It’s been a while since I wrote a book review, mainly because there was a lot of interesting things to write about and book reviews are generally boring 🙂 But this one book deserves to be mentioned. Cracking the Coding Interview is one of my favourite books. It’s a book that was written with a purpose of preparing you for a job interview, but it does so much more for you.
This is not a book that you will read cover to cover and store it somewhere in the attic. It’s a book that’s packed with coding challenges and solutions. It’s a great book to have on your desk so you can quickly grab it and try to solve one or two challenges from the book. If you love software development and you love being challenged, you will love this book.
The original intention of the book is to prepare you for your next technical interview. It’s packed with good advice, especially if you’re applying for a position in one of the big companies (Google, Facebook, Microsoft…). The author goes in detail to prepare you for your interview. She covers the complete interview, from behavioural questions, technical questions (obviously 🙂 ) and salary negotiations… She also recommends the best ways to prepare for your interview.
You can find a lot of computer science topics covered in this book. Big O notation, data structures, algorithms, design patterns, OOP principles, etc… If you didn’t have a formal education in computer science, or you just want to brush up on it, those first few chapters will be invaluable.
The bulk of the book consists of coding challenges and solutions. I found those to be fun to do, they’re grouped from easy to hard. It’s a great way to keep your skills sharp.
I would definitely recommend this book, regardless if you’re preparing for your next interview or not. It’s one of those books that you will keep on your desk and that will make you a better developer.
Have a nice day 🙂
~D;