Starting out on the job hunt is a very overwhelming and insanely time consuming feat. I am in the beginning to middle of my JobSeach and wanted to write a post on a few things that have helped me get prepared so far. I am not an expert on Interviews or Technical Interviews and still get question incorrect or do not finish, but my confidence and practice turnover (question to question) is becoming more seamless, faster and less frustrating.
Here are a few resources that have helped me so far:
Pick up a book of Cracking the Coding Interview.
Work through the book as it suggests.
Get an idea of what you will be tackling on LeetCode/HackerRank before you jump into it. It will help guide you through the problem solving process.
Here is a link to the JavaScript answers on GitHub for CTCI. The book suggests to take a pass at the question yourself first, and try to use brute force to work through it, before you seek the solution.
Thanks to Career Cup for these solutions: https://github.com/careercup
Then, start taking a stab at the leetcode problems. All are listed here: https://leetcode.com/problemset/all/
Work through them and see where your weakness is in solving the problem. Getting a premium membership to LeetCode is worth it, in my opinion. The vast amount of material on this side is endless and it will occupy you for months.
Don’t get discouraged. I first started working on coding challenges after I finished CTCI. I was extremely discouraged at first, because when working the June Challenge or May Challenge on LeetCode, I felt I could get an initial solution–> true story: At first this could take a few hours.. the more practice, the first solution for minimal testing became quicker and I moved to edge cases.. however I had to keep practicing to complete the answer entirely. Dont make yourself feel bad about this if you have this experience coming from a bootcamp. You were building OO projects and using your algorithms for labs, but you weren’t always solving puzzles. You have to get into the problem solving mode to feel comfortable when transitioning from school to leetcode challenges.
Once you pick up the pace, look at other code. When you find a solution read what others did and compare it meticulously to yours. How did their solution come out faster, using less memory time and space? This is also helpful for you because you can see how other common programs out in the world are approaching problems. The large number of solutions by others out there is extremely motivating, because once you comb through them, you may be inspired to try a new function or tackle the problem in a different way.
Don’t give up. I think mixing HackerRank and LeetCode and the CTCI is a great way to prepare. The three should should be a part of your regular schedule. Working on several problems a day should be the ideal goal.
Good luck!