console.log(intToBin(3) === 3..toString(2) && 3..toString(2) === '11'); 18 | console.log(intToBin(5) === 5..toString(2) && 5..toString(2) === '101'); 19 | console.log(intToBin(99) === 99..toString(2) && 99..toString(2) === '1100011'); 20 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/intervalsMerge.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | // Interval: [start, end]. 2 | // Merges two overlapping intervals into one. 3 | function intervalsMerge(a, b) { 4 | return [Math.min(a[0], b[0]), Math.max(a[1], b[1])]; 5 | } 6 | 7 | const deepEqual = require('./deepEqual'); 8 | 9 | console.log(deepEqual(intervalsMerge([1, 2], [1, 4]), [1, 4])); 10 | console.log(deepEqual(intervalsMerge([1, 2], [0, 4]), [0, 4])); 11 | console.log(deepEqual(intervalsMerge([1, 2], [0, 2]), [0, 2])); 12 | console.log(deepEqual(intervalsMerge([1, 2], [0, 1.5]), [0, 2])); 13 | console.log(deepEqual(intervalsMerge([1, 4], [1, 2]), [1, 4])); 14 | console.log(deepEqual(intervalsMerge([0, 4], [1, 2]), [0, 4])); 15 | console.log(deepEqual(intervalsMerge([0, 2], [1, 2]), [0, 2])); 16 | console.log(deepEqual(intervalsMerge([0, 1.5], [1, 2]), [0, 2])); 17 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/graph_topo_sort.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | def graph_topo_sort(num_nodes, edges): 2 | from collections import deque 3 | nodes, order, queue = {}, [], deque() 4 | for node_id in range(num_nodes): 5 | nodes[node_id] = { 'in': 0, 'out': set() } 6 | for node_id, pre_id in edges: 7 | nodes[node_id]['in'] += 1 8 | nodes[pre_id]['out'].add(node_id) 9 | for node_id in nodes.keys(): 10 | if nodes[node_id]['in'] == 0: 11 | queue.append(node_id) 12 | while len(queue): 13 | node_id = queue.pop() 14 | for outgoing_id in nodes[node_id]['out']: 15 | nodes[outgoing_id]['in'] -= 1 16 | if nodes[outgoing_id]['in'] == 0: 17 | queue.append(outgoing_id) 18 | order.append(node_id) 19 | return order if len(order) == num_nodes else [] 20 | 21 | print(graph_topo_sort(3, [[0, 1], [0, 2]])) 22 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/intervalsIntersect.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | // Interval: [start, end]. 2 | function intervalsIntersect(a, b) { 3 | return a[0] < b[1] && b[0] < a[1]; 4 | } 5 | 6 | console.log(intervalsIntersect([1, 2], [3, 4]) === false); 7 | console.log(intervalsIntersect([1, 2], [2, 4]) === false); 8 | console.log(intervalsIntersect([1, 2], [1, 4]) === true); 9 | console.log(intervalsIntersect([1, 2], [0, 4]) === true); 10 | console.log(intervalsIntersect([1, 2], [0, 2]) === true); 11 | console.log(intervalsIntersect([1, 2], [0, 1.5]) === true); 12 | console.log(intervalsIntersect([3, 4], [1, 2]) === false); 13 | console.log(intervalsIntersect([2, 4], [1, 2]) === false); 14 | console.log(intervalsIntersect([1, 4], [1, 2]) === true); 15 | console.log(intervalsIntersect([0, 4], [1, 2]) === true); 16 | console.log(intervalsIntersect([0, 2], [1, 2]) === true); 17 | console.log(intervalsIntersect([0, 1.5], [1, 2]) === true); 18 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/binarySearch.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | function binarySearch(arr, target) { 2 | let left = 0; 3 | let right = arr.length - 1; 4 | while (left <= right) { 5 | const mid = left + Math.floor((right - left) / 2); 6 | if (arr[mid] === target) { 7 | return mid; 8 | } 9 | if (arr[mid] < target) { 10 | left = mid + 1; 11 | } else { 12 | right = mid - 1; 13 | } 14 | } 15 | return -1; 16 | } 17 | 18 | console.log(binarySearch([1, 2, 3, 10], 1) === 0); 19 | console.log(binarySearch([1, 2, 3, 10], 2) === 1); 20 | console.log(binarySearch([1, 2, 3, 10], 3) === 2); 21 | console.log(binarySearch([1, 2, 3, 10], 10) === 3); 22 | console.log(binarySearch([1, 2, 3, 10], 9) === -1); 23 | console.log(binarySearch([1, 2, 3, 10], 4) === -1); 24 | console.log(binarySearch([1, 2, 3, 10], 0) === -1); 25 | console.log(binarySearch([1, 2, 3, 10], 11) === -1); 26 | console.log(binarySearch([5, 7, 8, 10], 3) === -1); 27 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/matrixTraverse.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | function traverse(matrix) { 2 | const DIRECTIONS = [[0, 1], [0, -1], [1, 0], [-1, 0]]; 3 | const rows = matrix.length, cols = matrix[0].length; 4 | const visited = matrix.map(row => Array(row.length).fill(false)); 5 | function dfs(i, j) { 6 | if (visited[i][j]) { 7 | return; 8 | } 9 | visited[i][j] = true; 10 | DIRECTIONS.forEach(dir => { 11 | const row = i + dir[0], col = j + dir[1]; 12 | // Boundary check. 13 | if (row < 0 || row >= rows || col < 0 || col >= cols) { 14 | return; 15 | } 16 | // Valid neighbor check. 17 | if (matrix[row][col] !== 1) { 18 | return; 19 | } 20 | dfs(row, col); 21 | }); 22 | } 23 | for (let i = 0; i < rows; i++) { 24 | for (let j = 0; j < cols; j++) { 25 | dfs(i, j); 26 | } 27 | } 28 | } 29 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/permutation.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Permutation 2 | == 3 | 4 | - You are given a 7 digit phone number, and you should find all possible letter combinations based on the digit-to-letter mapping on numeric pad and return only the ones that have valid match against a given dictionary of words. 5 | - Give all possible letter combinations from a phone number. 6 | - Generate all subsets of a string. 7 | - Print all possible `N` pairs of balanced parentheses. 8 | - E.g. when `N` is `2`, the function should print `(())` and `()()`. 9 | - E.g. when `N` is `3`, we should get `((()))`, `(()())`, `(())()`, `()(())`, `()()()`. 10 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/12/23/uber-interview-questions-permutations-parentheses/) 11 | - Given a list of arrays, return a list of arrays, where each array is a combination of one element in each given array. 12 | - E.g. If the input is `[[1, 2, 3], [4], [5, 6]]`, the output should be `[[1, 4, 5], [1, 4, 6], [2, 4, 5], [2, 4, 6], [3, 4, 5], [3, 4, 6]]`. 13 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/linked-list.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Linked List 2 | == 3 | 4 | - Given a linked list, in addition to the next pointer, each node has a child pointer that can point to a separate list. With the head node, flatten the list to a single-level linked list. 5 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/06/12/flatten-a-linked-list/) 6 | - Reverse a singly linked list. Implement it recursively and iteratively. 7 | - Convert a binary tree to a doubly circular linked list. 8 | - Implement an LRU cache with O(1) runtime for all its operations. 9 | - Check distance between values in linked list. 10 | - A question involving an API's integration with hash map where the buckets of hash map are made up of linked lists. 11 | - Given a singly linked list (a list which can only be traversed in one direction), find the item that is located at 'k' items from the end. So if the list is a, b, c, d and k is 2 then the answer is 'c'. The solution should not search the list twice. 12 | - How can you tell if a Linked List is a Palindrome? 13 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/graphTopoSort.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | function graphTopoSort(numberNodes, edges) { 2 | const nodes = new Map(); 3 | const order = []; 4 | const queue = []; 5 | for (let i = 0; i < numberNodes; i++) { 6 | nodes.set(i, { in: 0, out: new Set() }); 7 | } 8 | 9 | edges.forEach(edge => { 10 | const [node_id, pre_id] = edge; 11 | nodes.get(node_id).in += 1; 12 | nodes.get(pre_id).out.add(node_id); 13 | }); 14 | 15 | for (let [node_id, value] of nodes.entries()) { 16 | if (value.in === 0) { 17 | queue.push(node_id); 18 | } 19 | } 20 | 21 | while (queue.length) { 22 | const node_id = queue.shift(); 23 | for (let outgoing_id of nodes.get(node_id).out) { 24 | nodes.get(outgoing_id).in -= 1; 25 | if (nodes.get(outgoing_id).in === 0) { 26 | queue.push(outgoing_id); 27 | } 28 | } 29 | order.push(node_id); 30 | } 31 | 32 | return order.length == numberNodes ? order : []; 33 | } 34 | 35 | console.log(graphTopoSort(3, [[0, 1], [0, 2]])); 36 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /LICENSE: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | MIT License 2 | 3 | Copyright (c) 2017-Present Yangshun Tay 4 | 5 | Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy 6 | of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal 7 | in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights 8 | to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell 9 | copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is 10 | furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: 11 | 12 | The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all 13 | copies or substantial portions of the Software. 14 | 15 | THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR 16 | IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, 17 | FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE 18 | AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER 19 | LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, 20 | OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE 21 | SOFTWARE. 22 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/deepEqual.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | function deepEqual(val1, val2) { 2 | if (typeof val1 !== typeof val2) { 3 | return false; 4 | } 5 | 6 | // Array comparison. 7 | if (Array.isArray(val1) && Array.isArray(val2)) { 8 | if (val1.length !== val2.length) { 9 | return false; 10 | } 11 | for (let i = 0; i < val1.length; i++) { 12 | if (!deepEqual(val1[i], val2[i])) { 13 | return false; 14 | } 15 | } 16 | return true; 17 | } 18 | 19 | // Object comparison. 20 | if (typeof val1 === 'object' && typeof val2 === 'object' && val1 !== null) { 21 | const keys1 = Object.keys(val1), keys2 = Object.keys(val2); 22 | if (keys1.length !== keys2.length) { 23 | return false; 24 | } 25 | for (let i = 0; i < keys1.length; i++) { 26 | if (!deepEqual(val1[keys1[i]], val2[keys2[i]])) { 27 | return false; 28 | } 29 | } 30 | return true; 31 | } 32 | 33 | // Primitive comparison. 34 | return val1 === val2; 35 | } 36 | 37 | module.exports = deepEqual; 38 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/sorting-searching.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Sorting and Searching 2 | == 3 | 4 | - Sorting search results on a page given a certain set of criteria. 5 | - Sort a list of numbers in which each number is at a distance `K` from its actual position. 6 | - Given an array of integers, sort the array so that all odd indexes are greater than the even indexes. 7 | - Given users with locations in a list and a logged-in user with locations, find their travel buddies (people who shared more than half of your locations). 8 | - Search for an element in a sorted and rotated array. 9 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2017/01/12/rotated-array-binary-search/) 10 | - Sort a list where each element is no more than k positions away from its sorted position. 11 | - Search for an item in a sorted, but rotated, array. 12 | - Merge two sorted lists together. 13 | - Give 3 distinct algorithms to find the K largest values in a list of N items. 14 | - Find the minimum element in a sorted rotated array in faster than O(n) time. 15 | - Write a function that takes a number as input and outputs the biggest number with the same set of digits. 16 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2017/01/20/arrange-given-numbers-to-form-the-biggest-number-possible/) 17 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/union_find.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | ## Union-Find data structure 2 | ## https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disjoint-set_data_structure 3 | 4 | parents = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] # parent[i] is the parent of i 5 | weights = [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1] 6 | 7 | def find_root(parents, p): 8 | '''Average: O(log n)''' 9 | root = p 10 | while parents[root] != root: 11 | root = parents[root] 12 | # Flatten tree 13 | while parents[p] != p: 14 | parents[p], p = root, parents[p] 15 | return root 16 | 17 | def union(parents, p, q): 18 | '''Average: O(log n)''' 19 | p = find_root(parents, p) 20 | q = find_root(parents, q) 21 | # Link the smaller node to the larger node 22 | if weights[p] > weights[q]: 23 | parents[q] = p 24 | weights[p] += weights[q] 25 | else: 26 | parents[p] = q 27 | weights[q] += weights[p] 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | # Start with all elements separate 32 | # -> [0], [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6] 33 | print(find_root(parents, 2) == 2) 34 | 35 | # Merge 1, 2, 3 and 4, 5, 6 36 | # -> [0], [1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6] 37 | union(parents, 1, 2) 38 | union(parents, 2, 3) 39 | union(parents, 4, 5) 40 | union(parents, 4, 6) 41 | 42 | # Roots of 1, 2, 3 and 4, 5, 6 are the same 43 | print(find_root(parents, 0)) 44 | print(list(find_root(parents, i) for i in (1, 2, 3))) 45 | print(list(find_root(parents, i) for i in (4, 5, 6))) 46 | 47 | # Merge 2, 4 48 | # -> [0], [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] 49 | union(parents, 2, 4) 50 | print(list(find_root(parents, i) for i in (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6))) 51 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/math.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Math 2 | == 3 | 4 | - Create a square root function. 5 | - Given a string such as "123" or "67", write a function to output the number represented by the string without using casting. 6 | - Make a program that can print out the text form of numbers from 1 - 1000 (ex. 20 is "twenty", 105 is "one hundred and five"). 7 | - Write a function that parses Roman numerals. 8 | - E.g. `XIV` returns `14`. 9 | - Write in words for a given digit. 10 | - E.g. `123` returns `one hundred and twenty three`. 11 | - Given a number `N`, find the largest number just smaller than `N` that can be formed using the same digits as `N`. 12 | - Compute the square root of `N` without using any existing functions. 13 | - Given numbers represented as binary strings, and return the string containing their sum. 14 | - E.g. `add('10010', '101')` returns `'10111'`. 15 | - Take in an integer and return its english word-format. 16 | - E.g. 1 -> "one", -10,203 -> "negative ten thousand two hundred and three". 17 | - Write a function that returns values randomly, according to their weight. Suppose we have 3 elements with their weights: A (1), B (1) and C (2). The function should return A with probability 25%, B with 25% and C with 50% based on the weights. 18 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/11/11/uber-interview-question-weighted-random-numbers/) 19 | - Given a number, how can you get the next greater number with the same set of digits? 20 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2017/01/20/arrange-given-numbers-to-form-the-biggest-number-possible/) 21 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/javascript/mergeSort.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | function mergeSort(arr) { 2 | if (arr.length < 2) { 3 | // Arrays of length 0 or 1 are sorted by definition. 4 | return arr; 5 | } 6 | 7 | const left = arr.slice(0, Math.floor(arr.length / 2)); 8 | const right = arr.slice(Math.floor(arr.length / 2), Math.floor(arr.length)); 9 | 10 | return merge(mergeSort(left), mergeSort(right)); 11 | } 12 | 13 | function merge(arr1, arr2) { 14 | const merged = []; 15 | let i = 0, j = 0; 16 | 17 | while (i < arr1.length && j < arr2.length) { 18 | if (arr1[i] <= arr2[j]) { 19 | merged.push(arr1[i]); 20 | i++; 21 | } else if (arr2[j] < arr1[i]) { 22 | merged.push(arr2[j]); 23 | j++; 24 | } 25 | } 26 | 27 | merged.push(...arr1.slice(i), ...arr2.slice(j)); 28 | return merged; 29 | } 30 | 31 | const deepEqual = require('./deepEqual'); 32 | 33 | console.log(deepEqual( 34 | mergeSort([]), 35 | [], 36 | )); 37 | console.log(deepEqual( 38 | mergeSort([1]), 39 | [1], 40 | )); 41 | console.log(deepEqual( 42 | mergeSort([2, 1]), 43 | [1, 2], 44 | )); 45 | console.log(deepEqual( 46 | mergeSort([7, 2, 4, 3, 1, 2]), 47 | [1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 7], 48 | )); 49 | console.log(deepEqual( 50 | mergeSort([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 0]), 51 | [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5], 52 | )); 53 | console.log(deepEqual( 54 | mergeSort([10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1]), 55 | [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10], 56 | )); 57 | console.log(deepEqual( 58 | mergeSort([98322, 3242, 876, -234, 34, 12331]), 59 | [-234, 34, 876, 3242, 12331, 98322], 60 | )); 61 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/interval.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Interval 2 | == 3 | 4 | - Given a list of schedules, provide a list of times that are available for a meeting. 5 | ``` 6 | [ 7 | [[4,5], [6,10], [12,14]], 8 | [[4,5], [5,9], [13,16]], 9 | [[11,14]] 10 | ] 11 | 12 | Example Output: 13 | [[0,4], [11,12], [16,23]] 14 | ``` 15 | - You have a number of meetings (with their start and end times). You need to schedule them using the minimum number of rooms. Return the list of meetings in every room. 16 | - Interval ranges: 17 | - Given 2 interval ranges, create a function to tell me if these ranges intersect. Both start and end are inclusive: `[start, end]` 18 | - E.g. `[1, 4]` and `[5, 6]` => `false` 19 | - E.g. `[1, 4]` and `[3, 6]` => `true` 20 | - Given 2 interval ranges that intersect, now create a function to merge the 2 ranges into a single continuous range. 21 | - E.g. `[1, 4]` and `[3, 6]` => `[1, 6]` 22 | - Now create a function that takes a group of unsorted, unorganized intervals, merge any intervals that intersect and sort them. The result should be a group of sorted, non-intersecting intervals. 23 | - Now create a function to merge a new interval into a group of sorted, non-intersecting intervals. After the merge, all intervals should remain 24 | non-intersecting. 25 | - Given a list of meeting times, check if any of them overlap. The follow-up question is to return the minimum number of rooms required to accommodate all the meetings. 26 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/07/12/meeting-room-scheduling-problem/) 27 | - If you have a list of intervals, how would you merge them? 28 | - E.g. `[1, 3], [8, 11], [2, 6]` => `[1, 6], [8-11]` 29 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/dynamic-programming.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Dynamic Programming 2 | == 3 | 4 | - Given a flight itinerary consisting of starting city, destination city, and ticket price (2D list) - find the optimal price flight path to get from start to destination. (A variation of Dynamic Programming Shortest Path) 5 | - Given some coin denominations and a target value `M`, return the coins combination with the minimum number of coins. 6 | - Time complexity: `O(MN)`, where N is the number of distinct type of coins. 7 | - Space complexity: `O(M)`. 8 | - Given a set of numbers in an array which represent a number of consecutive days of Airbnb reservation requested, as a host, pick the sequence which maximizes the number of days of occupancy, at the same time, leaving at least a 1-day gap in-between bookings for cleaning. 9 | - The problem reduces to finding the maximum sum of non-consecutive array elements. 10 | - E.g. 11 | ~~~ 12 | // [5, 1, 1, 5] => 10 13 | The above array would represent an example booking period as follows - 14 | // Dec 1 - 5 15 | // Dec 5 - 6 16 | // Dec 6 - 7 17 | // Dec 7 - 12 18 | 19 | The answer would be to pick Dec 1-5 (5 days) and then pick Dec 7-12 for a total of 10 days of 20 | occupancy, at the same time, leaving at least 1-day gap for cleaning between reservations. 21 | 22 | Similarly, 23 | // [3, 6, 4] => 7 24 | // [4, 10, 3, 1, 5] => 15 25 | ~~~ 26 | - Given a list of denominations (e.g., `[1, 2, 5]` means you have coins worth $1, $2, and $5) and a target number `k`, find all possible combinations, if any, of coins in the given denominations that add up to `k`. You can use coins of the same denomination more than once. 27 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/graph_dfs.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | def graph_dfs(matrix): 2 | rows, cols = len(matrix), len(matrix[0]) 3 | visited = set() 4 | directions = ((0, 1), (0, -1), (1, 0), (-1, 0)) 5 | def dfs(i, j): 6 | if (i, j) in visited: 7 | return 8 | visited.add((i, j)) 9 | # Traverse neighbors. 10 | for direction in directions: 11 | next_i, next_j = i + direction[0], j + direction[1] 12 | if 0 <= next_i < rows and 0 <= next_j < cols: # Check boundary. 13 | # Add any other checking here ^ 14 | dfs(next_i, next_j) 15 | 16 | for i in range(rows): 17 | for j in range(cols): 18 | dfs(i, j) 19 | 20 | # Follow up: 21 | # 1) Diagonal cells are considered neighbors 22 | # 2) View the matrix like Earth, right boundary is adjacent to the left boundary, top adjacent to left, etc. 23 | def graph_dfs_diagonals_and_boundary_wrap(matrix): 24 | rows, cols = len(matrix), len(matrix[0]) 25 | visited = set() 26 | # Change 1: Add 4 more diagonal directions. 27 | directions = ((0, 1), (0, -1), (1, 0), (-1, 0), (-1, -1), (1, 1), (1, -1), (-1, 1)) 28 | def dfs(i, j): 29 | if (i, j) in visited: 30 | return 31 | visited.add((i, j)) 32 | for direction in directions: 33 | # Change 2: No more boundary, use modulo to allow traversal that exceed boundaries to wrap around. 34 | next_i, next_j = (i + direction[0] + rows) % rows, (j + direction[1] + cols) % cols 35 | dfs(next_i, next_j) 36 | 37 | for i in range(rows): 38 | for j in range(cols): 39 | dfs(i, j) 40 | 41 | graph_dfs([ 42 | [1, 2, 3, 4], 43 | [5, 6, 7, 8], 44 | [9, 10, 11, 12], 45 | ]) 46 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/tree_traversal.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Various iterative ways of traversing a tree. 2 | def inorder_traversal(root): 3 | """ 4 | :type root: TreeNode 5 | :rtype: List[int] 6 | """ 7 | if not root: 8 | return [] 9 | result = [] 10 | stack = [root] 11 | while len(stack) > 0: 12 | curr_node = stack.pop() 13 | if curr_node.left: 14 | stack.append(curr_node) 15 | stack.append(curr_node.left) 16 | curr_node.left = None 17 | else: 18 | result.append(curr_node.val) 19 | if curr_node.right: 20 | stack.append(curr_node.right) 21 | return result 22 | 23 | def preorder_traversal(root): 24 | """ 25 | :type root: TreeNode 26 | :rtype: List[int] 27 | """ 28 | if not root: 29 | return [] 30 | result = [] 31 | stack = [root] 32 | while len(stack) > 0: 33 | curr_node = stack.pop() 34 | result.append(curr_node.val) 35 | if curr_node.right: 36 | stack.append(curr_node.right) 37 | if curr_node.left: 38 | stack.append(curr_node.left) 39 | return result 40 | 41 | def postorder_traversal(root): 42 | """ 43 | :type root: TreeNode 44 | :rtype: List[int] 45 | """ 46 | if not root: 47 | return [] 48 | result = [] 49 | stack = [root] 50 | while len(stack) > 0: 51 | curr_node = stack.pop() 52 | if curr_node.left: 53 | stack.append(curr_node) 54 | stack.append(curr_node.left) 55 | curr_node.left = None 56 | elif curr_node.right: 57 | stack.append(curr_node) 58 | stack.append(curr_node.right) 59 | curr_node.right = None 60 | else: 61 | result.append(curr_node.val) 62 | return result 63 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /domain/software-engineering.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Software Engineering 2 | == 3 | 4 | ## What is the difference between an interface and abstract class? 5 | 6 | **Abstract Class** 7 | 8 | - For an abstract class, a method must be declared as abstract. An abstract method doesn't have an implementation. 9 | - The Abstract methods can be declared with Access modifiers like public, internal, protected, etc. When implementing these methods in a subclass, you must define them with the same (or a less restricted) visibility. 10 | - Abstract classes can contain variables and concrete methods. 11 | - A class can Inherit only one Abstract class. Hence multiple inheritance is not possible for an Abstract class. 12 | - Abstract is object-oriented. It offers the basic data an 'object' should have and/or functions it should be able to do. It is concerned with the object's basic characteristics: what it has and what it can do. Hence objects which inherit from the same abstract class share the basic characteristics (generalization). 13 | - Abstract class establishes "is a" relation with concrete classes. 14 | 15 | **Interface** 16 | 17 | - For an interface, all the methods are abstract by default. So one cannot declare variables or concrete methods in interfaces. 18 | - All methods declared in an interface must be public. 19 | - Interfaces cannot contain variables and concrete methods except constants. 20 | - A class can implement many interfaces. Hence multiple interface inheritance is possible. 21 | - Interface is functionality-oriented. It defines functionalities an object should have. Regardless what object it is, as long as it can do these functionalities, which are defined in the interface, it's fine. It ignores everything else. An object/class can contain several (groups of) functionalities; hence it is possible for a class to implement multiple interfaces. 22 | - Interface provides "has a" capability for classes. 23 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/topics.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Topics 2 | == 3 | 4 | ## Arrays 5 | 6 | ## Strings 7 | 8 | - Prefix trees (Tries) 9 | - Suffix trees 10 | - Suffix arrays 11 | - KMP 12 | - Rabin-Karp 13 | - Boyer-Moore 14 | 15 | ## Sorting 16 | 17 | - Bubble sort 18 | - Insertion sort 19 | - Merge sort 20 | - Quick sort 21 | - Selection sort 22 | - Bucket sort 23 | - Radix sort 24 | - Counting sort 25 | 26 | ## Linked Lists 27 | 28 | ## Stacks 29 | 30 | ## Queues 31 | 32 | ## Hash tables 33 | 34 | - Collision resolution algorithms 35 | 36 | ## Trees 37 | 38 | - BFS 39 | - DFS (inorder, postorder, preorder) 40 | - Height 41 | 42 | ## Binary Search Trees 43 | 44 | - Insert node 45 | - Delete a node 46 | - Find element in BST 47 | - Find min, max element in BST 48 | - Get successor element in tree 49 | - Check if a binary tree is a BST or not 50 | 51 | ## Heaps / Priority Queues 52 | 53 | - Insert 54 | - Bubble up 55 | - Extract max 56 | - Remove 57 | - Heapify 58 | - Heap sort 59 | 60 | ## Graphs 61 | 62 | - Various implementations 63 | - Adjacency matrix 64 | - Adjacency list 65 | - Adjacency map 66 | - Single-source shortest path 67 | - Dijkstra 68 | - Bellman-Ford 69 | - Topo sort 70 | - MST 71 | - Prim algorithm 72 | - Kruskal's algorithm 73 | - Union Find Data Structure 74 | - Count connected components in a graph 75 | - List strongly connected components in a graph 76 | - Check for bipartite graph 77 | 78 | ## Dynamic Programming 79 | 80 | - Count Change 81 | - 0-1 Knapsack 82 | 83 | ## System Design 84 | 85 | - http://www.hiredintech.com/system-design/ 86 | - https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-prepare-to-answer-design-questions-in-a-technical-interview?redirected_qid=1500023 87 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2015/10/22/8-things-you-need-to-know-before-system-design-interviews/ 88 | - https://github.com/donnemartin/system-design-primer 89 | - https://github.com/jwasham/coding-interview-university/blob/master/extras/cheat%20sheets/system-design.pdf 90 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /domain/async-loading/index.html: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 | 60 | 61 | 62 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /domain/snake-game/snake-game.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Snake Game 2 | == 3 | 4 | Design a snake game that is to be played in web browser. 5 | 6 | Client: React + Redux 7 | 8 | Rendering: 9 | Pixel-based graphics. Depending on the intended resolution, can divide the screen into N * M pixels. Can dynamically calculate the size of each pixel. 10 | 11 | Fruit: One pixel. 12 | Snake body: One pixel width made up of connected pixels. 13 | 14 | Model: 15 | { 16 | fruit: { 17 | x, y 18 | }, 19 | snake: { 20 | points: [(x, y), ...] # head is at index 0 21 | direction: north/south/east/west 22 | } 23 | speed: 500, 24 | points: 0 25 | } 26 | 27 | function update() { 28 | next_loc = points[0] + (x, y) # Depends on the direction 29 | if (snake.points.find(next_loc) > 0) { 30 | // die 31 | } 32 | let pts = snake.points; 33 | if (!isEqual(next_loc, fruit)) { 34 | pts = points.removeLast(); 35 | } else { 36 | generate_fruit(); 37 | points++; 38 | } 39 | snake.points = [next_loc, ...pts]; 40 | 41 | // Boundary checking -> die 42 | } 43 | 44 | function generate_fruit() { 45 | // Cannot generate on my own body. 46 | 47 | // First approach: while on body, generate 48 | let next_fruit_location = random_location(); 49 | while (snake.points.find(next_fruit_location) > 0) { 50 | next_fruit_location = random_location(); 51 | } 52 | fruit = next_fruit_location 53 | 54 | // Second approach: brute force 55 | for (let i = 0; i < rows; i++) { 56 | for (let j = 0; j < cols; j++) { 57 | let point = { x: i, y: j } 58 | if (snake.points.find(next_fruit_location) === -1) { 59 | fruit = point 60 | } 61 | } 62 | } 63 | 64 | // Third approach: brute force with random 65 | const available_points = [] 66 | for (let i = 0; i < rows; i++) { 67 | for (let j = 0; j < cols; j++) { 68 | let point = { x: i, y: j } 69 | if (snake.points.find(next_fruit_location) === -1) { 70 | available_points.push(point); 71 | } 72 | } 73 | } 74 | fruit = _.sample(available_points); 75 | } 76 | 77 | setInterval(update, speed); 78 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/rabin_karp_hash.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | ## Rabin-Karp Rolling Hash 2 | ## Implementation of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabin%E2%80%93Karp_algorithm#Hash_function_used 3 | ## 4 | ## This rolling hash function is useful when you need to compute the hash of successive substrings 5 | ## of text. E.g. note that going from 'abcd' to 'bcde', we drop the 'a' from the back and add an 'e' 6 | ## on the right. The rolling hash function thus allows us to update the hash in-place O(1) instead of 7 | ## recomputing the full hash of the substring O(m), where m is the length of the substring. 8 | ## 9 | ## NOTE: The implementation below takes in a tuple of integers, to be as general as possible. For use 10 | ## with strings, simply take the ASCII value of each character before passing into the functions. 11 | 12 | BASE = 101 # Arbitrary prime number 13 | 14 | def rk_hash_init(tpl): 15 | '''Initializes the hash with a tuple of integers.''' 16 | return sum(n * BASE ** i for i, n in enumerate(reversed(tpl))) 17 | 18 | def rk_hash_update(curr_hash, size, add_n, rem_n): 19 | '''Updates the hash by removing an integer from the left and appending 20 | an integer to the right. 21 | 22 | curr_hash: The previous hash 23 | size: The size of the rolling window 24 | add_n: The integer appended to the right 25 | rem_n: The integer removed from the left''' 26 | return (curr_hash - (rem_n * BASE ** (size - 1))) * BASE + add_n 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | abc_hash = rk_hash_init(tuple(map(ord, 'abc'))) # Init the hash with 'abc' 31 | print('abc:', abc_hash) 32 | bcd_hash_1 = rk_hash_update(abc_hash, 3, ord('d'), ord('a')) # Add a 'd' to the right, remove an 'a' from the left 33 | print('bcd 1:', bcd_hash_1) 34 | 35 | zbc_hash = rk_hash_init(tuple(map(ord, 'zbc'))) # Init the hash with 'zbc' 36 | print('zbc:', zbc_hash) 37 | bcd_hash_2 = rk_hash_update(zbc_hash, 3, ord('d'), ord('z')) # Add a 'd' to the right, remove a 'z' from the left 38 | print('bcd 2:', bcd_hash_2) 39 | 40 | # Notice that both hash values are the same despite arriving via different paths 41 | print(bcd_hash_1 == bcd_hash_2) 42 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /interviewers/basics.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Basics 2 | == 3 | 4 | ## Disclaimer 5 | 6 | These items will all change based on your specific company and needs but these items area starting point. 7 | 8 | ## Items To Consider 9 | 10 | - **Timeliness** - The interviewee should show up on time, but of course things happen and we must all be understanding that things outside of their control may happen. Try to give a few minutes leeway. 11 | - **Strengths** - Ask the interviewee what they would consider to be their strengths and maybe rate themselves. This gives you a good idea where to start asking technical questions and sets a baseline for expected knowledge of each subject. 12 | - **Keep Things Loose** - This is of course dependent on your industry but try to keep make the interviewee comfortable. Many people get nervous when trying to perform at their best for others and a technical interview is no different. A suggestion is to start with a personal question such as "What are some of your hobbies?" or "What do you like to do for fun?" These types of questions can help relax an interviewee and allows them to perform better. 13 | - **Understand The Position** - Understand that a junior level candidate isn't going to have as much knowledge about languages and frameworks as a senior candidate will. 14 | - **Save Time For Questions** - The interviewee may have questions for you! Give them the ability to ask. Maybe offer up a few questions if they have none, (ie. "What is the typical day here like for my position?", "What is your favorite part about working at __?") 15 | 16 | ## Tech Question Technique 17 | 18 | - **Tools** - Using a text editor such as Sublime or Atom will give the interviewee syntax highlighting but doesn't show compiler errors which can be a help. 19 | - **Nitpicking** - Sometimes pseudocode is okay. If testing in C# do you really need the interviewee to write `Console.WriteLine()` or is `Print()` good enough? 20 | -**Keep Dialog Open** - Don't leave the interviewee alone or sit quietly by as they attempt to code. Give some subtle hints like "I see you're doing ____, can you think of any other ways to accomplish this?" It's unlikely that the interviewee will be working in a silo should they get the job, is there any reason they should be during the interview? 21 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /non-technical/psychological-tricks.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Psychological Tricks 2 | == 3 | 4 | Here are some psychological tricks that will help you ace a job interview. 5 | 6 | - Tailor your answers to the interviewer's age. 7 | - Generation Y interviewers (between 20 and 30): Bring along visual samples of your work and highlight your ability to multitask. 8 | - Generation X interviewers (between 30 and 50): Emphasize your creativity and mention how work/life balance contributes to your success. 9 | - Baby Boomer interviewers (between 50 and 70): Show that you work hard and demonstrate respect for what they've achieved. 10 | - Hold your palms open or steeple your hands. 11 | - Find something in common with your interviewer. 12 | - Mirror the interviewer's body language. 13 | - Compliment the interviewer and the organization without self-promoting. 14 | - Specifically, the students who ingratiated themselves praised the organization and indicated their enthusiasm for working there, and complimented the interviewer. They didn't play up the value of positive events they took credit for or take credit for positive events even if they weren't solely responsible. 15 | - Show confidence and deference simultaneously. 16 | - In a job interview, that means showing deference to your interviewer, while also demonstrating self-confidence. One way to do that is to say something like, "I love your work on [whatever area]. It reminds me of my work on [whatever area]." 17 | - Emphasize how you took control of events in your previous jobs. 18 | - To impress your interviewer, you should talk about past work experiences where you took initiative. 19 | - Be candid about your weaknesses. 20 | - It's wiser to say something genuine like, "I'm not always the best at staying organized," which sounds more honest, and could make your interviewer more inclined to recommend you for the position. 21 | - Speak expressively. 22 | - Showcase your potential. 23 | - You might be tempted to tell your interviewer all about your past accomplishments — but research suggests you should focus more on what you could do in the future, if the organization hires you. 24 | 25 | ###### References 26 | 27 | - [Business Insider](http://www.businessinsider.com/psychological-tricks-to-ace-job-interview-2015-11) 28 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/tree.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Tree 2 | == 3 | 4 | - Find the height of a tree. 5 | - Find the longest path from the root to leaf in a tree. 6 | - Find the deepest left leaf of a tree. 7 | - Print all paths of a binary tree. 8 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/04/15/print-all-paths-of-a-binary-tree/) 9 | - Second largest element of a BST. 10 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/06/03/second-largest-element-of-a-binary-search-tree/) 11 | - Given a binary tree and two nodes, how to find the common ancestor of the two nodes? 12 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/07/06/lowest-common-ancestor/) 13 | - Find the lowest common ancestor of two nodes in a binary search tree. 14 | - Print the nodes in an n-ary tree level by level, one printed line per level. 15 | - Given a directory of files and folders (and relevant functions), how would you parse through it to find equivalent files? 16 | - Write a basic file system and implement the commands ls, pwd, mkdir, create, rm, cd, cat, mv. 17 | - Compute the intersection of two binary search trees. 18 | - Given a binary tree, output all the node to leaf paths of it. 19 | - Given a string of characters without spaces, is there a way to break the string into valid words without leftover characters? 20 | - Print a binary tree level by level. 21 | - Determine if a binary tree is "complete" (i.e, if all leaf nodes were either at the maximum depth or max depth-1, and were 'pressed' along the left side of the tree). 22 | - Find the longest path in a binary tree. The path may start and end at any node. 23 | - Determine if a binary tree is a BST. 24 | - Given a binary tree, serialize it into a string. Then deserialize it. 25 | - Print a binary tree by column. 26 | - Given a node, find the next element in a BST. 27 | - Find the shortest subtree that consist of all the deepest nodes. The tree is not binary. 28 | - Print out the sum of each row in a binary tree. 29 | - Pretty print a JSON object. 30 | - Convert a binary tree to a doubly circular linked list. 31 | - Find the second largest number in a binary tree. 32 | - Given a tree, find the longest branch. 33 | - Convert a tree to a linked list. 34 | - Given two trees, write code to find out if tree A is a subtree of tree B. 35 | - Deepest node in a tree. 36 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/04/26/deepest-node-in-a-tree/) 37 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/heap.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Implements a min-heap. For max-heap, simply reverse all comparison orders. 2 | # 3 | # Note on alternate subroutine namings (used in some textbooks): 4 | # - _bubble_up = siftdown 5 | # - _bubble_down = siftup 6 | 7 | def _bubble_up(heap, i): 8 | while i > 0: 9 | parent_i = (i - 1) // 2 10 | if heap[i] < heap[parent_i]: 11 | heap[i], heap[parent_i] = heap[parent_i], heap[i] 12 | i = parent_i 13 | continue 14 | break 15 | 16 | def _bubble_down(heap, i): 17 | startpos = i 18 | newitem = heap[i] 19 | left_i = 2 * i + 1 20 | while left_i < len(heap): 21 | # Pick the smaller of the L and R children 22 | right_i = left_i + 1 23 | if right_i < len(heap) and not heap[left_i] < heap[right_i]: 24 | child_i = right_i 25 | else: 26 | child_i = left_i 27 | 28 | # Break if heap invariant satisfied 29 | if heap[i] < heap[child_i]: 30 | break 31 | 32 | # Move the smaller child up. 33 | heap[i], heap[child_i] = heap[child_i], heap[i] 34 | i = child_i 35 | left_i = 2 * i + 1 36 | 37 | def heapify(lst): 38 | for i in reversed(range(len(lst) // 2)): 39 | _bubble_down(lst, i) 40 | 41 | def heappush(heap, item): 42 | heap.append(item) 43 | _bubble_up(heap, len(heap) - 1) 44 | 45 | def heappop(heap): 46 | if len(heap) == 1: 47 | return heap.pop() 48 | min_value = heap[0] 49 | heap[0] = heap[-1] 50 | del heap[-1] 51 | _bubble_down(heap, 0) 52 | return min_value 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | # Example usage 57 | heap = [3, 2, 1, 0] 58 | heapify(heap) 59 | print('Heap(0, 1, 2, 3):', heap) 60 | heappush(heap, 4) 61 | heappush(heap, 7) 62 | heappush(heap, 6) 63 | heappush(heap, 5) 64 | print('Heap(0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7):', heap) 65 | 66 | sorted_list = [heappop(heap) for _ in range(8)] 67 | print('Heap-sorted list:', sorted_list) 68 | 69 | # Large test case, for randomized tests 70 | import random 71 | 72 | # Heapify 0 ~ 99 73 | heap = list(range(100)) 74 | random.shuffle(heap) 75 | heapify(heap) 76 | 77 | # Push 100 ~ 199 in random order 78 | new_elems = list(range(100, 200)) 79 | random.shuffle(new_elems) 80 | for elem in new_elems: 81 | heappush(heap, elem) 82 | 83 | sorted_list = [heappop(heap) for _ in range(200)] 84 | print(sorted_list == sorted(sorted_list)) 85 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/quick_select.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | ## QuickSelect -- Linear-time k-th order statistic 2 | ## (i.e. select the k-th smallest element in an unsorted array) 3 | ## https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quickselect 4 | 5 | def partition(array, start, end, pivot): 6 | """Partitions by a pivot value, which might not necessarily be in the array. 7 | This variant is useful when you want to bound your recursion depth by the 8 | range of the input values, and not the length of the array.""" 9 | pivot_index = start 10 | for i in range(start, end): 11 | if array[i] <= pivot: 12 | array[i], array[pivot_index] = array[pivot_index], array[i] 13 | pivot_index += 1 14 | return pivot_index 15 | 16 | import random 17 | def partition_first(array, start, end): 18 | """Selects the first element as pivot. Returns the index where the pivot went to. 19 | In this variant, we can guarantee that the pivot will be in its final sorted position. 20 | We need this guarantee for QuickSelect.""" 21 | if start + 1 == end: 22 | return start 23 | pivot = array[start] 24 | pivot_index = start + 1 25 | for i in range(start + 1, end): 26 | if array[i] <= pivot: 27 | array[i], array[pivot_index] = array[pivot_index], array[i] 28 | pivot_index += 1 29 | # Move pivot to front 30 | array[start], array[pivot_index - 1] = array[pivot_index - 1], array[start] 31 | return pivot_index - 1 32 | 33 | def quick_select(array, k): 34 | """NOTE: k-th smallest element counts from 0!""" 35 | left = 0 36 | right = len(array) 37 | while True: 38 | random_index = random.sample(range(left, right), 1)[0] 39 | array[left], array[random_index] = array[random_index], array[left] 40 | pivot_index = partition_first(array, left, right) 41 | if k == pivot_index: 42 | return array[pivot_index] 43 | if k < pivot_index: 44 | right = pivot_index 45 | else: 46 | left = pivot_index + 1 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | print(quick_select([0], 0) == 0) 51 | print(quick_select([0, 1, 2, 3, 4], 2) == 2) 52 | print(quick_select([4, 3, 2, 1, 0], 2) == 2) 53 | print(quick_select([1, 3, 4, 2, 0], 2) == 2) 54 | 55 | # Large test case, for randomized tests 56 | lst = list(range(1000)) 57 | for _ in range(10): 58 | k = random.randint(0, 999) 59 | random.shuffle(lst) 60 | print(quick_select(lst, k) == k) 61 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /non-technical/self-introduction.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Self Introduction 2 | == 3 | 4 | You can rephrase the question like this: 5 | 6 | "Tell me about your journey into tech. How did you get interested in coding, and why was web development a good fit for you? How is that applicable to our _____ role or company goals?" 7 | 8 | ### The Elevator Pitch 9 | 10 | The Elevator Pitch is an indispensable tool for you as you move forward in your career. An Elevator Pitch is just that -- you pitch yourself to an executive that you want to impress and only have a short elevator ride to do so. Whether you're at a job fair with hundreds of other candidates and you have limited time or you are simply explaining who you are to a potential connection or client, it is important to be able to clearly and accurately describe your knowledge and skillset quickly and succinctly. Here are some tips to develop a good Elevator Pitch: 11 | 12 | - Sell yourself 13 | - The whole point of this is to get you a job or make a connection that benefits your career. 14 | - Tell them who you are, who you work for (or school and major), and what you do. 15 | - KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) 16 | - Tell them some highlights from your favorite / most impressive projects. 17 | - Do not delve into the depths of how you reverse engineered a game and decrypted a packet to predict when to use your DKP on a drop. Tell them the executive summary: "I reverse engineered X game by decrypting Y packet to predict Z." If this catches their interest, they *will* ask further questions on their own. 18 | - Why do *they* want *you*? 19 | - This is where you use your knowledge of the company, knowledge of their technology stack(s), your unique talent that they want, etc. in order to solidify your ability to contribute to their company. 20 | - PRACTICE! 21 | - Lastly, you must practice your pitch! Having a great, succinct summary of your skills only helps if you can actually deliver it rapidly! You should practice keeping a quick but easy-to-follow pace that won't overwhelm them but won't bore them. It's a precarious balance, but can be ironed out with practice. 22 | 23 | Having an Elevator Pitch on hand is a great way to create a network and happen upon new job opportunities. There will often be times when you can't prepare for an interview or meeting, and it is incredibly handy to have a practiced pitch. 24 | 25 | ###### References 26 | 27 | - [8 Secrets to Software Engineer Self Introduction](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/10/14/8-secretes-software-engineer-self-introduction) 28 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/binary_search.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | def binary_search(arr, target): 2 | left = 0; 3 | right = len(arr) - 1 4 | while left <= right: 5 | mid = left + (right - left) // 2; 6 | if arr[mid] == target: 7 | return mid 8 | elif arr[mid] < target: 9 | left = mid + 1 10 | else: 11 | right = mid - 1 12 | return -1 13 | 14 | def bisect_left(arr, target): 15 | """Returns the leftmost position that `target` should 16 | go to such that the sequence remains sorted.""" 17 | left = 0 18 | right = len(arr) 19 | while left < right: 20 | mid = (left + right) // 2 21 | if arr[mid] < target: 22 | left = mid + 1 23 | else: 24 | right = mid 25 | return left 26 | 27 | def bisect_right(arr, target): 28 | """Returns the rightmost position that `target` should 29 | go to such that the sequence remains sorted.""" 30 | left = 0 31 | right = len(arr) 32 | while left < right: 33 | mid = (left + right) // 2 34 | if arr[mid] > target: 35 | right = mid 36 | else: 37 | left = mid + 1 38 | return left 39 | 40 | print(binary_search([1, 2, 3, 10], 1) == 0) 41 | print(binary_search([1, 2, 3, 10], 2) == 1) 42 | print(binary_search([1, 2, 3, 10], 3) == 2) 43 | print(binary_search([1, 2, 3, 10], 10) == 3) 44 | print(binary_search([1, 2, 3, 10], 9) == -1) 45 | print(binary_search([1, 2, 3, 10], 4) == -1) 46 | print(binary_search([1, 2, 3, 10], 0) == -1) 47 | print(binary_search([1, 2, 3, 10], 11) == -1) 48 | print(binary_search([5, 7, 8, 10], 3) == -1) 49 | 50 | print(bisect_left([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 1) == 0) 51 | print(bisect_left([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 2) == 1) 52 | print(bisect_left([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 3) == 2) # First "3" is at index 2 53 | print(bisect_left([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 10) == 4) 54 | 55 | # These return a valid index despite target not being in array. 56 | print(bisect_left([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 9) == 4) 57 | print(bisect_left([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 0) == 0) # Insert "0" at front 58 | print(bisect_left([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 11) == 5) # Insert "5" at back 59 | 60 | print(bisect_right([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 1) == 1) 61 | print(bisect_right([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 2) == 2) 62 | print(bisect_right([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 3) == 4) # Last "3" is at index 3, so insert new "3" at index 4 63 | print(bisect_right([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 10) == 5) 64 | 65 | # These return a valid index despite target not being in array. 66 | print(bisect_right([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 9) == 4) 67 | print(bisect_right([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 0) == 0) # Insert "0" at front 68 | print(bisect_right([1, 2, 3, 3, 10], 11) == 5) # Insert "5" at back 69 | 70 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/trie.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | class Trie(object): 2 | def __init__(self): 3 | """ 4 | Initialize your data structure here. 5 | """ 6 | self.d = {} 7 | 8 | def insert(self, word): 9 | """ 10 | Inserts a word into the trie. 11 | :type word: str 12 | :rtype: void 13 | """ 14 | curr = self.d 15 | for char in word: 16 | if char not in curr: 17 | curr[char] = {} 18 | curr = curr[char] 19 | curr['#'] = {} # Using an empty dict rather than a boolean value makes recursive traversal easier. 20 | 21 | def search(self, word): 22 | """ 23 | Returns if the word is in the trie. 24 | :type word: str 25 | :rtype: bool 26 | """ 27 | curr = self.d 28 | for char in word: 29 | if char in curr: 30 | curr = curr[char] 31 | else: 32 | return False 33 | return '#' in curr 34 | 35 | def startsWith(self, prefix): 36 | """ 37 | Returns if there is any word in the trie that starts with the given prefix. 38 | :type prefix: str 39 | :rtype: bool 40 | """ 41 | curr = self.d 42 | for char in prefix: 43 | if char in curr: 44 | curr = curr[char] 45 | else: 46 | return False 47 | return True 48 | 49 | def searchRegex(self, word): 50 | """ 51 | Returns if the word is in the data structure. A word could contain the dot character '.' to represent any one letter. 52 | :type word: str 53 | :rtype: bool 54 | """ 55 | def traverse(node, index): 56 | if len(word) == index: 57 | return '#' in node 58 | char = word[index] 59 | if char == '.': 60 | for key in node.keys(): 61 | if traverse(node[key], index+1): 62 | return True 63 | return False 64 | else: 65 | if char not in node: 66 | return False 67 | return traverse(node[char], index + 1) 68 | return traverse(self.d, 0) 69 | 70 | # Example 71 | trie = Trie() 72 | trie.insert('hello') 73 | print(trie.search('hello') == True) 74 | print(trie.startsWith('hello') == True) 75 | print(trie.startsWith('hel') == True) 76 | print(trie.search('world') == False) 77 | print(trie.startsWith('wor') == False) 78 | print(trie.searchRegex('..llo') == True) 79 | print(trie.searchRegex('..llx') == False) 80 | print(trie.searchRegex('..') == False) 81 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/matrix.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Matrix 2 | == 3 | 4 | - You're given a 3 x 3 board of a tile puzzle, with 8 tiles numbered 1 to 8, and an empty spot. You can move any tile adjacent to the empty spot, to the empty spot, creating an empty spot where the tile originally was. The goal is to find a series of moves that will solve the board, i.e. get `[[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, - ]]` where - is the empty tile. 5 | - Boggle implementation. Given a dictionary, and a matrix of letters, find all the words in the matrix that are in the dictionary. You can go across, down or diagonally. 6 | - The values of the matrix will represent numbers of carrots available to the rabbit in each square of the garden. If the garden does not have an exact center, the rabbit should start in the square closest to the center with the highest carrot count. On a given turn, the rabbit will eat the carrots available on the square that it is on, and then move up, down, left, or right, choosing the square that has the most carrots. If there are no carrots left on any of the adjacent squares, the rabbit will go to sleep. You may assume that the rabbit will never have to choose between two squares with the same number of carrots. Write a function which takes a garden matrix and returns the number of carrots the rabbit eats. You may assume the matrix is rectangular with at least 1 row and 1 column, and that it is populated with non-negative integers. For example, 7 | - Example: `[[5, 7, 8, 6, 3], [0, 0, 7, 0, 4], [4, 6, 3, 4, 9], [3, 1, 0, 5, 8]]` should return `27`. 8 | - Print a matrix in a spiral fashion. 9 | - In the Game of life, calculate how to compute the next state of the board. Follow up was to do it if there were memory constraints (board represented by a 1 TB file). 10 | - Grid Illumination: Given an NxN grid with an array of lamp coordinates. Each lamp provides illumination to every square on their x axis, every square on their y axis, and every square that lies in their diagonal (think of a Queen in chess). Given an array of query coordinates, determine whether that point is illuminated or not. The catch is when checking a query all lamps adjacent to, or on, that query get turned off. The ranges for the variables/arrays were about: 10^3 < N < 10^9, 10^3 < lamps < 10^9, 10^3 < queries < 10^9. 11 | - You are given a matrix of integers. Modify the matrix such that if a row or column contains a 0, make the values in the entire row or column 0. 12 | - Given an N x N matrix filled randomly with different colors (no limit on what the colors are), find the total number of groups of each color - a group consists of adjacent cells of the same color touching each other. 13 | - You have a 4 x 4 board with characters. You need to write a function that finds if a certain word exists in the board. You can only jump to neighboring characters (including diagonally adjacent). 14 | - Count the number of islands in a binary matrix of 0's and 1's. 15 | - Check a 6 x 7 Connect 4 board for a winning condition. 16 | - Given a fully-filled Sudoku board, check whether fulfills the Sudoku condition. 17 | - Implement a function that checks if a player has won tic-tac-toe. 18 | - Given an N x N matrix of 1's and 0's, figure out if all of the 1's are connected. 19 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /utilities/python/linked_list.py: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Singly-Linked List 2 | # 3 | # The linked list is passed around as a variable pointing to the 4 | # root node of the linked list, or None if the list is empty. 5 | 6 | class LinkedListNode: 7 | def __init__(self, value): 8 | self.value = value 9 | self.next = None 10 | 11 | def linked_list_append(linked_list, value): 12 | '''Appends a value to the end of the linked list''' 13 | node = linked_list 14 | insert_node = LinkedListNode(value) 15 | if not node: 16 | return insert_node 17 | while node.next: 18 | node = node.next 19 | node.next = insert_node 20 | return linked_list 21 | 22 | def linked_list_insert_index(linked_list, value, index): 23 | '''Inserts a value at a particular index''' 24 | node = linked_list 25 | insert_node = LinkedListNode(value) 26 | 27 | # Check if inserting at head 28 | if index == 0: 29 | insert_node.next = node 30 | return insert_node 31 | 32 | # Skip ahead 33 | for _ in range(index - 1): 34 | node = node.next 35 | if not node: 36 | raise ValueError 37 | insert_node.next = node.next 38 | node.next = insert_node 39 | return linked_list 40 | 41 | def linked_list_delete(linked_list, value): 42 | '''Deletes the first occurrence of a value in the linked list''' 43 | node = linked_list 44 | 45 | # Check if deleting at head 46 | if node.value == value: 47 | return node.next 48 | 49 | # Skip ahead 50 | while node.next: 51 | if node.next.value == value: 52 | node.next = node.next.next 53 | return linked_list 54 | node = node.next 55 | raise ValueError 56 | 57 | def linked_list_delete_index(linked_list, index): 58 | '''Deletes the element at a particular index in the linked list''' 59 | node = linked_list 60 | 61 | # Check if deleting at head 62 | if index == 0: 63 | return node.next 64 | 65 | # Skip ahead 66 | for _ in range(index - 1): 67 | node = node.next 68 | if not node: 69 | raise ValueError 70 | if not node.next: 71 | raise ValueError 72 | node.next = node.next.next 73 | return linked_list 74 | 75 | def linked_list_iter(linked_list): 76 | '''Lazy iterator over each node in the linked list''' 77 | node = linked_list 78 | while node is not None: 79 | yield node 80 | node = node.next 81 | 82 | 83 | # Append to back 84 | linked_list = None # Start with an empty linked list 85 | linked_list = linked_list_append(linked_list, 1) 86 | linked_list = linked_list_append(linked_list, 2) 87 | linked_list = linked_list_append(linked_list, 4) 88 | print([node.value for node in linked_list_iter(linked_list)]) 89 | 90 | # Insert by index 91 | linked_list = linked_list_insert_index(linked_list, 0, 0) # Front 92 | print([node.value for node in linked_list_iter(linked_list)]) 93 | linked_list = linked_list_insert_index(linked_list, 3, 3) # Back 94 | print([node.value for node in linked_list_iter(linked_list)]) 95 | 96 | # Delete "3" 97 | linked_list = linked_list_delete(linked_list, 3) 98 | print([node.value for node in linked_list_iter(linked_list)]) 99 | 100 | # Delete by index 101 | linked_list = linked_list_delete_index(linked_list, 0) 102 | print([node.value for node in linked_list_iter(linked_list)]) 103 | linked_list = linked_list_delete_index(linked_list, 1) 104 | print([node.value for node in linked_list_iter(linked_list)]) 105 | 106 | # Delete until empty 107 | linked_list = linked_list_delete_index(linked_list, 0) 108 | linked_list = linked_list_delete_index(linked_list, 0) 109 | print([node.value for node in linked_list_iter(linked_list)]) 110 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /design/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Design Questions 2 | == 3 | 4 | ## Guides 5 | 6 | - [Grokking the System Design Interview](https://www.educative.io/collection/5668639101419520/5649050225344512) 7 | - https://github.com/donnemartin/system-design-primer 8 | - https://github.com/checkcheckzz/system-design-interview 9 | - https://github.com/shashank88/system_design 10 | - https://gist.github.com/vasanthk/485d1c25737e8e72759f 11 | - http://www.puncsky.com/blog/2016/02/14/crack-the-system-design-interview/ 12 | - https://www.palantir.com/2011/10/how-to-rock-a-systems-design-interview/ 13 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2017/04/13/system-design-interviews-part-ii-complete-guide-google-interview-preparation/ 14 | 15 | ## Flow 16 | 17 | #### A. Understand the problem and scope 18 | 19 | - Define the use cases, with interviewer's help. 20 | - Suggest additional features. 21 | - Remove items that interviewer deems out of scope. 22 | - Assume high availability is required, add as a use case. 23 | 24 | #### B. Think about constraints 25 | 26 | - Ask how many requests per month. 27 | - Ask how many requests per second (they may volunteer it or make you do the math). 28 | - Estimate reads vs. writes percentage. 29 | - Keep 80/20 rule in mind when estimating. 30 | - How much data written per second. 31 | - Total storage required over 5 years. 32 | - How much data reads per second. 33 | 34 | #### C. Abstract design 35 | 36 | - Layers (service, data, caching). 37 | - Infrastructure: load balancing, messaging. 38 | - Rough overview of any key algorithm that drives the service. 39 | - Consider bottlenecks and determine solutions. 40 | 41 | Source: https://github.com/jwasham/coding-interview-university#system-design-scalability-data-handling 42 | 43 | ## Grading Rubrics 44 | 45 | - Problem Solving - How systematic is your approach to solving the problem step-by-step? Break down a problem into its core components. 46 | - Communication - How well do you explain your idea and communicate it with others? 47 | - Evaluation - How do you evaluate your system? Are you aware of the trade-offs made? How can you optimize it? 48 | - Estimation - How fast does your system need to be? How much space does it need? How much load will it experience? 49 | 50 | ## Specific Topics 51 | 52 | - URL Shortener 53 | - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/742013/how-to-code-a-url-shortener 54 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/03/08/system-design-interview-question-create-tinyurl-system/ 55 | - https://www.interviewcake.com/question/python/url-shortener 56 | - Collaborative Editor 57 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/03/22/system-design-interview-question-how-to-design-google-docs/ 58 | - Photo Sharing App 59 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/03/01/system-design-interview-question-create-a-photo-sharing-app/ 60 | - Social Network Feed 61 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/02/17/system-design-interview-question-how-to-design-twitter-part-1/ 62 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/02/24/system-design-interview-question-how-to-design-twitter-part-2/ 63 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/03/29/design-news-feed-system-part-1-system-design-interview-questions/ 64 | - Trending Algorithm 65 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/05/03/how-to-design-a-trending-algorithm-for-twitter/ 66 | - Facebook Chat 67 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/04/19/design-facebook-chat-function/ 68 | - Key Value Store 69 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/06/14/design-a-key-value-store-part-i/ 70 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/06/21/design-key-value-store-part-ii/ 71 | - Recommendation System 72 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/05/24/design-a-recommendation-system/ 73 | - Cache System 74 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/05/17/design-a-cache-system/ 75 | - E-commerce Website 76 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/08/22/design-ecommerce-website-part/ 77 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/08/28/design-ecommerce-website-part-ii/ 78 | - Web Crawler 79 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/06/29/build-web-crawler/ 80 | - http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-do-search-engines-work-makeuseof-explains/ 81 | - https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-build-a-web-crawler-from-scratch/answer/Chris-Heller 82 | - YouTube 83 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/10/22/design-youtube-part/ 84 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/11/04/design-youtube-part-ii/ 85 | - Hit Counter 86 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/09/12/dropbox-interview-design-hit-counter/ 87 | - Facebook Graph Search 88 | - Design [Lyft Line](https://www.lyft.com/line). 89 | - Design a promo code system (with same promo code, randomly generated promo code, and promo code with conditions). 90 | - Model a university. 91 | - How would you implement Pacman? 92 | - Sketch out an implementation of Asteroids. 93 | - Implement a spell checker. 94 | - Design the rubik cube. 95 | - Design a high-level interface to be used for card games (e.g. poker, blackjack etc). 96 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 |

Tech Interview Handbook

2 | 3 |
4 | 5 | Tech Interview Handbook 6 | 7 |
8 |

9 | Credits: Illustration by @yangheng 10 | 11 |

12 |
13 | 14 | ## What is this? 15 | 16 | Carefully curated content to help you ace your next technical interview, with a focus on algorithms. System design questions are in-progress. Besides the usual algorithm questions, other **awesome** stuff includes: 17 | 18 | * [How to prepare](preparing) for coding interviews 19 | * [Interview Cheatsheet](preparing/cheatsheet.md) - Straight-to-the-point Do's and Don'ts 🆕 20 | * [Algorithm tips and the best practice questions](algorithms) categorized by topic 21 | * ["Front-end Job Interview Questions" answers](https://github.com/yangshun/front-end-interview-handbook) 22 | * [Interview formats](non-technical/interview-formats.md) of the top tech companies 23 | * [Behavioral questions](non-technical/behavioral.md) categorized by companies 24 | * [Good questions to ask your interviewers](non-technical/questions-to-ask.md) at the end of the interviews 25 | * [Helpful resume tips](non-technical/resume.md) to get your resume noticed and the Do's and Don'ts 26 | 27 | This handbook is pretty new and help from you in contributing content would be very much appreciated! 28 | 29 | ## Why do I want this? 30 | 31 | This repository has _practical_ content that covers all phases of a technical interview, from applying for a job to passing the interviews to offer negotiation. Technically competent candidates might still find the non-technical content helpful as well. 32 | 33 | ## Who is this for? 34 | 35 | Anybody who wants to land a job at a tech company but is new to technical interviews, seasoned engineers who have not been on the other side of the interviewing table in a while and want to get back into the game, or anyone who wants to be better at technical interviewing. 36 | 37 | ## How is this repository different? 38 | 39 | There are so many awesome books like [Cracking the Coding Interview](http://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/) and interview-related repositories out there on GitHub, what makes this repository different? The difference is that many existing interview repositories contain mainly links to external resources whereas this repository contains top quality curated content directly for your consumption. 40 | 41 | Also, existing resources focus mainly on algorithm questions and lack coverage for more domain-specific and non-technical questions. This handbook aims to cover content beyond the typical algorithmic coding questions. 😎 42 | 43 | ## Looking for Front End content? 44 | 45 | Front end-related content have been extracted out into a separate repository - [Front End Interview Handbook](https://github.com/yangshun/front-end-interview-handbook). 46 | 47 | ## Contents 48 | 49 | * **[Preparing for a Coding Interview](preparing)** 50 | * [Interview cheatsheet](preparing/cheatsheet.md) - Straight-to-the-point Do's and Don'ts 51 | * **[Algorithm Questions](algorithms)** - Questions categorized by topics 52 | * **[Design Questions](design)** 53 | * **[Front-end Job Interview Questions and Answers](https://github.com/yangshun/front-end-interview-handbook) 🔥⭐** - Answers to the famous "Front-end Job Interview Questions" 54 | * **[Non-Technical Tips](non-technical)** - Random non-technical tips that cover behavioral and psychological aspects, interview formats and "Do you have any questions for me?" 55 | * [Resume Tips](non-technical/resume.md) 56 | * [Behavioral Questions](non-technical/behavioral.md) 57 | * [Interview Formats](non-technical/interview-formats.md) 58 | * [Psychological Tricks](non-technical/psychological-tricks.md) 59 | * [Questions to Ask](non-technical/questions-to-ask.md) 60 | * [Negotiation Tips](non-technical/negotiation.md) 61 | * **[Utilities](utilities)** - Snippets of algorithms/code that will help in coding questions 62 | * **UPDATE** - Check out [Lago](https://github.com/yangshun/lago), which is a Data Structures and Algorithms library that contains more high-quality implementations with 100% test coverage. 63 | 64 | ## Related 65 | 66 | If you are interested in how data structures are implemented, check out [Lago](https://github.com/yangshun/lago), a Data Structures and Algorithms library for JavaScript. It is pretty much still WIP but I intend to make it into a library that is able to be used in production and also a reference resource for revising Data Structures and Algorithms. 67 | 68 | ## Contributing 69 | 70 | There are no formal contributing guidelines at the moment as things are still in flux and we might find a better approach to structure content as we go along. You are welcome to contribute whatever you think will be helpful to fellow engineers. If you would like to contribute content for different domains, feel free to create an issue or submit a pull request and we can discuss further. 71 | 72 | ## Maintainers 73 | 74 | * [Yangshun Tay](https://github.com/yangshun) 75 | * [Louie Tan](https://github.com/louietyj) 76 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /domain/security.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Security 2 | == 3 | 4 | ## Encryption 5 | 6 | #### Symmetrical Encryption 7 | 8 | - Symmetrical encryption is a type of encryption where the same key is used to encrypt plaintext messages and to decrypt ciphertext. 9 | - Symmetrical encryption is usually much less computationally expensive as compared to asymmetric encryption. 10 | - Often called "shared secret" encryption, or "secret key" encryption. 11 | - To use a symmetric encryption scheme, the sender and receiver must securely share a key in advance. This sharing can be done via asymmetric encryption. 12 | 13 | #### Asymmetric Encryption 14 | 15 | - A pair of keys are required: a **private key** and a **public key**. Public keys can be shared with anyone while private keys should be kept secret and known only to the owner. 16 | - A private key can be used to decrypt a message encrypted by the corresponding public key. A successful decryption verifies that the holder possesses the private key. 17 | - Also known as public-key cryptography. 18 | 19 | ## Public Key Infrastructure 20 | 21 | A public key infrastructure (PKI) is a system for the creation, storage, and distribution of digital certificates which are used to verify that a particular public key belongs to a certain entity. The PKI creates digital certificates which map public keys to entities, securely stores these certificates in a central repository and revokes them if needed. 22 | 23 | ###### References 24 | 25 | - https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Public_key_infrastructure 26 | 27 | ## SSH 28 | 29 | An SSH session consists of two stages, **Negotiating Encryption** and **User Authentication**. 30 | 31 | #### Negotiating Encryption 32 | 33 | The goal of this stage is for the client and server to agree upon and establish encryption to protect future communication, by generating an identical session key. One possible algorithm to generate the session key is the Diffie–Hellman key exchange scheme. Each party generates a public/private key pair and exchanges the public key. After obtaining an authentic copy of each other's public keys, each party can compute a shared secret offline. 34 | 35 | The basis of this procedure for classic Diffie-Hellman is: 36 | 37 | 1. Both parties agree on a large prime number, which will serve as a seed value. 38 | 1. Both parties agree on an encryption generator (typically AES), which will be used to manipulate the values in a predefined way. 39 | 1. Independently, each party comes up with another prime number which is kept secret from the other party. This number is used as the private key for this interaction (different than the private SSH key used for authentication). 40 | 1. The generated private key, the encryption generator, and the shared prime number are used to generate a public key that is derived from the private key, but which can be shared with the other party. 41 | 1. Both participants then exchange their generated public keys. 42 | 1. The receiving entity uses their own private key, the other party's public key, and the original shared prime number to compute a shared secret key. 43 | 1. Although this is independently computed by each party, using opposite private and public keys, it will result in the same shared secret key. 44 | 1. The shared secret is then used to encrypt all communication that follows. 45 | 46 | The purpose of the shared secret key is to wrap all further communication in an encrypted tunnel that cannot be deciphered by outsiders. 47 | 48 | #### User Authentication 49 | 50 | The goal of this stage is to authenticate the user and discover whether access to the server should be granted. There are two approaches for authenticating, either by using passwords, or SSH key pairs. 51 | 52 | For password authentication, the server simply prompts the client for the password of the account they are attempting to login with. The password is sent through the negotiated encryption, so it is secure from outside parties. 53 | 54 | Authentication using SSH key pairs begins after the symmetric encryption has been established as described in the last section. The procedure happens like this: 55 | 56 | 1. The client begins by sending an ID for the key pair it would like to authenticate with to the server. 57 | 1. The server check's the `authorized_keys` file of the account that the client is attempting to log into for the key ID. 58 | 1. If a public key with matching ID is found in the file, the server generates a random number and uses the public key to encrypt the number. 59 | 1. The server sends the client this encrypted message. 60 | 1. If the client actually has the associated private key, it will be able to decrypt the message using that key, revealing the original number. 61 | 1. The client combines the decrypted number with the shared session key that is being used to encrypt the communication, and calculates the MD5 hash of this value. 62 | 1. The client then sends this MD5 hash back to the server as an answer to the encrypted number message. 63 | 1. The server uses the same shared session key and the original number that it sent to the client to calculate the MD5 value on its own. It compares its own calculation to the one that the client sent back. If these two values match, it proves that the client was in possession of the private key and the client is authenticated. 64 | 65 | ###### References 66 | 67 | - https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/understanding-the-ssh-encryption-and-connection-process 68 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /assets/book.svg: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /domain/pagination-sorting/index.html: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 10 |

People

11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
NameAgeEmail
20 | 21 | Page / 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 143 | 144 | 145 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/string.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | String 2 | == 3 | 4 | - Output list of strings representing a page of hostings given a list of CSV strings. 5 | - Given a list of words, find the word pairs that when concatenated form a palindrome. 6 | - Find the most efficient way to identify what character is out of place in a non-palindrome. 7 | - Implement a simple regex parser which, given a string and a pattern, returns a boolean indicating whether the input matches the pattern. By simple, we mean that the regex can only contain the following special characters: `*` (star), `.` (dot), `+` (plus). The star means that there will be zero or more of the previous character in that place in the pattern. The dot means any character for that position. The plus means one or more of previous character in that place in the pattern. 8 | - Find all words from a dictionary that are x edit distance away. 9 | - Given a string IP and number n, print all CIDR addresses that cover that range. 10 | - Write a function called `eval`, which takes a string and returns a boolean. This string is allowed 6 different characters: `0`, `1`, `&`, `|`, `(`, and `)`. `eval` should evaluate the string as a boolean expression, where `0` is `false`, `1` is `true`, `&` is an `and`, and `|` is an `or`. 11 | - E.g `"(0 | (1 | 0)) & (1 & ((1 | 0) & 0))"` 12 | - Given a pattern string like `"abba"` and an input string like `"redbluebluered"`, return `true` if and only if there's a one to one mapping of letters in the pattern to substrings of the input. 13 | - E.g. `"abba"` and `"redbluebluered"` should return `true`. 14 | - E.g. `"aaaa"` and `"asdasdasdasd"` should return `true`. 15 | - E.g. `"aabb"` and `"xyzabcxzyabc"` should return `false`. 16 | - If you received a file in chunks, calculate when you have the full file. Quite an open-ended question. Can assume chunks come with start and end, or size, etc. 17 | - Given a list of names (strings) and the width of a line, design an algorithm to display them using the minimum number of lines. 18 | - Design a spell-checking algorithm. 19 | - Longest substring with `K` unique characters. 20 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/04/12/find-the-longest-substring-with-k-unique-characters/) 21 | - Given a set of random strings, write a function that returns a set that groups all the anagrams together. 22 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/05/06/group-anagrams/) 23 | - Given a string, find the longest substring without repeating characters. For example, for string `'abccdefgh'`, the longest substring is `'cdefgh'`. 24 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/10/07/facebook-interview-longest-substring-without-repeating-characters/) 25 | - Given a string, return the string with duplicate characters removed. 26 | - Write a function that receives a regular expression (allowed chars = from `'a'` to `'z'`, `'*'`, `'.'`) and a string containing lower case english alphabet characters and return `true` or `false` whether the string matches the regex. 27 | - E.g. `'ab*a'`, `'abbbbba'` => `true`. 28 | - E.g. `'ab*b.'`, `'aba'` => `true`. 29 | - E.g. `'abc*'`, `'acccc'` => `false`. 30 | - Given a rectangular grid with letters, search if some word is in the grid. 31 | - Given two strings representing integer numbers (`'123'` , `'30'`) return a string representing the sum of the two numbers: `'153'`. 32 | - A professor wants to see if two students have cheated when writing a paper. Design a function `hasCheated(String s1, String s2, int N)` that evaluates to `true` if two strings have a common substring of length `N`. 33 | - Follow up: Assume you don't have the possibility of using `String.contains()` and `String.substring()`. How would you implement this? 34 | - Print all permutations of a given string. 35 | - Parse a string containing numbers and `'+'`, `'-'` and parentheses. Evaluate the expression. `-2+(3-5)` should return `-4`. 36 | - Output a substring with at most `K` unique characters. 37 | - E.g. `'aabc'` and `k` = 2 => `'aab'`. 38 | - Ensure that there are a minimum of `N` dashes between any two of the same characters of a string. 39 | - E.g. `n = 2, string = 'ab-bcdecca'` => `'ab--bcdec--ca'`. 40 | - Find the longest palindrome in a string. 41 | - Give the count and the number following in the series. 42 | - E.g. `1122344`, next: `21221324`, next: `12112211121214`. 43 | - Count and say problem. 44 | - Compress a string by grouping consecutive similar questions together: 45 | - E.g. `'aaabbbcc' => `'a3b3c2'`. 46 | - You have a string consisting of open and closed parentheses, but parentheses may be imbalanced. Make the parentheses balanced and return the new string. 47 | - Given a set of strings, return the smallest subset that contains prefixes for every string. 48 | - E.g. `['foo', 'foog', 'food', 'asdf']` => `['foo', 'asdf']`. 49 | - Write a function that would return all the possible words generated when using a phone (pre-smartphone era) numpad to type. 50 | - Given a dictionary and a word, find the minimum number of deletions needed on the word in order to make it a valid word. 51 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/04/29/minimum-number-of-deletions-of-a-string/) 52 | - How to check if a string contains an anagram of another string? 53 | - [Source](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/04/08/if-a-string-contains-an-anagram-of-another-string/) 54 | - Find all k-lettered words from a string. 55 | - Given a string of open and close parentheses, find the minimum number of edits needed to balance a string of parentheses. 56 | - Run length encoding - Write a string compress function that returns `'R2G1B1'` given `'RRGB'`. 57 | - Write a function that finds all the different ways you can split up a word into a concatenation of two other words. 58 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /design/collaborative-editor.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Collaborative Document Editor 2 | == 3 | 4 | ## Variants 5 | 6 | - Design Google docs. 7 | - Design a collaborative code editor like Coderpad/Codepile. 8 | - Design a collaborative markdown editor. 9 | 10 | ## Requirements Gathering 11 | 12 | - What is the intended platform? 13 | - Web 14 | - What features are required? 15 | - Creating a document 16 | - Editing a document 17 | - Sharing a document 18 | - Bonus features 19 | - Document revisions and reverting 20 | - Searching 21 | - Commenting 22 | - Chatting 23 | - Executing code (in the case of code editor) 24 | - What is in a document? 25 | - Text 26 | - Images 27 | - Which metrics should we optimize for? 28 | - Loading time 29 | - Synchronization 30 | - Throughput 31 | 32 | ## Core Components 33 | 34 | - Front end 35 | - WebSockets/long polling for real-time communication between front end and back end. 36 | - Back end services behind a reverse proxy. 37 | - Reverse proxy will proxy the requests to the right server. 38 | - Split into a few services for different purposes. 39 | - The benefit of this is that each service can use different languages that best suits its purpose. 40 | - API servers for non-collaborative features and endpoints. 41 | - Ruby/Rails/Django for the server that deals with CRUD operations on data models where performance is not that crucial. 42 | - WebSocket servers for handling document edits and publishing updates to listeners. 43 | - Possibly Node/Golang for WebSocket server which will need high performance as updates are frequent. 44 | - Task queue to persist document updates to the database. 45 | - ELB in front of back end servers. 46 | - MySQL database. 47 | - S3 and CDN for images. 48 | 49 | ## Data Modeling 50 | 51 | - What kind of database to use? 52 | - Data is quite structured. Would go with SQL. 53 | - Design the necessary tables, its columns and its relations. 54 | - `users` 55 | - `id` 56 | - `name` 57 | - `document` 58 | - `id` 59 | - `owner_id` 60 | - `permissions` 61 | - `id` 62 | - `name` 63 | - `document_permissions` 64 | - `id` 65 | - `document_id` 66 | - `user_id` 67 | 68 | ## Collaborative Editing - Client 69 | 70 | - Upon loading of the page and document, the client should connect to the WebSocket server over the WebSocket protocol `ws://`. 71 | - Upon connection, perform a time sync with the server, possibly via Network Time Protocol (NTP). 72 | - The most straightforward way is to send the whole updated document content to the back end, and all users currently viewing the document will receive the updated document. However, there are a few problems with this approach: 73 | - Race condition. If two users editing the document at the same time, the last one to edit will overwrite the changes by the previous user. One workaround is to lock the document when a user is currently editing it, but that will not make it real-time collaborative. 74 | - A large payload (the whole document) is being sent to servers and published to users on each change, and the user is likely to already have most of the content. A lot of redundant data being sent. 75 | - A feasible approach would be to use operational transforms and send just the action deltas to the back end. The back end publishes the action deltas to the listeners. What is considered an action delta? 76 | - (a) Changing a character/word, (b) inserting a character/word/image, (c) deleting a character/word. 77 | - With this approach, the payload will contain only small amount of data, such as (a) type of change, (b) character/word, (c) position in document: line/column, (d) timestamp. Why is the timestamp needed? Read on to find out. 78 | - Updates can also be throttled and batched, to avoid flooding the web server with requests. For example, if a user inserts a 79 | 80 | ## Back End 81 | 82 | The back end is split into a few portions: WebSocket server for receiving and broadcasting document updates, CRUD server for reading and writing non-document-related data, and a task queue for persistence of the document. 83 | 84 | ## WebSocket Server 85 | 86 | - Languages and frameworks that support async requests and non-blocking I/O will be suitable for the collaborative editor server. Node and Golang comes to my mind. 87 | - However, the WebSocket server is not stateless, so is it not that straightforward to scale horizontally. One approach would be for a Load Balancer to use Redis to maintain a map of the client to the WebSocket server instance IP, such that subsequent requests from the same client will be routed to the same server. 88 | - Each document corresponds to a room (more of namespace). Users can subscribe to the events happening within a room. 89 | - When a action delta is being received, blast it out to the listeners within the room and add it to the task queue. 90 | 91 | ## CRUD Server 92 | 93 | - Provides APIs for reading and writing non-document-related data, such as users, permissions. 94 | 95 | ## Task Queue + Worker Service 96 | 97 | - Worker service retrieves messages from the task queue and writes the updated documents to the database in an async fashion. 98 | - Batch the actions together and perform one larger write that consists of multiple actions. For example, instead of persisting to the database once per addition of a word, combine these additions and write them into the database at once. 99 | - Publish the save completion event to the WebSocket server to be published to the listeners, informing that the latest version of the document is being saved. 100 | - Benefit of using a task queue is that as the amount of tasks in the queue goes up, we can scale up the number of worker services to clear the backlog of work faster. 101 | 102 | ## Document Persistence 103 | 104 | TODO 105 | 106 | ###### References 107 | 108 | - http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/03/22/system-design-interview-question-how-to-design-google-docs/ 109 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /preparing/cheatsheet.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Interview Cheatsheet 2 | == 3 | 4 | This is a straight-to-the-point, distilled list of technical interview Do's and Don'ts, mainly for algorithmic interviews. Some of these may apply to only phone screens or whiteboard interviews, but most will apply to both. I revise this list before each of my interviews to remind myself of them and eventually internalized all of them to the point I do not have to rely on it anymore. 5 | 6 | For a detailed walkthrough of interview preparation, refer to the ["Preparing for a Coding Interview"](./) section. 7 | 8 | **Legend:** ✅ = Do, ❌ = Don't, ⚠️ = Situational 9 | 10 | ### 1. Before Interview 11 | 12 | || Things | 13 | |-|-| 14 | |✅|Prepare pen, paper and earphones/headphones.| 15 | |✅|Find a quiet environment with good Internet connection.| 16 | |✅|Ensure webcam and audio are working. There were times I had to restart Chrome to get Hangouts to work again.| 17 | |✅|Request for the option to interview over Hangouts/Skype instead of a phone call; it is easier to send links or text across.| 18 | |✅|Decide on and be familiar with a programming language.| 19 | |✅|Familiarize yourself with the coding environment (CoderPad/CodePen). Set up the coding shortcuts, turn on autocompletion, tab spacing, etc.| 20 | |✅|Prepare answers to the [frequently-asked questions](../non-technical/behavioral.md) in an interview.| 21 | |✅|Prepare some [questions to ask](../non-technical/questions-to-ask.md) at the end of the interview.| 22 | |✅|Dress comfortably. Usually you do not need to wear smart clothes, casual should be fine. T-shirts and jeans are acceptable at most places.| 23 | |✅|Stay calm and composed.| 24 | |⚠️|Turn off the webcam if possible. Most remote interviews will not require video chat and leaving it on only serves as a distraction.| 25 | 26 | ### 2. Introduction 27 | 28 | || Things | 29 | |-|-| 30 | |✅|Introduce yourself in a few sentences under a minute or two.| 31 | |✅|Mention interesting points that are relevant to the role you are applying for.| 32 | |✅|Sound enthusiastic! Speak with a smile and you will naturally sound more engaging.| 33 | |❌|Spend too long introducing yourself. The more time you spend talking the less time you have to code.| 34 | 35 | ### 3. Upon Getting the Question 36 | 37 | || Things | 38 | |-|-| 39 | |✅|Repeat the question back at the interviewer.| 40 | |✅|Clarify any assumptions you made subconsciously. Many questions are under-specified on purpose. A tree-like diagram could very well be a graph that allows for cycles and a naive recursive solution would not work.| 41 | |✅|Clarify input format and range. Ask whether input can be assumed to be well-formed and non-null.| 42 | |✅|Work through a small example to ensure you understood the question.| 43 | |✅|Explain a high level approach even if it is a brute force one.| 44 | |✅|Improve upon the approach and optimize. Reduce duplicated work and cache repeated computations.| 45 | |✅|Think carefully, then state and explain the time and space complexity of your approaches.| 46 | |✅|If stuck, think about related problems you have seen before and how they were solved. Check out the [tips](../algorithms) in this section.| 47 | |❌|Ignore information given to you. Every piece is important.| 48 | |❌|Jump into coding straightaway.| 49 | |❌|Start coding without interviewer's green light.| 50 | |❌|Appear too unsure about your approach or analysis.| 51 | 52 | ### 4. During Coding 53 | 54 | || Things | 55 | |-|-| 56 | |✅|Explain what you are coding/typing to the interviewer, what you are trying to achieve.| 57 | |✅|Practice good coding style. Clear variable names, consistent operator spacing, proper indentation, etc.| 58 | |✅|Type/write at a reasonable speed.| 59 | |✅|As much as possible, write actual compilable code, not pseudocode.| 60 | |✅|Write in a modular fashion. Extract out chunks of repeated code into functions.| 61 | |✅|Ask for permission to use trivial functions without having to implement them; saves you some time.| 62 | |✅|Use the hints given by the interviewer.| 63 | |✅|Demonstrate mastery of your chosen programming language.| 64 | |✅|Demonstrate technical knowledge in data structures and algorithms.| 65 | |✅|If you are cutting corners in your code, state that out loud to your interviewer and say what you would do in a non-interview setting (no time constraints). E.g., I would write a regex to parse this string rather than using `split()` which may not cover all cases.| 66 | |✅|Practice whiteboard space-management skills.| 67 | |⚠️|Reasonable defensive coding. Check for nulls, empty collections, etc. Can omit if input validity has been clarified with the interviewer.| 68 | |❌|Remain quiet the whole time.| 69 | |❌|Spend too much time writing comments.| 70 | |❌|Use extremely verbose variable names.| 71 | |❌|Copy and paste code without checking.| 72 | |❌|Interrupt your interviewer when they are talking. Usually if they speak, they are trying to give you hints or steer you in the right direction.| 73 | |❌|Write too big (takes up too much space) or too small (illegible) if on a whiteboard.| 74 | 75 | ### 5. After Coding 76 | 77 | || Things | 78 | |-|-| 79 | |✅|Scan through your code for mistakes as if it was your first time seeing code written by someone else.| 80 | |✅|Check for off-by-one errors.| 81 | |✅|Come up with more test cases. Try extreme test cases.| 82 | |✅|Step through your code with those test cases.| 83 | |✅|Look out for places where you can refactor.| 84 | |✅|Reiterate the time and space complexity of your code.| 85 | |✅|Explain trade-offs and how the code/approach can be improved if given more time.| 86 | |❌|Immediately announce that you are done coding. Do the above first!| 87 | |❌|Argue with the interviewer. They may be wrong but that is very unlikely given that they are familiar with the question.| 88 | 89 | ### 6. Wrap Up 90 | 91 | || Things | 92 | |-|-| 93 | |✅|Ask questions. More importantly, ask good and engaging questions that are tailored to the company! Pick some questions from [this list](../non-technical/questions-to-ask.md).| 94 | |✅|Thank the interviewer.| 95 | |⚠️|Ask about your interview performance. It can get awkward.| 96 | |❌|End the interview without asking any questions.| 97 | 98 | ### 7. Post Interview 99 | 100 | || Things | 101 | |-|-| 102 | |✅|Record the interview questions and answers down as these can be useful for future reference.| 103 | |⚠️|Send a follow up email to your interviewer(s) thanking them for their time and the opportunity to interview with them.| 104 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /algorithms/array.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Arrays 2 | == 3 | 4 | #### Hard 5 | - Given a set of rectangles represented by a height and an interval along the y-axis, determine the size of its union. ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/divide-and-conquer-set-7-the-skyline-problem/)) 6 | - Given an array, find the longest arithmetic progression. ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/longest-arithmetic-progression-dp-35/)) 7 | 8 | #### Medium 9 | - Given a list of item prices, find all possible combinations of items that sum a particular value `K`. ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/combinational-sum/)) 10 | - Given an array of integers find whether there is a sub-sequence that sums to 0 and return it. ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-if-there-is-a-subarray-with-0-sum/)) 11 | - E.g. `[1, 2, -3, 1]` => `[1, 2, -3]` or `[2, -3, 1]` 12 | - Trapping rain water: You have an array with the heights of an island (at point 1, point 2 etc) and you want to know how much water would remain on this island (without flowing away). ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/trapping-rain-water/)) 13 | 14 | #### Easy 15 | - Implement a circular buffer using an array. ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/circular-queue-set-1-introduction-array-implementation/)) 16 | - Given an array of integers, print out a histogram using the said array; include a base layer (all stars) ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/program-make-histogram-array/)) 17 | - Given an array and an index, find the product of the elements of the array except the element at that index. ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/a-product-array-puzzle/)) 18 | - Given 2 separate arrays, write a method to find the values that exist in both arrays and return them. ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/union-and-intersection-of-two-sorted-arrays-2/)) 19 | - Given an input array and another array that describes a new index for each element, mutate the input array so that each element ends up in their new index ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/reorder-a-array-according-to-given-indexes/)) 20 | - Discuss the runtime of the algorithm and how you can be sure there would not be any infinite loops 21 | - Given an array of non-negative numbers, find continuous subarray with sum to S. ([Solution 1](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-subarray-with-given-sum/)) ([Solution 2](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/06/01/subarray-with-given-sum/)) 22 | - Given an array of numbers list out all triplets that sum to 0. Do so with a running time of less than O(n^3). ([Solution 1](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-triplets-array-whose-sum-equal-zero/)) ([Solution 2](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/07/19/3sum/)) 23 | - Given an array of numbers list out all quadruplets that sum to 0. Do so with a running time of less than O(n^4). ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-four-numbers-with-sum-equal-to-given-sum/)) 24 | - Given an array of integers, find the subarray with the largest sum. ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/largest-sum-contiguous-subarray/)) 25 | - Find the second maximum value in an array. ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-second-largest-element-array/)) 26 | - Rotate an array by an offset of k. ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/array-rotation/)) 27 | - Remove duplicates in an unsorted array where the duplicates are at a distance of k or less from each other. ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/check-given-array-contains-duplicate-elements-within-k-distance/)) 28 | - Given an unsorted list of integers, return true if the list contains any duplicates within k indices of each element. Do it faster than O(n^2). ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/check-given-array-contains-duplicate-elements-within-k-distance/)) 29 | - Given an unsorted list of integers, return true if the list contains any fuzzy duplicates within k indices of each element. A fuzzy duplicate is another integer within d of the original integer. Do it faster than O(n^2). 30 | - E.g. If d = 4, then 6 is a fuzzy duplicate of 3 but 8 is not. 31 | - Say you have an unordered list of numbers ranging from 1 to n, and one of the numbers is removed, how do you find that number? What if two numbers are removed? ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-the-missing-number/)) 32 | - Given an array of string, find the duplicated elements. ([Solution 1](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-duplicates-in-on-time-and-constant-extra-space/)) ([Solution 2](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/05/10/duplicate-elements-of-an-array/)) 33 | - Given an array of integers, find a maximum sum of non-adjacent elements. ([Solution 1](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/maximum-sum-such-that-no-two-elements-are-adjacent/)) ([Solution 2](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/12/02/uber-interview-question-maximum-sum-non-adjacent-elements/)) 34 | - E.g. `[1, 0, 3, 9, 2]` should return `10 (1 + 9)`. 35 | - Given an array of integers, modify the array by moving all the zeroes to the end (right side). The order of other elements doesn't matter. ([Solution 1](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/move-zeroes-end-array/)) ([Solution 2](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/11/18/uber-interview-question-move-zeroes/)) 36 | - E.g. `[1, 2, 0, 3, 0, 1, 2]`, the program can output `[1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 0, 0]`. 37 | - Given an array, return the length of the longest increasing contiguous subarray. ([Solution 1](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/longest-increasing-subarray/)) ([Solution 2](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2017/02/02/uber-interview-questions-longest-increasing-subarray/)) 38 | - E.g., `[1, 3, 2, 3, 4, 8, 7, 9]`, should return `4` because the longest increasing array is `[2, 3, 4, 8]` 39 | - Given an array of integers where every value appears twice except one, find the single, non-repeating value. Follow up: do so with O(1) space. ([Solution](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-element-appears-array-every-element-appears-twice/)) 40 | - E.g., `[2, 5, 3, 2, 1, 3, 4, 5, 1]` returns 4, because it is the only value that appears in the array only once. 41 | 42 | #### Other 43 | - In an array of arrays, e.g. given `[[], [1, 2, 3], [4, 5], [], [], [6, 7], [8], [9, 10], [], []]`, print: `1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10`. 44 | - Implement an iterator that supports `hasNext()`, `next()` and `remove()` methods. 45 | - Paginate an array with constraints, such as skipping certain items. 46 | - Given array of arrays, sort them in ascending order. 47 | - Given an array containing only digits `0-9`, add one to the number and return the array. 48 | - E.g. Given `[1, 4, 2, 1]` which represents `1421`, return `[1, 4, 2, 2]` which represents `1422`. 49 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /domain/tic-tac-toe/index.html: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 2 | 3 | 24 | 25 | 26 |

Tic Tac Toe

27 |

Current player turn:

28 |
29 | 30 | 177 | 178 | 179 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /non-technical/interview-formats.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Interview Formats 2 | == 3 | 4 | The following interview formats are based on my experience interviewing with Bay Area companies. Formats would differ slightly depending on the roles you are applying to. Many companies like to use [CoderPad](https://coderpad.io/) for collaborative code editing. CoderPad supports running of the program, so you might be asked to fix your code such that it can be run. For front end interviews, many companies like to use [CodePen](https://codepen.io/), and it will be worth your time to familiarize yourself with the user interfaces of such web-based coding environments. 5 | 6 | For on-site interviews at smaller (non-public) companies, most will allow (and prefer) that you use your own laptop. Hence it is important that you prepare your development environment in advance. 7 | 8 | ## Companies 9 | 10 | - [Airbnb](#airbnb) 11 | - [Asana](#asana) 12 | - [Dropbox](#dropbox) 13 | - [Facebook](#facebook) 14 | - [Google](#google) 15 | - [Lyft](#lyft) 16 | - [Palantir](#palantir) 17 | - [WhatsApp](#whatsapp) 18 | 19 | ### Airbnb 20 | 21 | - Recruiter phone screen. 22 | - Technical phone interview: 23 | - 1 or 2 x Algorithm/front end on CoderPad/CodePen. 24 | - On-site (General): 25 | - 2 x Algorithm coding on CoderPad. 26 | - 1 x System design/architecture. 27 | - 1 x Past experience/project. 28 | - 2 x Cross functional. 29 | - On-site (Front End): 30 | - 2 x Front end coding on CodePen. Use any framework/library. 31 | - 1 x General coding on your own laptop. 32 | - 1 x Past experience/project. 33 | - 2 x Cross functional. 34 | - Tips: 35 | - All sessions involve coding on your own laptop. Prepare your development environment in advance. 36 | - You are allowed to look up APIs if you need to. 37 | - They seem to place high emphasis on compilable, runnable code in all their coding rounds. 38 | - Cross functional interviews will involve getting Airbnb employees from any discipline to speak with you. These interviews are mostly non-technical but are extremely important to Airbnb because they place a high emphasis on cultural fit. Do look up the Airbnb section of the behavioural questions to know what sort of questions to expect. 39 | 40 | ### Asana 41 | 42 | - Recruiter phone screen. 43 | - Technical phone interview. 44 | - On-site (Product Engineer): 45 | - 3 x Algorithm and system design on whiteboard within the same session. 46 | - 1 x Algorithm on laptop and system design. This session involves writing code on your own laptop to solve 3 well-defined algorithm problems in around 45 minutes after which an engineer will come in and review the code with you. You are not supposed to run the code while working on the problem. 47 | - Tips: 48 | - No front end questions were asked. 49 | - Asana places high emphasis on System Design and makes heavy use of the whiteboard. You do not necessarily have to write code for the algorithm question of the first three interviews. 50 | - All 4 sessions involve algorithms and system design. One of the sessions will be conducted by an Engineering Manager. 51 | - The last session will involve coding on your own laptop. Prepare your development environment in advance. 52 | - Regardless of Product Engineer or Engineering Generalist position, their interview format and questions are similar. 53 | 54 | ### Dropbox 55 | 56 | - Recruiter phone screen. 57 | - Technical phone interviews: 58 | - 2 x Algorithm/front end on CoderPad/CodePen. 59 | - On-site (Front End): 60 | - 2 x Front end on CodePen. Only Vanilla JS or jQuery allowed. 61 | - 1 x General coding on CoderPad. 62 | - 1 x All around. Meet with an Engineering Manager and discussing past experiences and working style. 63 | - Tips: 64 | - You can code on your own laptop and look up APIs. 65 | - Dropbox recruiters are very nice and will give you helpful information on what kind of questions to expect for the upcoming sessions. 66 | - One of the front end sessions involve coding up a pixel-perfect version of a real page on www.dropbox.com. You'll be given a spec of the desired page and you'll be asked to create a working version during the interview. 67 | 68 | ### Facebook 69 | 70 | - Recruiter phone screen. 71 | - Technical phone interviews: 72 | - 1 or 2 x Algorithm/front end on Skype/CoderPad. 73 | - On-site (Front End): 74 | - 2 x Technical coding interview on whiteboard (Ninja). 75 | - 1 x Behavioural (Jedi). Meet with an Engineering Manager and discussing past experiences and working style. 76 | - 1 x Design/architecture on whiteboard (Pirate). 77 | - Tips: 78 | - You are only allowed to use the whiteboard (or wall). No laptops involved. 79 | - For the Jedi round, you may be asked a technical question at the end of it. Front end candidates will be given a small HTML/CSS problem nearing the end of the session. 80 | - For the Ninja rounds, you may be asked one to two questions depending on how fast you progress through the question. 81 | 82 | ### Google 83 | 84 | - Recruiter phone screen. 85 | - Technical phone interview: 86 | - 1 or 2 x algorithm on Google Doc. 87 | - On-site (Front End): 88 | - 3 x Front end on whiteboard. Have to use Vanilla JS (or at the most, jQuery). 89 | - 2 x Algorithm on whiteboard. 90 | - Team matching. 91 | - Speak with managers from different teams who are interested in your profile. 92 | - Tips: 93 | - You are only allowed to use the whiteboard. No laptops involved. 94 | - In rare cases, candidates may even be allowed to skip the phone interview round and advanced to on-site directly. 95 | - For non-fresh grads, you only receive an offer if you are successfully matched with a team. 96 | 97 | ### Lyft 98 | 99 | - Recruiter phone screen. 100 | - Technical phone interview: 101 | - 1 x Algorithm/Front end over JSFiddle. 102 | - On-site (Front End): 103 | - 4 x Front end on Coderpad/your own laptop. Use any language/framework. 104 | - 1 x Behavioural. Meet with an Engineering Manager and go through candidate's resume. 105 | - Tips: 106 | - Can use whiteboard and/or laptop. 107 | - For front end coding, I opted to use React and had to set up the projects on the spot using `create-react-app`. 108 | 109 | ### Palantir 110 | 111 | - Recruiter phone screen. 112 | - Technical phone interview: 113 | - 1 x Algorithm over HackerRank CodePair and Skype. 114 | - On-site (General): 115 | - 2 x Algorithm on whiteboard. 116 | - 1 x Decomposition (system design) on whiteboard. 117 | - On-site (Front End): 118 | - 1 x Front end on your own laptop. This session lasts about 1.5 hours. Use any library/framework. 119 | - 1 x Decomposition (system design) on whiteboard. 120 | - Tips: 121 | - I opted to use React and had to set up projects on the spot using `create-react-app`. 122 | - You may be asked to meet with Engineering Managers after the technical sessions and it's not necessarily a good/bad thing. 123 | 124 | ### WhatsApp 125 | 126 | - Recruiter phone screen. 127 | - Technical phone interview: 128 | - 2 x Algorithm over CoderPad. 129 | - On-site (Web Client Developer): 130 | - 4 x Algorithm on whiteboard. 131 | - Tips: 132 | - No front end questions were asked. 133 | - 1 of the interviewers is an Engineering Manager. 134 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /non-technical/negotiation.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Negotiation 2 | == 3 | 4 | ### Ten Rules of Negotiation 5 | 6 | Key points extracted from "Ten Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer" [Part 1](http://haseebq.com/my-ten-rules-for-negotiating-a-job-offer/) and [Part 2](https://haseebq.com/how-not-to-bomb-your-offer-negotiation/) by Haseeb Qureshi. 7 | 8 | #### Get everything in writing 9 | 10 | Note down EVERYTHING on your phone call with the recruiters as they may be helpful later on. Even if there are things that are not directly monetary, if they relate to the job, write them down. If they tell you "we're working on porting the front-end to Angular," write that down. If they say they have 20 employees, write that down. You want as much information as you can. You'll forget a lot of this stuff, and it's going to be important in informing your final decision. 11 | 12 | #### Always keep the door open 13 | 14 | Never give up your negotiating power until you're absolutely ready to make an informed, deliberate final decision. This means your job is to traverse as many of these decision points as possible without giving up the power to continue negotiating. Very frequently, your interlocutor will try to trick you into making a decision, or tie you to a decision you didn't commit to. You must keep verbally jiu-jitsu-ing out of these antics until you're actually ready to make your final decision. 15 | 16 | #### Information is power 17 | 18 | To protect your power in the negotiation, you must protect information as much as possible. A corollary of this rule is that you should not reveal to companies what you're currently making. So given this offer, don't ask for more money or equity or anything of the sort. Don't comment on any specific details of the offer except to clarify them. Companies will ask about your current compensation at different stages in the process—some before they ever interview you, some after they decide to make you an offer. But be mindful of this, and protect information. 19 | 20 | > "Yeah, [COMPANY_NAME] sounds great! I really thought this was a good fit, and I'm glad that you guys agree. Right now I'm talking with a few other companies so I can't speak to the specific details of the offer until I'm done with the process and get closer to making a decision. But I'm sure we'll be able to find a package that we're both happy with, because I really would love to be a part of the team." 21 | 22 | #### Always be positive 23 | 24 | Even if the offer is bad, it's extremely important to remain positive and excited about the company. This is because your excitement is one of your most valuable assets in a negotiation. 25 | 26 | Despite whatever is happening in the negotiation, give the company the impression that 1) you still like the company, and that 2) you're still excited to work there, even if the numbers or the money or the timing is not working out. Generally the most convincing thing to signal this is to reiterate you love the mission, the team, or the problem they're working on, and really want to see things work out. 27 | 28 | #### Don't be the decision maker 29 | 30 | Even if you don't particularly care what your friends/family/husband/mother thinks, by mentioning them, you're no longer the only person the recruiter needs to win over. There's no point in them trying to bully and intimidate you; the "true decision-maker" is beyond their reach. This is a classic technique in customer support and remediation. It's never the person on the phone's fault, they're just some poor schmuck doing their job. It's not their decision to make. This helps to defuse tension and give them more control of the situation. 31 | 32 | > I'll look over some of these details and discuss it with my [FAMILY/CLOSE_FRIENDS/SIGNIFICANT_OTHER]. I'll reach out to you if I have any questions. Thanks so much for sharing the good news with me, and I'll be in touch! 33 | 34 | It's much harder to pressure someone if they're not the final decision-maker. So take advantage of that. 35 | 36 | #### Have alternatives 37 | 38 | If you're already in the pipeline with other companies (which you should be if you're doing it right), you should proactively reach out and let them know that you've just received an offer. Try to build a sense of urgency. Regardless of whether you know the expiration date, all offers expire at some point, so take advantage of that. 39 | 40 | > Hello [PERSON], 41 | > 42 | > I just wanted to update you on my own process. I've just received an offer from [COMPANY] which is quite strong. That said, I'm really excited about [YOUR AMAZING COMPANY] and really want to see if we can make it work. Since my timeline is now compressed, is there anything you can do to expedite the process? 43 | 44 | Should you specifically mention the company that gave you an offer? Depends. If it's a well-known company or a competitor, then definitely mention it. If it's a no-name or unsexy company, you should just say you received an offer. If it's expiring soon, you should mention that as well. 45 | 46 | Either way, send out a letter like this to every single company you're talking to. No matter how hopeless or pointless you think your application is, you want to send this signal to everyone who is considering you in the market. 47 | 48 | Companies care that you've received other offers. They care because each company knows that their own process is noisy, and the processes of most other companies are also noisy. But a candidate having multiple offers means that they have multiple weak signals in their favor. Combined, these converge into a much stronger signal than any single interview. It's like knowing that a student has a strong SAT score, and GPA, and won various scholarships. Sure, it's still possible that they're a dunce, but it's much harder for that to be true. 49 | 50 | This is not to say that companies respond proportionally to these signals, or that they don't overvalue credentials and brands. They do. But caring about whether you have other offers and valuing you accordingly is completely rational. 51 | 52 | Tell other companies that you've received offers. Give them more signals so that they know you're a valued and compelling candidate. And understand why this changes their mind about whether to interview you. 53 | 54 | Your goal should be to have as many offers overlapping at the same time as possible. This will maximize your window for negotiating. 55 | 56 | Have a strong BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) and communicate it. 57 | 58 | > I 've received another offer from [OTHER CORP] that's very compelling on salary, but I really love the mission of [YOUR COMPANY] and think that it would overall be a better fit for me. 59 | 60 | > I'm also considering going back to grad school and getting a Master's degree in Postmodern Haberdashery. I'm excited about [YOUR COMPANY] though and would love to join the team, but the package has to make sense if I'm going to forego a life of ironic hatmaking. 61 | 62 | #### Proclaim reasons for everything 63 | 64 | It's kind of a brain-hack, both for yourself and for your negotiating partner. Just stating a reason (any reason) makes your request feel human and important. It's not you being greedy, it's you trying to fulfill your goals. 65 | 66 | The more unobjectionable and sympathetic your reason, the better. If it's medical expenses, or paying off student loans, or taking care of family, you'll bring tears to their eyes. 67 | 68 | Just go with it, state a reason for everything, and you'll find recruiters more willing to become your advocate. 69 | 70 | #### Be motivated by more than just money 71 | 72 | You should be motivated by money too of course, but it should be one among many dimensions you're optimizing for. How much training you get, what your first project will be, which team you join, or even who your mentor will be—these are all things you can and should negotiate. 73 | 74 | Of course, to negotiate well you need to understand the other side's preferences. You want to make the deal better for both of you. 75 | 76 | #### Understand what they value 77 | 78 | Remember that you can always get salary raises as you continue to work at the company, but there's only one point at which you can get a signing bonus. 79 | 80 | The easiest thing for a company to give though is stock (if the company offers stock). Companies like giving stock because it invests you in the company and aligns interests. It also shifts some of the risk from the company over to you and burns less cash. 81 | 82 | #### Be winnable 83 | 84 | This is more than just giving the company the impression that you like them (which you continually should). But more so that you must give any company you're talking to a clear path on how to win you. Don't bullshit them or play stupid games. Be clear and unequivocal with your preferences and timeline. 85 | 86 | Don't waste their time or play games for your own purposes. Even if the company isn't your dream company, you must be able to imagine at least some package they could offer you that would make you sign. If not, politely turn them down. 87 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /non-technical/questions-to-ask.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Questions to Ask 2 | 3 | Here are some good questions to ask at the end of the interview, extracted from various sources. The ones in **bold** are the ones that tend to make the interviewer go "That's a good question" and pause and think for a bit. 4 | 5 | ### General 6 | 7 | * **What are you most proud about in your career so far?** 8 | * **What is the most important/valuable thing you have learnt from working here?** 9 | * How do your clients and customers define success? 10 | * What would you change around here if you could? 11 | * What are some weaknesses of the organization? 12 | * What does a typical day look like for you? 13 | * What do you think the company can improve at? 14 | * How would you see yourself growing at this company in the next few years? 15 | * Was there a time where you messed up and how was it handled? 16 | * Why did you choose to come to this company? 17 | * When you were last interviewing, what were some of your other options, and what made you choose this company? 18 | * What was something you wish someone would have told you before you joined? 19 | * What was your best moment so far at the company? 20 | 21 | ### Culture 22 | 23 | * **What is the most frustrating part about working here?** 24 | * **What is unique about working at this company that you have not experienced elsewhere?** 25 | * **What is something you wish were different about your job?** 26 | * How will the work I will be doing contribute to the organization's mission? 27 | * What do you like about working here? 28 | * What is your policy on working from home/remotely? 29 | * (If the company is a startup) When was the last time you interacted with a founder? What was it regarding? Generally how involved are the founders in the day-to-day? 30 | * Does the company culture encourage entrepreneurship? Could you give me any specific examples? 31 | 32 | ### Technical 33 | 34 | These questions are suitable for any technical role. 35 | 36 | * **What are the engineering challenges that the company/team is facing?** 37 | * **What has been the worst technical blunder that has happened in the recent past? How did you guys deal with it? What changes were implemented afterwards to make sure it didn't happen again?** 38 | * **What is the most costly technical decision made early on that the company is living with now?** 39 | * **What is the most fulfilling/exciting/technically complex project that you've worked on here so far?** 40 | * **I do / don't have experience in domain X. How important is this for me to be able to succeed?** 41 | * How do you evaluate new technologies? Who makes the final decisions? 42 | * How do you know what to work on each day? 43 | * How would you describe your engineering culture? 44 | * How has your role changed since joining the company? 45 | * What is your stack? What is the rationale for/story behind this specific stack? 46 | * Do you tend to roll your own solutions more often or rely on third party tools? What's the rationale in a specific case? 47 | * How does the engineering team balance resources between feature requests and engineering maintenance? 48 | * What do you measure? What are your most important product metrics? 49 | * What does the company do to nurture and train its employees? 50 | * How often have you moved teams? What made you join the team you're on right now? If you wanted to move teams, what would need to happen? 51 | * What resources does the company have for new hires to study its product and processes? Are there specifications, requirements, documentation? 52 | * There's "C++" (or Python, Swift or any other tech) in the job description. How will you estimate my proficiency in this tech in 3 months? 53 | * How do you think my expertise would be relevant to this team? What unique value can I add? 54 | 55 | ### Product 56 | 57 | * Tell me about the main products of your company. 58 | * What is the current version of product? (If it is v1.0 or similar - there could be a lot of chaos to work with) 59 | * What products are your main competitors? 60 | * What makes your product competitive? 61 | * When are you planning to provide the next release? (If in several months, it would mean a lot of requirements specified in job description are not needed right now) 62 | * Is the team growing, and what sort of opportunities will there be in the next year/3 years? 63 | * What are your highest priorities right now? For example, new features, new products, solidifying existing code, reducing operations overhead? 64 | 65 | ### Management 66 | 67 | These questions are suitable for asking Engineering Managers, especially useful for the Team Matching phase of Google interviews or post-offer calls that your recruiters set up with the various team managers. 68 | 69 | * **How do you train/ramp up engineers who are new to the team?** 70 | * **What does success look like for your team/project?** 71 | * **What qualities do you look out for when hiring for this role?** 72 | * **What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current team? What is being done to improve upon the weaknesses?** 73 | * **Can you tell me about a time you resolved an interpersonal conflict?** 74 | * How did you become a manager? 75 | * How do your engineers know what to work on each day? 76 | * What is your team's biggest challenge right now? 77 | * How do you measure individual performance? 78 | * How often are 1:1s conducted? 79 | * What is the current team composition like? 80 | * What opportunities are available to switch roles? How does this work? 81 | * Two senior team members disagree over a technical issue. How do you handle it? 82 | * Have you managed a poor performer at some point in your career before? What did you do and how did it work? 83 | * Where do you spend more of your time, high performers or low performers? 84 | * Sometimes there's a trade-off between what's best for one of your team members and what's best for the team. Give an example of how you handled this and why. 85 | * Give an example of a time you faced a difficult mentoring/coaching challenge. What did you do and why? 86 | * What is your management philosophy? 87 | * What is the role of data and metrics in managing a team like ours? 88 | * What role does the manager play in making technical decisions? 89 | * What is an example of a change you have made in the team that improved the team? 90 | * What would be the most important problem you would want me to solve if I joined your team? 91 | * What opportunities for growth will your team provide? 92 | * What would I work on if I joined this team and who would I work most closely with? 93 | 94 | ### Leadership 95 | 96 | These questions are intended for senior level management, such as CEO, CTO, VPs. Candidates who interview with startups usually get to speak with senior level management. 97 | 98 | * How are you funded? 99 | * Are you profitable? If no, what's your plan for becoming profitable? 100 | * What assurance do you have that this company will be successful? 101 | * Tell me about your reporting structure. 102 | * How does the company decide on what to work on next? 103 | 104 | ### HR 105 | 106 | * **How do you see this position evolving in the next three years?** 107 | * **Who is your ideal candidate and how can I make myself more like them?** 108 | * What concerns/reservations do you have about me for this position? 109 | * What can I help to clarify that would make hiring me an easy decision? 110 | * How does the management team deal with mistakes? 111 | * If you could hire anyone to join your team, who would that be and why? 112 | * How long does the average engineer stay at the company? 113 | * Why have the last few people left? 114 | * Have you ever thought about leaving? If you were to leave, where would you go? 115 | 116 | ###### References 117 | 118 | * [Business Insider](http://www.businessinsider.sg/impressive-job-interview-questions-2015-3/) 119 | * [Lifehacker](http://lifehacker.com/ask-this-question-to-end-your-job-interview-on-a-good-n-1787624433) 120 | * [Fastcompany](https://www.fastcompany.com/40406730/7-questions-recruiters-at-amazon-spotify-and-more-want-you-to-ask) 121 | * [Questions I'm asking in interviews](http://jvns.ca/blog/2013/12/30/questions-im-asking-in-interviews/) 122 | * [How to interview your interviewers](http://blog.alinelerner.com/how-to-interview-your-interviewers/) 123 | * [How to Break Into the Tech Industry—a Guide to Job Hunting and Tech Interviews](https://haseebq.com/how-to-break-into-tech-job-hunting-and-interviews/) 124 | * [A developer's guide to interviewing](https://medium.freecodecamp.org/how-to-interview-as-a-developer-candidate-b666734f12dd) 125 | * [Questions I'm asking in interviews 2017](https://cternus.net/blog/2017/10/10/questions-i-m-asking-in-interviews-2017/) 126 | * [What are good questions to ask during a software developer interview when asked "Do you have any questions now?"](https://www.quora.com/What-are-good-questions-to-ask-during-a-software-developer-interview-when-asked-do-you-have-any-questions-now/answer/John-L-Miller) 127 | * [What are some good questions to ask when interviewing someone for a manager position?](https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-good-questions-to-ask-when-interviewing-someone-for-a-manager-position/answer/David-Seidman) 128 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /non-technical/behavioral.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Behavioral 2 | == 3 | 4 | Learn the [STAR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situation,_task,_action,_result) format. From Wikipedia: 5 | 6 | - **Situation** - The interviewer wants you to present a recent challenge and situation in which you found yourself. 7 | - **Task** - What were you required to achieve? The interviewer will be looking to see what you were trying to achieve from the situation. Some performance development methods[1] use “Target” rather than “Task”. Job interview candidates who describe a “Target” they set themselves instead of an externally imposed “Task” emphasize their own intrinsic motivation to perform and to develop their performance. 8 | - **Action** - What did you do? The interviewer will be looking for information on what you did, why you did it and what the alternatives were. 9 | - **Results** - What was the outcome of your actions? What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your objectives? What did you learn from this experience and have you used this learning since? 10 | 11 | ## General 12 | 13 | - Why do you want to work for X company? 14 | - Why do you want to leave your current/last company? 15 | - What are you looking for in your next role? 16 | - Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a co-worker. 17 | - Tell me about a time in which you had a conflict and needed to influence somebody else. 18 | - What project are you currently working on? 19 | - What is the most challenging aspect of your current project? 20 | - What was the most difficult bug that you fixed in the past 6 months? 21 | - How do you tackle challenges? Name a difficult challenge you faced while working on a project, how you overcame it, and what you learned. 22 | - What are you excited about? 23 | - What frustrates you? 24 | - Imagine it is your first day here at the company. What do you want to work on? What features would you improve on? 25 | - What are the most interesting projects you have worked on and how might they be relevant to this company's environment? 26 | - Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with your manager. 27 | - Talk about a project you are most passionate about, or one where you did your best work. 28 | - What does your best day of work look like? 29 | - What is something that you had to push for in your previous projects? 30 | - What is the most constructive feedback you have received in your career? 31 | - What is something you had to persevere at for multiple months? 32 | 33 | ## Airbnb 34 | 35 | Source: [Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Airbnb-Interview-Questions-E391850.htm) 36 | 37 | While loving to travel or appreciating Airbnb's growth may be good answers, try to demonstrate the deep connection you have with the product. 38 | 39 | - What does "belong anywhere" mean to you? 40 | - What large problems in the world would you solve today? 41 | - Why do you like Airbnb? 42 | - If you had an unlimited budget and you could buy one gift for one person, what would you buy and who would you buy it for? 43 | - If you had an unlimited budget and you could go somewhere, where would you go? 44 | - Share one of your trips with us. 45 | - What is the most challenging project in or out of school that you have worked on in the last 6 months. 46 | - What is something that you don't want from your last internship/job? 47 | - Give me an example of when you've been a good host. 48 | - What's something you'd like to remove from the Airbnb experience? 49 | - What is something new that you can teach your interviewer in a few minutes? 50 | - Tell me about why you want to work here. 51 | - What is the best gift you have ever given or received? 52 | - Tell me about a time you were uncomfortable and how you dealt with it. 53 | - Explain a project that you worked on recently. 54 | - What do you think of Airbnb? 55 | - Tell me something about yourself and why you'd be a good fit for the position. 56 | - Name a situation where you were impressed by a company's customer service. 57 | - How did you work with senior management on large projects as well as multiple internal teams? 58 | - Tell me about a time you had to give someone terrible news. 59 | - If you were a gerbil, which gerbil would you be? 60 | - What excites you about the company? 61 | - How does Airbnb impact our guests and hosts? 62 | - What part of our mission resonates the most with you? 63 | 64 | ## Amazon 65 | 66 | Source: [Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Amazon-Interview-Questions-E6036.htm) 67 | 68 | - How do you deal with a failed deadline? 69 | - Why do you want to work for Amazon? 70 | - Tell me about a situation where you had a conflict with a teammate. 71 | - In my professional experience have you worked on something without getting approval from your manager? 72 | - Tell me a situation where you would have done something differently from what you actually did. 73 | - What is the most exceedingly bad misstep you've made at any point? 74 | - Describe what Human Resources means to you. 75 | - How would you improve Amazon's website? 76 | 77 | ## Dropbox 78 | 79 | Source: [Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Dropbox-Interview-Questions-E415350.htm) 80 | 81 | - Talk about your favorite project. 82 | - If you were hired here what would you do? 83 | - State an experience about how you solved a technical problem. Be specific about the diagnosis and process. 84 | 85 | ## Hired 86 | 87 | Source: [Glassdoor](https://hired.com/blog/candidates/10-top-interview-questions-how-to-answer/) 88 | 89 | - Tell me about yourself. 90 | - What is your biggest strength and area of growth? 91 | - Why are you interested in this opportunity? 92 | - What are your salary expectations? 93 | - Why are you looking to leave your current company? 94 | - Tell me about a time your work responsibilities got a little overwhelming. What did you do? 95 | - Give me an example of a time when you had a difference of opinion with a team member. How did you handle that? 96 | - Tell me about a challenge you faced recently in your role. How did you tackle it? What was the outcome? 97 | - Where do you want to be in five years? 98 | - Tell me about a time you needed information from someone who wasn't responsive. What did you do? 99 | 100 | ## Lyft 101 | 102 | Source: [Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Lyft-Interview-Questions-E700614.htm) 103 | 104 | - Tell me about your most interesting/challenging project to date. 105 | - Why Lyft? What are you looking for in the next role? 106 | 107 | ## Palantir 108 | 109 | Source: [Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Palantir-Technologies-Interview-Questions-E236375.htm) 110 | 111 | - How do you deal with difficult coworkers? Think about specific instances where you resolved conflicts. 112 | - How did you win over the difficult employees? 113 | - Tell me about an analytical problem that you have worked on in the past. 114 | - What are your three strengths and three weaknesses? 115 | - If you were in charge of picking projects for Palantir, what problem would you try to solve? 116 | - **What is something 90% of people disagree with you about?** 117 | - What are some of the best and worst things about your current company? 118 | - **What is broken around you?** 119 | - What would your manager say about you? 120 | - Describe Palantir to your grandmother. 121 | - Teach me something you've learned. 122 | - Tell me a time when you predicted something. 123 | - If your supervisors were to rate you on a scale of 1-10, what would they rate you? 124 | - What was the most fun thing you did recently? 125 | - Tell me the story of how you became who you are today and what made you apply to Palantir. 126 | 127 | ## Slack 128 | 129 | Source: [Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Slack-Interview-Questions-E950758.htm) 130 | 131 | - Tell me something about your internship. 132 | - Why do you want to join Slack? 133 | - Tell me about your past projects. 134 | - Explain me your toughest project and the working architecture. 135 | - Apart from technical knowledge, what did you learn during your internship? 136 | - If someone has a different viewpoint to do a project like different programming language, how would handle this situation? 137 | - What are your most interesting subjects and why? 138 | - Did you find any bugs in Slack? 139 | - What is your favorite feature and why? 140 | 141 | ## Stack Overflow 142 | 143 | Source: [Glassdoor](https://hired.com/blog/candidates/10-top-interview-questions-how-to-answer/) 144 | 145 | - What have you built? 146 | - What is the hardest technical problem you have run into? 147 | - How did you solve it? 148 | - Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 149 | - Why do you want to work here? 150 | - How do you handle disagreements with coworkers? 151 | 152 | ## Stripe 153 | 154 | Source: [Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Stripe-Interview-Questions-E671932.htm) 155 | 156 | - How do you stay up to date with the latest technologies? 157 | - Explain a project that you worked on recently that was difficult. 158 | - Where do you see yourself in five years? 159 | 160 | ## Twitter 161 | 162 | Source: [Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Twitter-Interview-Questions-E100569.htm) 163 | 164 | - What would your previous boss say your biggest strength was? 165 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /design/news-feed.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | News Feed 2 | == 3 | 4 | ## Variants 5 | 6 | - Design Facebook news feed. 7 | - Design Twitter news feed. 8 | - Design Quora feed. 9 | - Design Instagram feed. 10 | 11 | ## Requirements Gathering 12 | 13 | - What is the intended platform? 14 | - Mobile (mobile web or native)? Web? Desktop? 15 | - What features are required? 16 | - CRUD posts. 17 | - Commenting on posts. 18 | - Sharing posts. 19 | - Trending posts? 20 | - Tag people? 21 | - Hashtags? 22 | - What is in a news feed post? 23 | - Author. 24 | - Content. 25 | - Media. 26 | - Tags? 27 | - Hashtags? 28 | - Comments/Replies. 29 | - Operations: 30 | - CRUD 31 | - Commenting/replying to a post. 32 | - What is in a news feed? 33 | - Sequence of posts. 34 | - Query pattern: query for a user's ranked news feed. 35 | - Operations: 36 | - Append - Fetch more posts. 37 | - Delete - I don't want to see this. 38 | - Which metrics should we optimize for? 39 | - User retention. 40 | - Ads revenue. 41 | - Fast loading time. 42 | - Bandwidth. 43 | - Server costs. 44 | 45 | ## Core Components 46 | 47 | TODO 48 | 49 | ## Data modeling 50 | 51 | - What kind of database to use? 52 | - Data is quite structured. Would go with SQL. 53 | - Design the necessary tables, its columns and its relations. 54 | - `users` 55 | - `posts` 56 | - `likes` 57 | - `follows` 58 | - `comments` 59 | 60 | > There are two basic objects: user and feed. For user object, we can store userID, name, registration date and so on so forth. And for feed object, there are feedId, feedType, content, metadata etc., which should support images and videos as well. 61 | > 62 | > If we are using a relational database, we also need to model two relations: user-feed relation and friend relation. The former is pretty straightforward. We can create a user-feed table that stores userID and corresponding feedID. For a single user, it can contain multiple entries if he has published many feeds. 63 | > 64 | > For friend relation, adjacency list is one of the most common approaches. If we see all the users as nodes in a giant graph, edges that connect nodes denote friend relation. We can use a friend table that contains two userIDs in each entry to model the edge (friend relation). By doing this, most operations are quite convenient like fetch all friends of a user, check if two people are friends. 65 | > 66 | > The system will first get all userIDs of friends from friend table. Then it fetches all feedIDs for each friend from user-feed table. Finally, feed content is fetched based on feedID from feed table. You can see that we need to perform 3 joins, which can affect performance. 67 | > 68 | > A common optimization is to store feed content together with feedID in user-feed table so that we don't need to join the feed table any more. This approach is called denormalization, which means by adding redundant data, we can optimize the read performance (reducing the number of joins). 69 | > 70 | > The disadvantages are obvious: 71 | > - Data redundancy. We are storing redundant data, which occupies storage space (classic time-space trade-off). 72 | > - Data consistency. Whenever we update a feed, we need to update both feed table and user-feed table. Otherwise, there is data inconsistency. This increases the complexity of the system. 73 | > - Remember that there's no one approach always better than the other (normalization vs denormalization). It's a matter of whether you want to optimize for read or write. 74 | 75 | ## Feed Display 76 | 77 | - The most straightforward way is to fetch posts from all the people you follow and render them sorted by time. 78 | - There can be many posts to fetch. How many posts should you fetch? 79 | - What are the pagination approaches and the pros and cons of each approach? 80 | - Offset by page size 81 | - Offset by time 82 | - What data should the post contain when you initially fetch them? 83 | - Lazy loading approach for loading associated data: media, comments, people who liked the post. 84 | - Media 85 | - If the post contains media such as images and videos, how should they be handled? Should they be loaded on the spot? 86 | - A better way would be to fetch images only when they are about to enter the viewport. 87 | - Videos should not autoplay. Only fetch the thumbnail for the video, and only play the video when user clicks play. 88 | - If the content is being refetched, the media should be cached and not fetched over the wire again. This is especially important on mobile connections where data can be expensive. 89 | - Comments 90 | - Should you fetch all the comments for a post? For posts by celebrities, they can contain a few hundred or thousand comments. 91 | - Maybe fetch the top few comments and display them under the post, and the user is given the choice to "show all comments". 92 | - How does the user request for new content? 93 | - Infinite scrolling. 94 | - User has to tap next page. 95 | 96 | ## Feed Ranking 97 | 98 | - First select features/signals that are relevant and then figure out how to combine them to calculate a final score. 99 | - How do you show the relevant posts that the user is interested in? 100 | - Chronological - While a chronological approach works, it may not be the most engaging approach. For example, if a person posts 30 times within the last hour, his followers will have their news feed clogged up with his posts. Maybe set a cap on the number of time a person's posts can appear within the feed. 101 | - Popularity - How many likes and comments does the post have? Does the user usually like posts by that person? 102 | - How do you determine which are the more important posts? A user might be more interested in a few-hour old post from a good friend than a very recent post from an acquaintance. 103 | - A common strategy is to calculate a post score based on various features and rank posts by its score. 104 | - Prior to 2013, Facebook was using the [EdgeRank](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/EdgeRank) algorithm to determine what articles should be displayed in a user's News Feed. 105 | - Edge Rank basically is using three signals: affinity score, edge weight and time decay. 106 | - Affinity score (u) - For each news feed, affinity score evaluates how close you are with this user. For instance, you are more likely to care about feed from your close friends instead of someone you just met once. 107 | - Edge weight (e) - Edge weight basically reflects importance of each edge. For instance, comments are worth more than likes. 108 | - Time decay (d) - The older the story, the less likely users find it interesting. 109 | - Affinity score 110 | - Various factors can be used to reflect how close two people are. First of all, explicit interactions like comment, like, tag, share, click etc. are strong signals we should use. Apparently, each type of interaction should have different weight. For instance, comments should be worth much more than likes. 111 | - Secondly, we should also track the time factor. Perhaps you used to interact with a friend quite a lot, but less frequent recently. In this case, we should lower the affinity score. So for each interaction, we should also put the time decay factor. 112 | - A good ranking system can improve some core metrics - user retention, ads revenue, etc. 113 | 114 | ## Feed Publishing 115 | 116 | TODO. Refer to http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/04/05/design-news-feed-system-part-2/. 117 | 118 | ## Additional Features 119 | 120 | #### Tagging feature 121 | 122 | - Have a `tags` table that stores the relation between a post and the people tagged in it. 123 | 124 | #### Sharing feature 125 | 126 | - Add a column to `posts` table called `original_post_id`. 127 | - What should happen when the original post is deleted? 128 | - The shared `posts` have to be deleted too. 129 | 130 | #### Notifications feature 131 | 132 | - When should notifications happen? 133 | - Can the user subscribe to only certain types of notifications? 134 | 135 | #### Trending feature 136 | 137 | - What constitutes trending? What signals would you look at? What weight would you give to each signal? 138 | - Most frequent hashtags over the last N hours. 139 | - Hottest search queries. 140 | - Fetch the recent most popular feeds and extract some common words or phrases. 141 | 142 | #### Search feature 143 | 144 | - How would you index the data? 145 | 146 | ## Scalability 147 | 148 | - Master-slave replication. 149 | - Write to master database and read from replica databases/in-memory data store. 150 | - Post contents are being read more than they are updated. It is acceptable to have a slight lag between a user updating a post and followers seeing the updated content. Tweets are not even editable. 151 | - Data for real-time queries should be in memory, disk is for writes only. 152 | - Pre-computation offline. 153 | - Tracking number of likes and comments. 154 | - Expensive to do a `COUNT` on the `likes` and `comments` for a post. 155 | - Use Redis/Memcached for keeping track of how many likes/comments a post has. Increment when there's new activity, decrement when someone unlikes/deletes the comment. 156 | - Load balancer in front of your API servers. 157 | - Partitioning the data. 158 | 159 | ###### References 160 | 161 | - [Design News Feed System (Part 1)](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/03/29/design-news-feed-system-part-1-system-design-interview-questions/) 162 | - [Design News Feed System (Part 1)](http://blog.gainlo.co/index.php/2016/04/05/design-news-feed-system-part-2/) 163 | - [Etsy Activity Feeds Architecture](https://www.slideshare.net/danmckinley/etsy-activity-feeds-architecture) 164 | - [Big Data in Real-Time at Twitter](https://www.slideshare.net/nkallen/q-con-3770885) 165 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /non-technical/resume.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Resume 2 | == 3 | 4 | The following content is by Christina Ng and rephrased for the purpose of this handbook. You can follow her on [Medium](https://medium.com/@christinang89) or [Quora](https://www.quora.com/profile/Christina-Ng). 5 | 6 | ## Table of Contents 7 | 8 | 1. [How Your Resume is Screened](#how-your-resume-is-screened) 9 | 1. [10 Ways To Improve Your Resume](#10-ways-to-improve-your-resume) 10 | 11 | ## How Your Resume is Screened 12 | 13 | While many engineers can be rather qualified for the role they are applying for, they miss out on getting a shot at the interview as they might never get past resume screening. The main issue was that they do not understand how recruiters worked. 14 | 15 | Before writing your resume, it is important to understand the recruiting structure and how recruiting is done. 16 | 17 | ### The Skill Set Checklist 18 | 19 | Before opening up a position/starting the search for candidates, I usually consult very closely with the team manager/decision maker to find out the specific skill sets that are relevant for the position. These skill sets are typically grouped into "Must have", "Good to have", and "Special bonus". 20 | 21 | - "Must have" — Typically, most of the must-haves include a degree (or not) in a relevant technical field, some years (or not) of experience in a particular programming language or technology. 22 | - "Good to have" — Includes experience/familiarity with secondary languages/technologies which may not be directly relevant to what the candidate would be working on, but could be required due to some interfacing with other components of the project. It could also include softer skills such as being a good team player, clear communication, etc. 23 | - "Special bonus" — Recognized skill sets/experiences which are difficult to come by. Probably not a requirement, but would definitely be useful for the position. 24 | 25 | Now that I am armed with this list, the search for candidates begin. 26 | 27 | Typically, I do not seek that "one perfect candidate". What I seek for is the "best fit candidate". The search is essentially a numbers game. I know that for a specific job posting, there would perhaps be X applicants. At each stage of the interview process, some percentage of the candidates will be eliminated, leaving only a final Y% of the initial pool to choose from. Since Y tends to be a rather small number, recruiters will try to maximize X. 28 | 29 | ### The 10 Seconds Glance 30 | 31 | When I am looking at your resume, I am doing a keyword match against the skill set checklist. If I see a good amount of the right keywords in your resume, it is a pass. If I need to spend more than 10 seconds trying to figure out what you are writing about, it is a fail. If I see an excessive amount of keywords (much looking like spam), it signals a red flag and goes into the "maybe". Depending on whether I think I have enough candidates for the day, you could eventually go into the pass or fail stack. 32 | 33 | There are lots of articles writing about how recruiters only spend an average of about 10 seconds to screen each resume. The news is, this is true because resume screening is such a menial, robotic and repetitive task. In fact, many applicant tracking systems (ATS) now are so advanced that they can parse your resume automatically, search for specific keywords in your resume, and score your resume based on the weights pre-assigned to each keyword. 34 | 35 | Finding a job is a two-way fit — the company wants someone with the relevant skills required, but it is also important for the applicant to fit in the company culture, and be able to gain something out of his stint. Hence, honesty is the single most important criteria in a resume. 36 | 37 | There is a delicate balance between finding the right job vs. finding a job. Getting rejected does not always mean you are not good enough. Sometimes, it just means you are not a right fit for what the company is looking for. 38 | 39 | When hiring fresh grads, I know that many of them will not have as much experience as someone who has years of industry experience. Hence, I would look out more for soft skills, such as attention to detail, initiative, passion, ability to get things done, etc. Note: this applies only if you have met the minimum threshold of proficiency/competency in the skill set checklist. 40 | 41 | ## 10 Ways To Improve Your Resume 42 | 43 | Now that you are aware of how recruiters screen your resume, here are 10 actionable ways you can do to improve your resume. 44 | 45 | #### 1. Cover letter 46 | 47 | I've often received resumes with no cover letters, and I am perfectly fine with it. If you ask me, it is better to have no cover letter than to have a bad cover letter, especially if your cover letter is a "templated" content. An effective cover letter needs to highlight the fit between the job requirements and your skills/experiences. Do not just tell me what you have done in your cover letter; Tell me how it is a fit for what I am looking for. 48 | 49 | Some small nitpicks: 50 | 51 | - Make sure that the cover letter is addressed to the right person (either the name of the recruiter if it is known, or to a generic hiring manager) and company. 52 | - Run a spell check. 53 | 54 | #### 2. Length of resume 55 | 56 | Your resume should be kept to 1 page or a MAXIMUM of 2 pages. Include only your most recent and relevant experiences. 57 | 58 | Information that a recruiter wants to know: 59 | 60 | - Name, email, contact number. 61 | - Education details: College, Major, GPA, Sample classes (optional, but if you list, make sure its classes that you scored well in and are relevant to your area of interest), academic awards, availability. 62 | - If you have studied abroad, you can list that too. 63 | - Projects that you have worked on. 64 | - Work experience/co-curricular activities. 65 | - Skills/other interests. 66 | - Street cred - GitHub/StackOverflow/LinkedIn profile (optional, but highly recommended). 67 | 68 | Information nobody needs to know: 69 | 70 | - Your profile picture. 71 | - Address, home phone number, gender, religion, race, marital status, etc etc. 72 | - Elementary, middle, high school. 73 | - Your low GPA. 74 | - Anything less recent than 3-4 years unless they are valid job experiences. 75 | - Anything about your parents/siblings, their names, occupation, etc. 76 | - Your life story. 77 | - Anything not relevant to the job you are applying for (e.g. that you have a driving license when you are applying to be a programmer). 78 | 79 | Ideally, keep it short, concise, but as detailed as possible. 80 | 81 | #### 3. GPA does matter 82 | 83 | Everyone wants the cream of the crop. In the absence of a standardized test, GPA serves as that indicator. **While GPA may not necessarily be a good indication of how well you can code, a high GPA would definitely put you in a more favorable position to the recruiter.** 84 | 85 | If your GPA is rather low, but you have loads of technical experiences, you can try not listing your GPA in the resume. This kinda "forces" the recruiter to read through your projects/job experience, and perhaps grant you a first interview. If you manage to impress them, who cares about your GPA? But if your GPA is low and you do not have skills for the job... maybe you should work on one of them and revisit job applications later. 86 | 87 | In a different scenario, some students have low GPA, but it might be due to some irrelevant classes which they did badly in. E.g. Student X is scoring A for all his programming classes, but did not do well for his language classes. If I am hiring a developer, Student X would still be a suitable candidate despite his low GPA. In such cases, it might even be recommended to attach a transcript along with the resume. 88 | 89 | Also, when you list your GPA/results, try to benchmark it. Instead of simply listing 4.6, write 4.6/5.0 (First Class Honors or Summa Cum Laude). To the recruiter, 4.6 does not mean anything if he/she is not familiar with your grading system. 90 | 91 | #### 4. Be clear about your objectives 92 | 93 | Are you looking for a summer internship/full-time employment? What position are you applying for? Read the job description and know the job you are applying for!! 94 | 95 | **"Work experience" does not mean any work experience; it means *relevant* work experience.** If you are applying for a developer position, the recruiter is not interested to know that you were a student escort for girls walking back to their apartments at night, nor that you were a cashier at Starbucks. You would be better off writing about the project you did for some programming class - yes, even if it was just a school project. Tailor your experiences and projects according to the job you are applying for. Pick relevant details to emphasize on and do not be hesitant to drop stuff completely if they are totally irrelevant. Quality over quantity. 96 | 97 | - Make sure the description is comprehensive. Avoid writing "Software engineering intern - write code". You are better off not writing anything. 98 | - Based on my experience, most fresh grads do not have extremely relevant job experience (unless you are lucky to have scored a really rewarding internship). For developer positions, I think it is ok to not have any job experience and just list projects. 99 | 100 | #### 5. Reverse chronological order 101 | 102 | Always list your resume in reverse chronological order - the most recent at the top. Recruiters are more interested in what you have worked on recently than what you worked on 3 years ago. Chances are, you probably forgot the details too anyway. 103 | 104 | #### 6. Make sure you are contactable 105 | 106 | - Get a proper email account with ideally your first name and last name, eg. "john.doe@gmail.com" instead of "angrybirds88@gmail.com". 107 | - If you are using your school's .edu email, try to have an alias like "john.doe@xxx.edu" instead of "a002342342@xxx.edu". 108 | - Avoid emails like "me@christi.na" or "admin@[mycooldomain].com" -- because it is very prone to typo errors. 109 | - Make sure the number you have listed is the best way to reach you. The last thing you want is to miss the call from the recruiter because you typed the wrong number, or you are not available on that number during office hours (most probably the times the recruiter will call). 110 | 111 | #### 7. Layout/Formatting/Design 112 | 113 | - Be consistent about the way you format your resume. Italics, underline, bold, and how they are used. 114 | - Keep to a single standard font (avoid fancy fonts like Comic Sans or whatever) and do not have too many varying styles/font sizes/color 115 | - Be consistent about the way you list your dates (eg. May 2011 - Aug 2011). Avoid using numerals for both month and date due to the difference in style for MMDD and DDMM in different countries. Dates like "Aug 2011 - June 12" just show that you have zero attention to detail. 116 | - Unless you are applying for a design job, just stick to the standard "table" style for the resume. There is nothing wrong with the standard style, and it helps the recruiter screen your resume more efficiently since they are trained through experience to read that format. It would also help in the automatic scoring by the ATS. The last thing you want is for your application to be rejected because the system could not parse your resume for it to be scored. That said, I am not discouraging you from coming up with your own design. It is nice to read something different. Just be aware of the risks you could be taking. 117 | - Name your file `firstname_lastname_resume.pdf` instead of `resume.pdf` - it is easier for recruiters to search/forward. 118 | - PDF preferred over Word doc. 119 | - Be consistent about bullet points. 120 | - Your resume should not look sparse. (Come on, it is only 1 page!) If you really have trouble filling it up, you are either not thinking hard enough, or not doing enough. In the case of the latter, consider working on your personal projects (i.e. stuff you can post on GitHub). That said, do not write stuff just to fill space. Read point 4. 121 | - This should be common sense, but do not commit fraud, i.e. apply for the same job using a different name, or using your friend's resume to apply for the same job. Some ATS issues an indicator if they suspect the application to be a duplicate. 122 | - It's important to note the layout of your resume. If you choose to quickly upload your resume via an auto-fill program, understand that the program will read your resume from top to bottom, left to right. This is good to keep in mind when developing the layout of your resume. 123 | - Try to keep white space down to a minimum. This will also help reduce the length of your resume to one page. Reduce margins and paddings reasonably. 124 | 125 | #### 8. Listing Your skills 126 | 127 | It is useful to list your relevant skills in a quick summary section for easy reading/matching. However, many people make the mistake of listing as many skills/programming languages in the resume as possible. This may get you through the ATS scoring, but it definitely would not leave a good impression on the recruiter - the actual human reading your resume and deciding whether to call you up for an interview! 128 | 129 | Ideally, if your resume is good enough, the recruiter should already know what you are proficient in. The skills section is just a quick summary/reiteration. **Listing a bunch of technologies you claim you know without actually showing how you have worked with them is pointless.** 130 | 131 | #### 9. Projects 132 | 133 | - Ideally, 1-2 lines about the project, 2-3 lines about your role, what technologies you used, what you did, your learning, etc etc. These can be Final Year Projects, Research projects, projects for a particular class, freelance projects, or just personal projects (ie. GitHub stuff). 134 | - Ideally, 2 to 3 projects that align with your interests/position you are applying for. 135 | - Avoid using titles such as "Project for [module code]". Sorry, the recruiter has no idea what class is represented by the module code. 136 | Ideally, you want the project section to demonstrate your personality and skills, and be the talking point during the interview. 137 | 138 | #### 10. Online profile/other interests 139 | 140 | Here's the news - Recruiters do search for your name! Definitely pre-empt that by Googling/Facebook-ing/searching yourself on all forms of social media to see what turns up. Make sure your privacy settings are restricted so your online profile shows only the image you are trying to project. 141 | 142 | If you have some space on your resume, it is good to list additional interests outside of coding. Eg. skiing, water sports, soccer, etc etc. Gives the interviewer something to talk to you about. It also shows that you are a well-rounded individual/cool person to hang out with. 143 | 144 | ###### References 145 | 146 | - [Screening your resume is like playing word search](https://medium.com/@christinang89/screening-your-resume-is-like-playing-word-search-60f4d0e60840) 147 | - [10 tips to get past resume screening for College Students/Grads](https://christinang89.quora.com/10-tips-to-get-past-resume-screening-for-College-Students-Grads) 148 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /domain/pagination-sorting/data.js: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | const data = [ 2 | { 3 | "_id": "591ad7e2d1b6119887420af5", 4 | "age": 36, 5 | "name": "Salas Mccarthy", 6 | "gender": "male", 7 | "company": "MAKINGWAY", 8 | "email": "salasmccarthy@makingway.com", 9 | "phone": "+1 (905) 546-3931" 10 | }, 11 | { 12 | "_id": "591ad7e2918b0ba1231b582d", 13 | "age": 29, 14 | "name": "Jodi Graham", 15 | "gender": "female", 16 | "company": "BITREX", 17 | "email": "jodigraham@bitrex.com", 18 | "phone": "+1 (861) 596-2691" 19 | }, 20 | { 21 | "_id": "591ad7e2bc19d181dcb64d57", 22 | "age": 34, 23 | "name": "Hollie Hardin", 24 | "gender": "female", 25 | "company": "ZENSURE", 26 | "email": "holliehardin@zensure.com", 27 | "phone": "+1 (822) 410-2433" 28 | }, 29 | { 30 | "_id": "591ad7e224d2fa7216132561", 31 | "age": 26, 32 | "name": "Bullock Cole", 33 | "gender": "male", 34 | "company": "ZILPHUR", 35 | "email": "bullockcole@zilphur.com", 36 | "phone": "+1 (839) 563-3350" 37 | }, 38 | { 39 | "_id": "591ad7e206c3fb3043ccf8a8", 40 | "age": 30, 41 | "name": "Peterson Mosley", 42 | "gender": "male", 43 | "company": "MOBILDATA", 44 | "email": "petersonmosley@mobildata.com", 45 | "phone": "+1 (974) 547-3461" 46 | }, 47 | { 48 | "_id": "591ad7e20a180de908b0960e", 49 | "age": 34, 50 | "name": "Lucille Jackson", 51 | "gender": "female", 52 | "company": "KINETICUT", 53 | "email": "lucillejackson@kineticut.com", 54 | "phone": "+1 (845) 443-3594" 55 | }, 56 | { 57 | "_id": "591ad7e2768b0cf4837ecf35", 58 | "age": 40, 59 | "name": "Cooper Leonard", 60 | "gender": "male", 61 | "company": "CHORIZON", 62 | "email": "cooperleonard@chorizon.com", 63 | "phone": "+1 (817) 418-2290" 64 | }, 65 | { 66 | "_id": "591ad7e270a640cf8f8a3e44", 67 | "age": 27, 68 | "name": "Iris Shepherd", 69 | "gender": "female", 70 | "company": "IDEALIS", 71 | "email": "irisshepherd@idealis.com", 72 | "phone": "+1 (858) 599-3628" 73 | }, 74 | { 75 | "_id": "591ad7e222ddd244aaba0315", 76 | "age": 31, 77 | "name": "Oneil Head", 78 | "gender": "male", 79 | "company": "LIMOZEN", 80 | "email": "oneilhead@limozen.com", 81 | "phone": "+1 (894) 440-3396" 82 | }, 83 | { 84 | "_id": "591ad7e2d36847b5e648587b", 85 | "age": 28, 86 | "name": "Swanson Singleton", 87 | "gender": "male", 88 | "company": "NSPIRE", 89 | "email": "swansonsingleton@nspire.com", 90 | "phone": "+1 (817) 510-2480" 91 | }, 92 | { 93 | "_id": "591ad7e2b78092f9fb866779", 94 | "age": 37, 95 | "name": "Sutton Odom", 96 | "gender": "male", 97 | "company": "GLUKGLUK", 98 | "email": "suttonodom@glukgluk.com", 99 | "phone": "+1 (961) 424-2812" 100 | }, 101 | { 102 | "_id": "591ad7e222736aa66a9b35cc", 103 | "age": 31, 104 | "name": "Chandler Kirk", 105 | "gender": "male", 106 | "company": "EWAVES", 107 | "email": "chandlerkirk@ewaves.com", 108 | "phone": "+1 (902) 524-3712" 109 | }, 110 | { 111 | "_id": "591ad7e2ac3f9abecd5175a7", 112 | "age": 28, 113 | "name": "Gentry Stanley", 114 | "gender": "male", 115 | "company": "GINK", 116 | "email": "gentrystanley@gink.com", 117 | "phone": "+1 (878) 592-2331" 118 | }, 119 | { 120 | "_id": "591ad7e2f79787dc605d61fb", 121 | "age": 28, 122 | "name": "Paulette Guthrie", 123 | "gender": "female", 124 | "company": "SEQUITUR", 125 | "email": "pauletteguthrie@sequitur.com", 126 | "phone": "+1 (820) 473-2926" 127 | }, 128 | { 129 | "_id": "591ad7e2ff61553783737bc0", 130 | "age": 37, 131 | "name": "Lesley Nash", 132 | "gender": "female", 133 | "company": "MELBACOR", 134 | "email": "lesleynash@melbacor.com", 135 | "phone": "+1 (849) 414-2115" 136 | }, 137 | { 138 | "_id": "591ad7e26f9c3fc95fa8e6f1", 139 | "age": 22, 140 | "name": "Frye Oneil", 141 | "gender": "male", 142 | "company": "OVERPLEX", 143 | "email": "fryeoneil@overplex.com", 144 | "phone": "+1 (999) 412-2403" 145 | }, 146 | { 147 | "_id": "591ad7e2eee8b7cd857a29d0", 148 | "age": 40, 149 | "name": "Christina Zamora", 150 | "gender": "female", 151 | "company": "REPETWIRE", 152 | "email": "christinazamora@repetwire.com", 153 | "phone": "+1 (860) 504-3885" 154 | }, 155 | { 156 | "_id": "591ad7e2be93544c81761053", 157 | "age": 25, 158 | "name": "Earlene Dunn", 159 | "gender": "female", 160 | "company": "PHARMEX", 161 | "email": "earlenedunn@pharmex.com", 162 | "phone": "+1 (831) 582-2974" 163 | }, 164 | { 165 | "_id": "591ad7e2cb672de927940ef4", 166 | "age": 25, 167 | "name": "Hoffman Pittman", 168 | "gender": "male", 169 | "company": "ENOMEN", 170 | "email": "hoffmanpittman@enomen.com", 171 | "phone": "+1 (882) 420-3186" 172 | }, 173 | { 174 | "_id": "591ad7e2aabaae50d75c21a3", 175 | "age": 35, 176 | "name": "Wilson Tran", 177 | "gender": "male", 178 | "company": "CAXT", 179 | "email": "wilsontran@caxt.com", 180 | "phone": "+1 (842) 529-3085" 181 | }, 182 | { 183 | "_id": "591ad7e2bdd6104be85bdd87", 184 | "age": 22, 185 | "name": "Hensley Hawkins", 186 | "gender": "male", 187 | "company": "LUDAK", 188 | "email": "hensleyhawkins@ludak.com", 189 | "phone": "+1 (902) 566-3308" 190 | }, 191 | { 192 | "_id": "591ad7e24796cbdc0eacb6c0", 193 | "age": 36, 194 | "name": "Gray Schultz", 195 | "gender": "male", 196 | "company": "EBIDCO", 197 | "email": "grayschultz@ebidco.com", 198 | "phone": "+1 (910) 532-2845" 199 | }, 200 | { 201 | "_id": "591ad7e204425cc3b121279a", 202 | "age": 25, 203 | "name": "Odonnell Livingston", 204 | "gender": "male", 205 | "company": "ANOCHA", 206 | "email": "odonnelllivingston@anocha.com", 207 | "phone": "+1 (991) 422-2754" 208 | }, 209 | { 210 | "_id": "591ad7e2997ac59b446d3a30", 211 | "age": 36, 212 | "name": "Shelton Lindsay", 213 | "gender": "male", 214 | "company": "DENTREX", 215 | "email": "sheltonlindsay@dentrex.com", 216 | "phone": "+1 (899) 567-2928" 217 | }, 218 | { 219 | "_id": "591ad7e2646dad2ff456b035", 220 | "age": 40, 221 | "name": "Mcclain Larson", 222 | "gender": "male", 223 | "company": "GENMOM", 224 | "email": "mcclainlarson@genmom.com", 225 | "phone": "+1 (934) 508-3477" 226 | }, 227 | { 228 | "_id": "591ad7e21e908e847ee6d3ea", 229 | "age": 27, 230 | "name": "Miranda Branch", 231 | "gender": "female", 232 | "company": "ROCKYARD", 233 | "email": "mirandabranch@rockyard.com", 234 | "phone": "+1 (989) 446-2387" 235 | }, 236 | { 237 | "_id": "591ad7e2d7905d2fcaa1ce18", 238 | "age": 36, 239 | "name": "Valencia Moreno", 240 | "gender": "male", 241 | "company": "KIOSK", 242 | "email": "valenciamoreno@kiosk.com", 243 | "phone": "+1 (807) 449-2626" 244 | }, 245 | { 246 | "_id": "591ad7e245e3c4ce18a92054", 247 | "age": 40, 248 | "name": "Witt Leblanc", 249 | "gender": "male", 250 | "company": "ENERSAVE", 251 | "email": "wittleblanc@enersave.com", 252 | "phone": "+1 (809) 491-3886" 253 | }, 254 | { 255 | "_id": "591ad7e27f2c70583d1cf34f", 256 | "age": 32, 257 | "name": "Glover Mccoy", 258 | "gender": "male", 259 | "company": "BYTREX", 260 | "email": "glovermccoy@bytrex.com", 261 | "phone": "+1 (928) 470-2426" 262 | }, 263 | { 264 | "_id": "591ad7e22768012595c933c9", 265 | "age": 25, 266 | "name": "Billie Dunlap", 267 | "gender": "female", 268 | "company": "INQUALA", 269 | "email": "billiedunlap@inquala.com", 270 | "phone": "+1 (903) 415-2136" 271 | }, 272 | { 273 | "_id": "591ad7e22df8d07559a29904", 274 | "age": 21, 275 | "name": "Bridget Hill", 276 | "gender": "female", 277 | "company": "TRIBALOG", 278 | "email": "bridgethill@tribalog.com", 279 | "phone": "+1 (954) 461-3390" 280 | }, 281 | { 282 | "_id": "591ad7e201b2bddbc81ae05e", 283 | "age": 30, 284 | "name": "Dawson Clements", 285 | "gender": "male", 286 | "company": "EURON", 287 | "email": "dawsonclements@euron.com", 288 | "phone": "+1 (926) 570-3444" 289 | }, 290 | { 291 | "_id": "591ad7e2c2aeb820e77c1d9a", 292 | "age": 31, 293 | "name": "Valdez Johnson", 294 | "gender": "male", 295 | "company": "RETRACK", 296 | "email": "valdezjohnson@retrack.com", 297 | "phone": "+1 (841) 506-2428" 298 | }, 299 | { 300 | "_id": "591ad7e2370ff047048bd688", 301 | "age": 31, 302 | "name": "Nichole Dickerson", 303 | "gender": "female", 304 | "company": "NEOCENT", 305 | "email": "nicholedickerson@neocent.com", 306 | "phone": "+1 (945) 437-3591" 307 | }, 308 | { 309 | "_id": "591ad7e2b77affba5a8f8603", 310 | "age": 34, 311 | "name": "Madden Weaver", 312 | "gender": "male", 313 | "company": "VERBUS", 314 | "email": "maddenweaver@verbus.com", 315 | "phone": "+1 (810) 598-3145" 316 | }, 317 | { 318 | "_id": "591ad7e21e692cc8247b1d83", 319 | "age": 26, 320 | "name": "Larsen Benson", 321 | "gender": "male", 322 | "company": "ISOSURE", 323 | "email": "larsenbenson@isosure.com", 324 | "phone": "+1 (890) 435-2219" 325 | }, 326 | { 327 | "_id": "591ad7e2de06284f2d2a8d19", 328 | "age": 37, 329 | "name": "Barnes Gaines", 330 | "gender": "male", 331 | "company": "RODEOCEAN", 332 | "email": "barnesgaines@rodeocean.com", 333 | "phone": "+1 (824) 484-2693" 334 | }, 335 | { 336 | "_id": "591ad7e20d9d8224dfbd292f", 337 | "age": 28, 338 | "name": "Pacheco Landry", 339 | "gender": "male", 340 | "company": "METROZ", 341 | "email": "pachecolandry@metroz.com", 342 | "phone": "+1 (813) 525-3821" 343 | }, 344 | { 345 | "_id": "591ad7e2c5348da6a981a148", 346 | "age": 21, 347 | "name": "Richard Alexander", 348 | "gender": "male", 349 | "company": "GADTRON", 350 | "email": "richardalexander@gadtron.com", 351 | "phone": "+1 (911) 513-3007" 352 | }, 353 | { 354 | "_id": "591ad7e2ca9ef31ba3b67d4f", 355 | "age": 22, 356 | "name": "Stone Campos", 357 | "gender": "male", 358 | "company": "TETAK", 359 | "email": "stonecampos@tetak.com", 360 | "phone": "+1 (879) 440-3672" 361 | }, 362 | { 363 | "_id": "591ad7e2ff5a9796c8470151", 364 | "age": 31, 365 | "name": "Walter Randall", 366 | "gender": "male", 367 | "company": "EQUITAX", 368 | "email": "walterrandall@equitax.com", 369 | "phone": "+1 (927) 563-3777" 370 | }, 371 | { 372 | "_id": "591ad7e272c6b6c1241b3a4a", 373 | "age": 27, 374 | "name": "Copeland Compton", 375 | "gender": "male", 376 | "company": "MAXIMIND", 377 | "email": "copelandcompton@maximind.com", 378 | "phone": "+1 (829) 599-2574" 379 | }, 380 | { 381 | "_id": "591ad7e2220c6caa9e2c444d", 382 | "age": 30, 383 | "name": "Lorie Irwin", 384 | "gender": "female", 385 | "company": "ELPRO", 386 | "email": "lorieirwin@elpro.com", 387 | "phone": "+1 (938) 584-2368" 388 | }, 389 | { 390 | "_id": "591ad7e2942d603032f1ebda", 391 | "age": 35, 392 | "name": "Buck Roth", 393 | "gender": "male", 394 | "company": "COMTRACT", 395 | "email": "buckroth@comtract.com", 396 | "phone": "+1 (830) 585-3168" 397 | }, 398 | { 399 | "_id": "591ad7e2c23efccd2fcd5b2e", 400 | "age": 31, 401 | "name": "Mamie Robinson", 402 | "gender": "female", 403 | "company": "ZOMBOID", 404 | "email": "mamierobinson@zomboid.com", 405 | "phone": "+1 (845) 481-3222" 406 | }, 407 | { 408 | "_id": "591ad7e285109fadbf0f9c01", 409 | "age": 33, 410 | "name": "Bryan Stone", 411 | "gender": "male", 412 | "company": "PODUNK", 413 | "email": "bryanstone@podunk.com", 414 | "phone": "+1 (971) 469-3832" 415 | }, 416 | { 417 | "_id": "591ad7e25abc328c2cc42283", 418 | "age": 37, 419 | "name": "Benson Lyons", 420 | "gender": "male", 421 | "company": "FUTURITY", 422 | "email": "bensonlyons@futurity.com", 423 | "phone": "+1 (964) 536-3522" 424 | }, 425 | { 426 | "_id": "591ad7e28fa81611cdf5066a", 427 | "age": 37, 428 | "name": "Sally Finley", 429 | "gender": "female", 430 | "company": "ZYTRAC", 431 | "email": "sallyfinley@zytrac.com", 432 | "phone": "+1 (953) 506-2428" 433 | }, 434 | { 435 | "_id": "591ad7e271c5882aa5452601", 436 | "age": 26, 437 | "name": "Callahan Mckee", 438 | "gender": "male", 439 | "company": "ACCUPRINT", 440 | "email": "callahanmckee@accuprint.com", 441 | "phone": "+1 (842) 400-3570" 442 | }, 443 | { 444 | "_id": "591ad7e2275e787c5d9eea26", 445 | "age": 25, 446 | "name": "Ines Hamilton", 447 | "gender": "female", 448 | "company": "PROSURE", 449 | "email": "ineshamilton@prosure.com", 450 | "phone": "+1 (976) 485-2663" 451 | }, 452 | { 453 | "_id": "591ad7e2d8790e386b671ec6", 454 | "age": 38, 455 | "name": "Mcknight Abbott", 456 | "gender": "male", 457 | "company": "MAXEMIA", 458 | "email": "mcknightabbott@maxemia.com", 459 | "phone": "+1 (960) 600-3920" 460 | }, 461 | { 462 | "_id": "591ad7e2a1cae1e4f17d8db2", 463 | "age": 28, 464 | "name": "Tanisha Ross", 465 | "gender": "female", 466 | "company": "SYNKGEN", 467 | "email": "tanishaross@synkgen.com", 468 | "phone": "+1 (920) 502-3204" 469 | }, 470 | { 471 | "_id": "591ad7e2f816fd6848bc03a3", 472 | "age": 22, 473 | "name": "Pam Webb", 474 | "gender": "female", 475 | "company": "VALREDA", 476 | "email": "pamwebb@valreda.com", 477 | "phone": "+1 (926) 442-2683" 478 | }, 479 | { 480 | "_id": "591ad7e208585adb332ac653", 481 | "age": 29, 482 | "name": "Bobbi Mays", 483 | "gender": "female", 484 | "company": "PARLEYNET", 485 | "email": "bobbimays@parleynet.com", 486 | "phone": "+1 (940) 577-3487" 487 | }, 488 | { 489 | "_id": "591ad7e2f4b29cbd1744b14e", 490 | "age": 27, 491 | "name": "Snider Sandoval", 492 | "gender": "male", 493 | "company": "GRONK", 494 | "email": "snidersandoval@gronk.com", 495 | "phone": "+1 (903) 526-2655" 496 | }, 497 | { 498 | "_id": "591ad7e23a3f54209ec9deba", 499 | "age": 33, 500 | "name": "Fitzpatrick Weiss", 501 | "gender": "male", 502 | "company": "MICROLUXE", 503 | "email": "fitzpatrickweiss@microluxe.com", 504 | "phone": "+1 (894) 494-2135" 505 | }, 506 | { 507 | "_id": "591ad7e229d21e1b7723c044", 508 | "age": 27, 509 | "name": "Kimberly Brown", 510 | "gender": "female", 511 | "company": "SPACEWAX", 512 | "email": "kimberlybrown@spacewax.com", 513 | "phone": "+1 (832) 481-2926" 514 | }, 515 | { 516 | "_id": "591ad7e247e285f0c563ac94", 517 | "age": 20, 518 | "name": "Fisher Kent", 519 | "gender": "male", 520 | "company": "ORBIN", 521 | "email": "fisherkent@orbin.com", 522 | "phone": "+1 (962) 523-3956" 523 | }, 524 | { 525 | "_id": "591ad7e274439c6eb52e99df", 526 | "age": 26, 527 | "name": "Arlene Carroll", 528 | "gender": "female", 529 | "company": "ELITA", 530 | "email": "arlenecarroll@elita.com", 531 | "phone": "+1 (998) 497-3751" 532 | }, 533 | { 534 | "_id": "591ad7e271852e5766fad809", 535 | "age": 22, 536 | "name": "Tamra Spence", 537 | "gender": "female", 538 | "company": "ARTWORLDS", 539 | "email": "tamraspence@artworlds.com", 540 | "phone": "+1 (963) 516-2492" 541 | }, 542 | { 543 | "_id": "591ad7e28c9165c4372744f7", 544 | "age": 29, 545 | "name": "Alice Goodman", 546 | "gender": "female", 547 | "company": "ZILLIDIUM", 548 | "email": "alicegoodman@zillidium.com", 549 | "phone": "+1 (829) 577-2972" 550 | }, 551 | { 552 | "_id": "591ad7e2c2a9121f713f15c3", 553 | "age": 27, 554 | "name": "Clay Washington", 555 | "gender": "male", 556 | "company": "EXOSTREAM", 557 | "email": "claywashington@exostream.com", 558 | "phone": "+1 (926) 460-3699" 559 | }, 560 | { 561 | "_id": "591ad7e2c99d41ce0347ac8f", 562 | "age": 38, 563 | "name": "Navarro Walsh", 564 | "gender": "male", 565 | "company": "ILLUMITY", 566 | "email": "navarrowalsh@illumity.com", 567 | "phone": "+1 (896) 564-3270" 568 | }, 569 | { 570 | "_id": "591ad7e25e7c6ff0785d1337", 571 | "age": 22, 572 | "name": "Alexandra Hughes", 573 | "gender": "female", 574 | "company": "TASMANIA", 575 | "email": "alexandrahughes@tasmania.com", 576 | "phone": "+1 (977) 509-3599" 577 | }, 578 | { 579 | "_id": "591ad7e2acb8a5785b6fd512", 580 | "age": 40, 581 | "name": "Vonda Oliver", 582 | "gender": "female", 583 | "company": "NEPTIDE", 584 | "email": "vondaoliver@neptide.com", 585 | "phone": "+1 (836) 595-2260" 586 | }, 587 | { 588 | "_id": "591ad7e20543a9fc7bc33515", 589 | "age": 36, 590 | "name": "Christa Nixon", 591 | "gender": "female", 592 | "company": "GLASSTEP", 593 | "email": "christanixon@glasstep.com", 594 | "phone": "+1 (966) 551-2149" 595 | }, 596 | { 597 | "_id": "591ad7e21b8e73ba4dbf7c9a", 598 | "age": 34, 599 | "name": "Weber Hurst", 600 | "gender": "male", 601 | "company": "SLUMBERIA", 602 | "email": "weberhurst@slumberia.com", 603 | "phone": "+1 (943) 516-3449" 604 | }, 605 | { 606 | "_id": "591ad7e282b9cb56357b42db", 607 | "age": 27, 608 | "name": "Rasmussen Kramer", 609 | "gender": "male", 610 | "company": "MUSIX", 611 | "email": "rasmussenkramer@musix.com", 612 | "phone": "+1 (891) 553-3264" 613 | }, 614 | { 615 | "_id": "591ad7e2287c587e3a04e80c", 616 | "age": 30, 617 | "name": "Mayra Beasley", 618 | "gender": "female", 619 | "company": "BRAINCLIP", 620 | "email": "mayrabeasley@brainclip.com", 621 | "phone": "+1 (958) 576-2642" 622 | }, 623 | { 624 | "_id": "591ad7e26245135989367fa8", 625 | "age": 20, 626 | "name": "Nunez Ortiz", 627 | "gender": "male", 628 | "company": "KYAGURU", 629 | "email": "nunezortiz@kyaguru.com", 630 | "phone": "+1 (906) 591-3563" 631 | }, 632 | { 633 | "_id": "591ad7e23248cee3b84bde40", 634 | "age": 39, 635 | "name": "Michael Foreman", 636 | "gender": "male", 637 | "company": "DANCITY", 638 | "email": "michaelforeman@dancity.com", 639 | "phone": "+1 (848) 400-3539" 640 | }, 641 | { 642 | "_id": "591ad7e23ae236a1d59d07ee", 643 | "age": 36, 644 | "name": "Virgie Wheeler", 645 | "gender": "female", 646 | "company": "XIIX", 647 | "email": "virgiewheeler@xiix.com", 648 | "phone": "+1 (831) 400-2814" 649 | }, 650 | { 651 | "_id": "591ad7e2d8b9e3c0c31d770d", 652 | "age": 31, 653 | "name": "Levy Hoover", 654 | "gender": "male", 655 | "company": "CANDECOR", 656 | "email": "levyhoover@candecor.com", 657 | "phone": "+1 (843) 428-2780" 658 | }, 659 | { 660 | "_id": "591ad7e2badb7200ca06a483", 661 | "age": 21, 662 | "name": "Battle Stanton", 663 | "gender": "male", 664 | "company": "CALCULA", 665 | "email": "battlestanton@calcula.com", 666 | "phone": "+1 (861) 522-3951" 667 | }, 668 | { 669 | "_id": "591ad7e27fd1a4455ccf406c", 670 | "age": 24, 671 | "name": "Church Lynn", 672 | "gender": "male", 673 | "company": "DAISU", 674 | "email": "churchlynn@daisu.com", 675 | "phone": "+1 (896) 425-3854" 676 | } 677 | ] 678 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /preparing/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | Preparing for a Coding Interview 2 | == 3 | 4 | ### Picking a Programming Language 5 | 6 | Before anything else, you need to pick a programming language to do your interviews in. Most companies will let you code in any language you want, the only exception I know being Google, where they only allow candidates to pick from Java, C++, JavaScript or Python for their algorithmic coding interviews. Most of the time, I would recommend that you use a language that you are extremely familiar with rather than picking up a new language just for doing interviews because the company uses that language heavily. 7 | 8 | There are some languages which are more suitable than others for coding interviews and some languages you absolutely want to avoid. From my experience as an interviewer, most candidates pick Python or Java. Other commonly seen languages include JavaScript, Ruby and C++. I would absolutely avoid lower level languages like C or Go, simply because they lack many standard library functions and data structures. 9 | 10 | Personally, Python is my de facto choice for algorithm coding interviews because it is succinct and has a pretty huge library of functions and data structures available. One of my top reasons for recommending Python is that it uses consistent APIs that operate on different data structures, such as `len()`, `for ... in ...` and slicing notation on sequences (strings/lists/tuples). Getting the last element in a sequence is `arr[-1]` and reversing it is simply `arr[::-1]`. You can achieve a lot with minimal syntax in Python. 11 | 12 | Java is a decent choice too but having to constantly declare types in your code means extra keystrokes which results in slower coding/typing speed. This issue will be more apparent when you have to write on a whiteboard during on-site interviews. The reasons for choosing/not choosing C++ are similar to Java. Ultimately, Python, Java and C++ are decent choices of languages. If you have been using Java at work for a while now and do not have time to be comfortably familiar with another language, I would recommend just sticking to Java instead of picking up Python from scratch just for the sake of interviews. Doing so, you can avoid having to context switch between languages during work vs interviews. Most of the time, the bottleneck is in the thinking and not the writing. It takes some getting used to before one becomes fluent in a language and be able to wield it with ease. 13 | 14 | One exception to the convention of allowing you to "pick any programming language you want" is when you are interviewing for a domain-specific position, such as Front End/iOS/Android Engineer roles, in which you would need to be familiar with coding in JavaScript, Objective-C/Swift and Java respectively. If you need to use a data structure that the language does not support, such as a Queue or Heap in JavaScript, perhaps try asking the interviewer whether you can assume that you have a data structure that implements certain methods with specified time complexities. If the implementation of that data structure is not crucial to solving the problem, the interviewer will usually allow this. In reality, being aware of existing data structures and selecting the appropriate ones to tackle the problem at hand is more important than knowing the intricate implementation details. 15 | 16 | ### Review your CS101 17 | 18 | If you have been out of college for a while, it is highly advisable to review CS fundamentals — Algorithms and Data Structures. Personally, I prefer to review as I practice, so I scan through my college notes and review the various algorithms as I work on algorithm problems from LeetCode and Cracking the Coding Interview. 19 | 20 | This [interviews repository](https://github.com/kdn251/interviews) by Kevin Naughton Jr. served as a quick refresher for me. 21 | 22 | The Medium publication [basecs](https://medium.com/basecs) by [Vaidehi Joshi](https://medium.com/@vaidehijoshi) is also a great and light-hearted resource to recap on the various data structures and algorithms. 23 | 24 | If you are interested in how data structures are implemented, check out [Lago](https://github.com/yangshun/lago), a Data Structures and Algorithms library for JavaScript. It is pretty much still WIP but I intend to make it into a library that is able to be used in production and also a reference resource for revising Data Structures and Algorithms. 25 | 26 | ### Mastery through Practice 27 | 28 | Next, gain familiarity and mastery of the algorithms and data structures in your chosen programming language: 29 | 30 | 1. Practice coding algorithms using your chosen language. While [Cracking the Coding Interview](http://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/) is a good resource for practice, I prefer being able to type code, run it and get instant feedback. There are various Online Judges such as [LeetCode](https://leetcode.com/), [HackerRank](https://www.hackerrank.com/) and [CodeForces](http://codeforces.com/) for you to practice questions online and get used to the language. From experience, LeetCode questions are the most similar to the kind of questions being asked in interviews whereas HackerRank and CodeForces questions resemble competitive programming questions. If you practice enough LeetCode questions, there is a good chance that you would have seen/done your actual interview question (or some variant) on LeetCode before. If you are more of a visual person, [Coderust](https://www.educative.io/collection/5642554087309312/5679846214598656) explains the common algorithm questions through step-by-step visualizations which makes understanding the solutions much easier. 31 | 1. Learn and understand the time and space complexities of the common operations in your chosen language. For Python, this [page](https://wiki.python.org/moin/TimeComplexity) will come in handy. Also find out the underlying sorting algorithm that is being used in the language's `sort()` function and its time and space complexity (in Python its Timsort which is a hybrid sort). After completing a question on LeetCode, I usually add the time and space complexities of the written code as comments above the function body to remind myself to analyze the algorithm after I am done with the implementation. 32 | 1. Read up on the recommended coding style for your language and stick to it. If you have chosen Python, refer to the PEP 8 Style Guide. If you have chosen Java, refer to Google's Java Style Guide. 33 | 1. Find out and be familiar with the common pitfalls and caveats of the language. If you point them out during the interview and intelligently avoid falling into them, you will usually impress the interviewer and that results in bonus points for your feedback, regardless of whether the interviewer is familiar with the language or not. 34 | 1. Gain a broad exposure to questions from various topics. In the second half of the article I mention algorithm topics and practice questions for each topic. Do around 100–200 LeetCode questions and you should be good. 35 | 36 | Practice, practice and more practice! 37 | 38 | ### Phases of a Coding Interview 39 | 40 | Congratulations, you are ready to put your skills into practice! In a real coding interview, you will be given a technical question by the interviewer, write code in a real-time collaborative editor (phone screen) or on a whiteboard (on-site) to solve the problem within 30–45 minutes. This is where the real fun begins! 41 | 42 | Your interviewer will be looking out for signals that you fit the requirements of the role and it is up to you to display those signals to them. Initially it may feel weird to be talking while you are coding as most programmers do not have the habit of explaining out loud as they are typing code. However, it is hard for the interviewer to know what you are thinking just by looking at the code that you type. If you communicate your approach to the interviewer before you start coding, you can validate your approach with them and the both of you can agree upon an acceptable approach. 43 | 44 | **Before the Interview (Remote)** 45 | 46 | For phone screens/remote interviews, prepare paper and pen/pencil to jot down and visualize stuff. If you are given a question on trees and graphs, it usually helps if you draw out some examples of the data structure given in the question. 47 | 48 | Use earphones and make sure you are in a quiet environment. You definitely do not want to be holding a phone in one hand and only be able to type with the other. Try avoiding using speakers because if the echo is bad, communication is harder and repeating of words will just result in loss of valuable time. 49 | 50 | **Self Introduction** 51 | 52 | Prepare a self introduction that follows the following outline (inspired by "Cracking the Coding Interview" by Gayle McDowell): 53 | 54 | 1. A sentence about your current or most recent role. 55 | 1. A few sentences about your (academic) background. What did you focus on? 56 | 1. Some sentences about your professional experience after school/university. Where did you work? What projects did you deal with? What where typical challenges and tasks? Which technologies did you use? 57 | 1. Mention one to two sentences about what you do outside of work, if it is relevant for the role. 58 | 1. Finish with a statement saying why you are seeking a new job opportunity and why you are interested in the role you applied for. 59 | 60 | An example of the above could be: 61 | 62 | > I'm John Doe and currently a Software Engineer at Google. 63 | > 64 | > My background is in Computer Science, where I received my bachelor's degree at MIT and my Master's degree at Stanford. I mainly did research on how to decrease complexity of search algorithms. 65 | > 66 | > After university, I started to work at Microsoft as a Software Engineer. It was a great experience as I was working in the Office team contributing to MS Word and MS Powerpoint. I learned a lot about C# and .NET back then. After about two years, I got an offer from Google where I have been working since then. I'm now leading the Search Optimization team and have gained a lot of knowledge in scalability and domain knowledge. My daily tasks consist of optimizing search queries and mentoring junior engineers. 67 | > 68 | > Outside of work I develop a on open source projects written in Python. Examples of some open source projects I created are . 69 | > 70 | > I'm now seeking new job opportunities in the Boston area since I'm relocating for personal reasons. In particular I think Boston Dynamics is a perfect fit for my interests as well as my skill set. 71 | 72 | **Upon Getting the Question** 73 | 74 | Many candidates jump into coding the moment they hear the question. That is usually a big mistake. Take a moment to repeat the question back at the interviewer and make sure that you understand exactly what they are asking. Repeating back/rephrasing the question will reduce chances of miscommunication. 75 | 76 | Always seek clarification about the question upon hearing it even if it you think it is clear to you. You might discover something that you have missed out and it also sends a signal to the interviewer that you are a careful person who pays attention to details. Some interviewers deliberately omit important details to see if you ask the right questions. 77 | 78 | Some common questions you can ask: 79 | 80 | - How big is the size of the input? 81 | - How big is the range of values? 82 | - What kind of values are there? Are there negative numbers? Floating points? Will there be empty inputs? 83 | - Are there duplicates within the input? 84 | - What are some extreme cases of the input? 85 | - Can I destroy the original array/graph/data structure? 86 | - How is the input stored? If you are given a dictionary of words, is it a list of strings or a Trie? 87 | 88 | After you have sufficiently clarified the scope and intention of the problem, explain your high level approach to the interviewer even if it is a naive solution. If you are stuck, consider various approaches and explain out loud why it will/will not work. Sometimes your interviewer might drop hints and lead you towards the right path. 89 | 90 | Start with a brute force approach, communicate it to the interviewer, explain the time and space complexity and why it is bad. It is unlikely that the brute force approach will be one that you will be coding. At this point, the interviewer will usually pop the dreaded "Can we do better?" question, meaning that they are looking for a more optimal approach. In my opinion, this is usually the hardest part of the interview. In general, look for repeated work and try to optimize them by potentially caching the calculated result somewhere and reference it later, rather than having to compute it all over again. There are some tips on tackling topic-specific questions that I dive into details below. 91 | 92 | Only start coding after you and your interviewer have agreed on an approach and they have given you the green light. 93 | 94 | **Starting to Code** 95 | 96 | Write your code with good coding style. Reading code written by others is usually not an enjoyable task. Reading horribly-formatted code by others makes it worse. Your goal is to make your interviewer understand the code you have written so that they can quickly evaluate if your code does what you say it does and whether it solves the given problem. Use clear variable names, avoid single letter names unless they are for iteration. However, if you are coding on a whiteboard, you might not want to use extremely verbose variable names for the sake of reducing the amount you have to write. Abbreviations are usually fine if you explain what it means beforehand. 97 | 98 | Always be explaining what you are currently writing/typing to the interviewer. This is not about literally reading out what you are typing to the interviewer. Talk about the section of the code you are currently implementing at a higher level, explain why it is written as such and what it is trying to achieve. 99 | 100 | While coding, if you find yourself copying and pasting code, consider whether it is necessary. If you find yourself copying and pasting one large chunk of code spanning multiple lines, it is usually an indicator that you can refactor by extracting those lines into a function and defining parameters for the differences in them. If it is just a single line you copied, usually it is fine. Do remember to change the respective variables in your copied line of code where relevant. Copy-paste errors are a common source of bugs even in day-to-day coding! 101 | 102 | **After Coding** 103 | 104 | After you have finished coding, do not immediately announce to the interviewer that you are done. In most cases, your code is usually not perfect and contains some bugs or syntax errors. What you need to do now is to review your code. 105 | 106 | Firstly, look through your code from start to finish as if it is the first time you are seeing it, as if it was written by someone else and you are trying to spot bugs in it. That's exactly what your interviewer will be doing. Look through and fix any minor issues you may find. 107 | 108 | Next, come up with small test cases and step through the code (not your algorithm!) with those sample input. What interviewers usually do after you have finished coding would be to get you to write tests. It is a huge plus if you write tests for your code even before they prompt you to do so. You should be emulating a debugger when stepping through and jot down or say out the values of the important variables as you step through the lines of code. 109 | 110 | If there are huge duplicated chunks of code in your solution, it would be a good chance to refactor it and demonstrate to the interviewer that you are one who values code quality. Also look out for places where you can do [short-circuit evaluation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-circuit_evaluation). 111 | 112 | Lastly, give the time/space complexity of your code and explain why it is such. You can even annotate certain chunks of your code with the various time/space complexities to demonstrate your understanding of your code and the APIs of your chosen programming language. Explain any trade-offs in your current approach vs alternative approaches, possibly in terms of time/space. 113 | 114 | If your interviewer is happy with the solution, the interview usually ends here. It is also not uncommon that the interviewer asks you extension questions, such as how you would handle the problem if the whole input is too large to fit into memory, or if the input arrives as a stream. This is a common follow-up question at Google where they care a lot about scale. The answer is usually a divide-and-conquer approach — perform distributed processing of the data and only read certain chunks of the input from disk into memory, write the output back to disk, and combine them later on. 115 | 116 | ### Practicing via Mock Interviews 117 | 118 | Interviewing is a skill that you can get better at. The steps mentioned above can be rehearsed over and over again until you have fully internalized them and following those steps become second nature to you. A good way to practice is to find a friend to partner with and the both of you can take turns to interview each other. 119 | 120 | A great resource for practicing mock coding interviews would be [interviewing.io](https://iio.sh/r/DMCa). interviewing.io provides free, anonymous practice technical interviews with Google and Facebook engineers, which can lead to real jobs and internships. By virtue of being anonymous during the interview, the inclusive interview process is de-biased and low risk. At the end of the interview, both interviewer and interviewees can provide feedback to each other for the purpose of improvement. Doing well in your mock interviews will unlock the jobs page and allow candidates to book interviews (also anonymously) with top companies like Uber, Lyft, Quora, Asana and more. For those who are totally new to technical interviews, you can even view a [demo interview](https://start.interviewing.io/interview/9hV9r4HEONf9/replay) on the site (requires sign in). Read more about them [here](https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/27/interviewing-io-hopes-to-close-the-engineer-diversity-gap-with-anonymous-interviews/). 121 | 122 | I have used interviewing.io both as an interviewer and an interviewee and found the experience to be really great! [Aline Lerner](https://twitter.com/alinelernerLLC), the CEO and co-founder of interviewing.io and her team are passionate about revolutionizing the technical interview process and helping candidates to improve their skills at interviewing. She has also published a number of technical interview-related articles on the [interviewing.io blog](http://blog.interviewing.io/). interviewing.io is still in beta now but I recommend signing up as early as possible to increase the likelihood of getting an invite. 123 | 124 | Another platform that allows you to practice coding interviews is [Pramp](https://pramp.com/). Where interviewing.io matches potential job seekers with seasoned technical interviewers, Pramp takes a different approach. Pramp pairs you up with another peer who is also a job seeker and both of you take turns to assume the role of interviewer and interviewee. Pramp also prepares questions for you, along with suggested solutions and prompts to guide the interviewee. 125 | 126 | Personally, I am not that fond of Pramp's approach because if I were to interview someone, I would rather choose a question I am familiar with. Also, many users of the platform do not have the experience of being interviewers and that can result in a horrible interview experience. There was once where my matched peer, as the interviewer, did not have the right understanding of the question and attempted to lead me down the wrong path of solving the question. However, this is more of a problem of the candidate than the platform though. 127 | 128 | ### Conclusion 129 | 130 | Coding interviews are tough. But fortunately, you can get better at them by studying and practicing for them, and doing mock interviews. 131 | To recap, to do well in coding interviews: 132 | 133 | 1. Decide on a programming language 134 | 1. Study CS fundamentals 135 | 1. Practice solving algorithm questions 136 | 1. Internalize the [Do's and Don'ts of interviews](./cheatsheet.md) 137 | 1. Practice doing mock interviews 138 | 1. Interview successfully to get the job 139 | 140 | By following these steps, you will improve your coding interview skills, and be one step closer (or probably more) to landing your dream job. 141 | 142 | All the best! 143 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------