Programming Interviews Exposed: Coding Your Way Through the Interview

Book is amazing, I’ve been interviewing with a lot of nice software engineering and web development jobs and this was exactly what I was looking for

good

Great product

This book is an important tool for anyone getting ready to interview for a programmer/coding position. It doesn't matter how competent you are if you don't know what to expect in all phases of the interview process. This book helps you prepare for the interview with solid advice from veterans of the programming industry using actual questions from interview tests. The questions are great, but more importantly, the book encourages the reader to understand the question and not just memorize them. It asks the reader to identify what kind of job would be best for their skillset and temperment, and to know the market they are applying for. A lot of the info is basic interview knowledge but the majority of the book presents the reader with everything from the basic phone screen first interview to much more in depth questions that will vary depending on what field you are applying for.I found the book easy to understand and the examples were great to get a feel for what kinds of questions would be asked. It was great to know the areas where I needed to brush up, so I could be prepared. There are some things in the book I didn't know I needed to know, and it was helpful in pointing me in the right direction to know what to expect in a common test situation. There are a lot of books with this sort of information, but the way it's presented here is clear and the book isn't overwhelming in its scope. The end of the book gives technical resume examples to help you create a professional resume.Overall I am happy with this book and it's been a lot more helpful to me than I realized it would be before I started reading it.

Not much depth in most areas. Good for a quick introduction to many topics, but it leaves out a lot.

No, really. Practicing these problems daily for weeks before my interview refreshed my knowledge and prepared me for my dream job.

I'm a fan of the jam-packed "Cracking the Coding Interview" book which is filled with problems, puzzles, and explanations. Jump to a random page, and you are bound to notice a new problem, or code samples, or both.By contrast, this book is a lot of paragraphs. A lot. To his credit, Mongan takes his time and explains problems (and collections of problems, such as "brainteasers") in depth. He presents general problem-solving strategies (beware of assumptions, don't be intimidated), and lengthy explanations of some well known problems (4 engineers crossing a bridge in minimum time, 3 light switches and you need to find out which switch controls which bulb, using a balance scale to find the heaviest marble, and so on). He also has, of course, programming questions. But he has very few such questions. Mongan seems to favor digging in deep to a few good problems, rather than brief solutions to many problems.Which approach is better? Hard to say. I guess I would argue that both have their place. However, I think most people looking for a "tech interview" type of book are probably looking for lots and lots of practice problems. This is not that book. For me, personally, I would rather start with a wealth of problems, and complement it with the deeper explanations in Mongan's book.

Review related only to the physical condition of the book - some parts of the book are a little bit damaged (I ordered the new book, but it seems like used) and the paper quality seems too cheap.