Coding Interview Bootcamp

It's a thing you'll need to know if you plan to get through any interview. It's actually quite useful and in this post I'll hopefully make the case that's it's simple as well.

Let’s review data structures! It’s fun and exciting! In this section you’ll review and then build your very own data structures along with me! I’ll be using JavaScript to code mine, but feel free to use whatever language you like.

Now the fun starts! We have our data structures and now we need to focus on the algorithms we’re likely to be asked about in an interview. But that’s not enough! What you really need to do is to be able to tease out the strategy that you’ll need to use in combination with your data structures and algorithms. That will help you answer almost any interview question.

You're not going to make it through this section unless you have the right frame of mind. Simply wanting a job isn't enough - you need to calm yourself and focus.

Before you get to the white board you'll likely have to pass an introductory screening interview - a short call (or in person meeting) to suss out what you know.

Screener questions tend to have a bit more broad and, typically, based on your experience... sometimes not. Think about how you would answer this one about databases.

Sometimes a potential interviewer will 'cosplay' with you - pretending that you work at the company and seeing how you might solve one of their realworld problems.

Don't hate me... and PLEASE don't skip this video. Let's walk through Fibonacci together as a way of understanding how interviewers will flex and extend a single question to dig into your brain.

This is a real interview question that comes straight from Amazon. You'll be writing this one by hand so remember your strategies.

A straightforward problem that, at first, seems daunting - until you break it down and apply the strategies you know.

This is a tough one and you might struggle with it some. If you do, practice speaking aloud to get help from the interviewer.

Another traditional question: create a linter for X language. This is more about parsing a string and remembering where you are within it.

Not all interview questions have to do with code - some are purely logical, designed to see how you would try and solve a really, really hard problem. Skeet couldn't figure this one out...

It's a rule of interviews: 'ask a binary tree question' and that's exactly what I do in this video with Jon. Traversing in different ways, trying to balance along the way.

This is another very popular question from larger companies, and requires you to be familiar with linked lists, arrays and stacks.

Let's end things with one that's a bit simpler - creating a string walking function that evaluates anagrams.

You've got this - good luck! Study, remember your strategies and be your best you.