Need job soon - what to study for base knowledge/foundation before attempting Leetcode or CTCI problems - please help !!
Things are not good in my group and i need to get a new job fast . I have also let myself rust and fall career wise in the past couple of years . Want to work hard and get myself out of this mess now . I need to refresh and review from the basics before I even attempt any question on Leetcode or CTCI, since i need the base knowledge to attempt anything on Leetcode/CTCI (eg: i need to know the various data structures first and solve some problems on those before i come to Leetcode to figure out which data structures a particular problem should use) . I have very limited time , since i want to start problem solving using Leetcode and CTCI after that. So i am not looking for very detailed/ deep explanations etc ... But enough to give a good foundation and well rounded knowledge. So a 800 paged data structures book will not work 🙂. I need to find a full time job in the next 2-2.5 months max ... I know I can't aim for a FAANG company with that preparation yet... But i need an OK/good job atleast in some company. I am aiming for a SDET / automation engineer job using Python. What is a good but concise resource for understanding data structures and algorithms in python - Good and more or less enough for doing Leetcode/CTCI problems after that? I like books / urls which have sample questions followed by exercises - is there any ? What else should i focus on other than data structures/ system design / solving LC/CTCI / QA / DB SQL methods etc / behavioural problems ...anything else ? Please , please guide !
For sdet/ qa role focus on mainly string, array, linkedlist, sort and binary search problems.
Thanks! Yes these are the most commonly used ..have to be thorough on those !
Strings, arrays consists of the most challenging problems.
You can review basic Data Structures and Algorithms on Leetcode. They have decent lessons with examples under "Explorer". I used those to prep for my Amazon interviews. You'll pick up nifty techniques along the way too.
Thanks was looking at those yesterday . I am not a premier member so only a few are available . J will buy the membership if needed. Thanks for pointing !
I suggest you pay for a month Premium membership and see if it helps you. I did help me got my job at Amazon and the ROI is obviously waaay high. Best of luck!
Focus on string/array manipulation, linked lists, dictionaries, sets, fifo/lifo. Be able to efficiently use these basic data structures: know common use cases and know complexity of each operation (search, add, remove). Get comfortable with recursion. Don’t bother with anything else since your time is limited. These is good enough for a good number of low and mid-tier companies. If you want better opportunities and have mastered the basics, move on to sorting, combinatorics, trees, graphs and dp.
This is great ! Thanks for giving me a concise list to focus on . Very helpful 👍
Go though the hackerrank exercises in order and watch an intro to algo/data structures MIT OCW course. Just try getting comfortable solving programming problems and then dig into CTCI and then leet. You can get into FAANG if you really work. Word of advice: don't let your skills grow dull in this industry, or this probably isn't the industry for you. There are easier career paths out there.
Thanks Thule ! Will practice from hackerrank and mit ocw course . Yes , i know - won't let myself get in this sorry position again. Thanks for the positive note on getting into FAANG too :) - maybe not in my next job , but eventually I will try !