Thread by @CodingLanguages, Whiteboard coding interviews suck.I've been there many times, on both sides of [...]

Whiteboard coding interviews suck.

I& #39;ve been there many times, on both sides of the table

I& #39;ve struggled and I& #39;ve seen others struggle

I will help you increase your chances of getting a great offer

This is not just another & #39;How to pass the Google interview& #39; guide.

Thread

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👇" title="Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten">

Whiteboard coding interviews suck.I& #39;ve been there many times, on both sides of the tableI& #39;ve struggled and I& #39;ve seen others struggleI will help you increase your chances of getting a great offerThis is not just another & #39;How to pass the Google interview& #39; guide.Threadhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

" title="Whiteboard coding interviews suck.I& #39;ve been there many times, on both sides of the tableI& #39;ve struggled and I& #39;ve seen others struggleI will help you increase your chances of getting a great offerThis is not just another & #39;How to pass the Google interview& #39; guide.Threadhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👇" title="Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten">" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>

This is what I did

My own ideas based on my experiences as an interviewee and an interviewer

I did this while I had a 9-5 job, studying for months.

I don& #39;t have a degree in CS.

I probably studied too much, but if you know what you want

you do whatever it takes

This thread is focused on whiteboard coding interviews.

I& #39;ll create another one for systems design, but the same ideas and methods can be used to prepare them.

I& #39;ll cover:

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Mindset

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">How to practice

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Tech knowledge

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">More resources

Let& #39;s get started with mindset

This thread is focused on whiteboard coding interviews. I& #39;ll create another one for systems design, but the same ideas and methods can be used to prepare them.I& #39;ll cover:https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

A. Mindset

1. Interviewers are human

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Don& #39;t put them on a pedestal

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Focus on what you can control:

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Some interviewers enjoying torturing candidates. They’re a minority, but this may happen

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Some interviewers would not hire some of their colleagues

That& #39;s why...

A. Mindset1. Interviewers are humanhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

Don& #39;t put them on a pedestalhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Focus on what you can control: https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Some interviewers enjoying torturing candidates. They’re a minority, but this may happen https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Some interviewers would not hire some of their colleaguesThat& #39;s why..." title="A. Mindset1. Interviewers are humanhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Don& #39;t put them on a pedestalhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Focus on what you can control: https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Some interviewers enjoying torturing candidates. They’re a minority, but this may happen https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Some interviewers would not hire some of their colleaguesThat& #39;s why..." class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>

2. Focus on the process

The results will come

After every problem/interview:

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">What did I learn?

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">What went well

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Went needs to be improved (from CS topics, your preparation, your communication, etc)

Self-reflection is a great teacher

2. Focus on the processThe results will comeAfter every problem/interview:https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

3. Apply to multiples companies in reverse order of preference

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Better position to negotiate

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Reduce the pressure you put on yourself

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Give you more opportunities to practice

3. Apply to multiples companies in reverse order of preferencehttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

B. How to practice

1. Emulate the interview setup

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Time yourself

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">No distractions - phone, internet

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Don& #39;t look at the solution

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Think out loud

Mock interviews are good too. Find a friend (virtually too) and practice!

B. How to practice1. Emulate the interview setuphttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

2. Keep a log of common mistakes you make

This is an extremely underrated tip

You need to know where you usually underperform so that you can fix it

Go through the list often.

Review them and practice mindfully to make sure you do no make them during your interview

3. Iterations

1st focus on quantity

To detect patterns, go through many problems:

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">What algorithm/DS is good for this type of problem?

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Why?

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Learn Big O analysis

Then on quality (no need to solve 5784 problems)

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Code on Notepad

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">For on-site -> On Paper or whiteboard

3. Iterations1st focus on quantityTo detect patterns, go through many problems:https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

You need to be in good coding shape

You can& #39;t afford to spend 5 minutes to write a while loop

Be very comfortable in your preferred programming language (you can usually choose it)

C. What you should know

Do not base your preparation on memorizing solutions.

This will likely lead to you giving the perfect solution to the wrong problem.

I& #39;ll enumerate the main topics you should be familiar with

You must know them cold if you target at FAANG companies

1. Data structures

Theoretically and how to use them in code

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Arrays

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Strings

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Lists

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Stacks and queues

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Trees (and tries)

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Binary search trees (balanced)

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Hash tables

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Sets (disjoint sets too if you can)

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Graphs

1. Data structuresTheoretically and how to use them in codehttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

2. Algorithms

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Binary search

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Sorting

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Recursion

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Divide and conquer

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Dynamic programming

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Greedy

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Alg on strings

On graphs (very important)

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">DFS

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">BFS

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Minimum spanning trees: Kruskal and Prim

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Shortest path: Dijkstra and Floyd-Warshall

Discrete math can help.

2. Algorithmshttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

3. Programming languages

I& #39;ve always used C++, but the following good for interviews too:

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Python

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">JavaScript

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">Java

Since most interviewers know them

Most candidates tend to go for Python

Whichever you choose, make sure you know it well

3. Programming languagesI& #39;ve always used C++, but the following good for interviews too:https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable=

D. Resources I used

Introduction to algorithms

You don& #39;t need to go through the whole book, but it& #39;s a good complement to the course in the next tweet

MIT courses on algorithms https://twitter.com/CodingLanguages/status/1274635167919943680?s=20">https://twitter.com/CodingLan...

https://twitter.com/CodingLanguages/status/1274635167919943680?s=20

The canonical Cracking the coding interview.

I did not start here though.

I only completed the problems in the last 2 sections,

after I finished the book coming in the next tweet.

Elements of programming interviews

This is an excellent book

I keep coming back to it before every interview

The questions are hard, so you will be very well prepared

There are C++, Python and Java versions

For more problems, I only used @LeetCode https://www.leetcode.com/

You& #39;ll">https://www.leetcode.com/">... have more than enough with the free problems

I recommend checking out my thread on top mistakes you want to avoid in a coding interview

All this comes from my experience. I would love to get more suggestions from you.

Don& #39;t forget to contact me when you land your next job!!

Good luck https://twitter.com/CodingLanguages/status/1282288332203003905?s=20">https://twitter.com/CodingLan...

https://twitter.com/CodingLanguages/status/1282288332203003905?s=20

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