Programming Interviews for Dummies

Get ready for interview success

Programming jobs are on the rise, and the field is predicted to keep growing, fast. Landing one of these lucrative and rewarding jobs requires more than just being a good programmer. Programming Interviews For Dummies explains the skills and knowledge you need to ace the programming interview.

Interviews for software development jobs and other programming positions are unique. Not only must candidates demonstrate technical savvy, they must also show that they’re equipped to be a productive member of programming teams and ready to start solving problems from day one. This book demystifies both sides of the process, offering tips and techniques to help candidates and interviewers alike.

• Prepare for the most common interview questions
• Understand what employers are looking for
• Develop the skills to impress non-technical interviewers
• Learn how to assess candidates for programming roles
• Prove that you (or your new hires) can be productive from day one

Programming Interviews For Dummies gives readers a clear view of both sides of the process, so prospective coders and interviewers alike will learn to ace the interview.

John Sonmez is a software developer and the author of two best-selling books, The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide and Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual. He is also the founder of the Simple Programmer blog and YouTube channel. Eric Butow is the owner of Butow Communications Group (BCG), which offers website design, online marketing, and technical documentation services for businesses. He is the author of 32 computer and user experience books.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

How This Book Is Organized 2

Part 1: Finding and Hooking Your Next Employer 2

Part 2: Preparing for Your Interview 2

Part 3: Everyone’s Testing Time 3

Part 4: Sealing the Deal 3

Part 5: The Part of Tens 3

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 4

Beyond the Book 4

Where to Go from Here 5

Part 1: Finding and Hooking Your Next Employer 7

Chapter 1: What Should You Expect? 9

Understanding the Interviewing Process Funnel 10

Finding Companies That Are Hiring 10

Meet online 11

Meet in person 12

Look at company websites 13

Submitting Your Résumés 14

A Company Is Interested! Now What? 15

Participating in phone screens 16

Going to in-person interviews 17

Being prepared for tests 18

Dealing with One or (Better Yet) Multiple Offers 19

Chapter 2: Knowing How the Company Is Preparing 21

Learning What Each Company Is Doing 22

Gathering information about smaller business and startup needs 22

Navigating the involved hiring process at bigger companies 23

Preparing for the interviewers you’ll meet 25

Leading Your Interview 25

Finding out how the interviewer is approaching the interview 26

Volunteering the right information to make you shine 27

Showing other ways you’re the right fit 28

Being Prepared Pays Off 29

Chapter 3: Understanding the Investment a Company Makes 31

Knowing Why Companies Are Risk-Averse 32

Different risks for different companies 33

Firing is hard 33

Discovering What Companies Are Concerned About 34

Showing How You Can Help the Company 35

Explaining how you can help the team you’ll work with 35

Demonstrating how you fit into the company culture 38

Offering examples that back you up 38

Part 2: Preparing for Your Interview 41

Chapter 4: Searching High and Low for Companies 43

Getting Your Ducks in a Row 44

Deciding Where You Want to Work 44

Search for a local technology ecosystem 45

Commute or move? 45

Working remotely 46

Figuring out the Size and Type of Company You Want to Work For 46

Large companies 46

Small companies 47

What Type of Job Do You Want? 48

Step one: Technology 48

Step two: Environment 48

Step three: Define your specific role 49

Learning What’s Available 49

Understanding the pros and cons of job search websites 50

Using and managing recruitment agencies 51

Networking to find the unadvertised jobs 52

Chapter 5: Shining Up Your Résumé and Social Media Accounts 55

Finding Out Who You Are Online 56

Googling your name to get your online image 56

Learning how to rebrand yourself 58

Cleaning Up Your Social Networking Profiles 61

Understanding your visibility online 61

Learning what helps get you an interview 62

Removing what can disqualify you in an employer’s eyes 64

Making Your Résumé Stand Out 64

Finding a professional résumé service versus doing it yourself 65

Giving your résumé service the right information 66

Advertising what you have to offer 67

Tailoring your résumé to the job description 68

Writing a Cover Letter 68

Fitting the cover letter to the job description 69

Adding the parts of a cover letter you need 70

Chapter 6: How Your Experience Affects Your Interview 73

Qualifying for Senior Status 74

Being More than Just a Junior 75

Show your work 76

The right extracurricular activities 77

Character 78

Commitment 78

Resolve 79

Don’t forget talent 79

Leave the best for the end credits 80

Playing in the Majors 80

Be honest about your career 81

Stable or stagnant? 81

Ambitious or flighty? 82

Tell the rest of the story 82

Education 83

Leadership 83

Flexibility 84

Don’t forget skills 85

Chapter 7: Getting Ready for the First Ring 87

Preparing for Your Phone Screen 88

Prep your space 88

Watch your behavior 89

Have your friends join in 89

Reviewing the Type of Phone Screen You May Get 90

Basic screen 90

Technical question screen 91

Live coding assignments 92

Acing Your Phone Screen 93

Answering basic technical and experience questions 93

Coding live on an instant messaging client 94

Making time to do assigned homework 94

Avoiding disqualifying situations 95

Part 3: Everyone’s Testing Time 99

Chapter 8: Testing Strategies for the Interviewee 101

Preparing for Questions the Company May Ask You 102

Searching online to find the top questions 102

Knowing how to answer soft skills questions 103

Leveling Up Your Coding Skills 105

Make an honest assessment 106

Getting up to speed with Codility 107

Testing your skills with LeetCode 108

Canvassing Your Network 109

Interviewing people who have interviewed before 110

Finding people who will give you mock interviews 112

Getting Feedback after the Interview 115

Chapter 9: Working with Data Structures: Garbage In Means Garbage Out 117

Learning the Basics of Data Structures 118

Managing arrays and linked lists 118

Wrangling hashes 120

Learning about stacks in your kitchen 121

Learning about queues 122

Showing You Know Data Structures 122

Questions companies have asked interviewees 123

Answering data structure questions the right way with Big O 124

Finding More Detailed Information 125

Chapter 10: Identifying Design Patterns and Using Recursion 127

Recognizing Design Patterns 128

Understanding the basics 128

Knowing when to use design patterns 129

Learning about singleton, adapter, façade, and more 129

Knowing What You Need about Recursion 131

Direct versus indirect 131

The real stack overflow 133

Understanding Your Recursion Test 133

Solving a recursion word problem example 134

Finding more examples and resources 134

Chapter 11: Sorting with Sorting Algorithms 135

Absorbing Common Sorting Algorithms 136

Starting the tour with bubble sort 136

Expanding your knowledge about merge sort and quick sort 137

Understanding use cases for each sorting type 139

Solving Two Sorting Examples 141

Sorting one deck of cards 141

Sorting many decks of cards 142

Getting More Examples and Researching Resources 143

Loads of reading material 143

Moving examples 144

Visualize the sort, Luke 145

Chapter 12: Solving Puzzles Is Fun 147

Knowing What Kind of Problems an Interviewer Will Ask 148

Solving a Programming Puzzle 148

Breaking down a problem 149

Building your solution 150

Realizing What Interviewers Want 151

Getting Better at Solving Puzzles 152

Working on puzzles in books 152

Searching online to hone your solving skills 153

Part 4: Sealing the Deal 161

Chapter 13: Closing the Deal 163

Scheduling Interviews with Multiple Companies 164

Managing Multiple Interviews with the Same Company 165

Knowing the types of interviews you may have 165

Meeting the team to see if you’re a good fit 166

Grasping what you’ll work on with the team 166

Learning about your future path with the company 167

Understanding When a Company May Contact You 167

Following up will not lose you the job 168

Being annoying can work for you 168

Coming Up Snake Eyes 169

Receiving a generic response 169

Asking for more information 170

Receiving Your Offer 171

Getting the word 171

Obtaining a written offer 171

Negotiating the offer over the phone 171

Knowing when pay is not the top consideration 172

Being Clear about Your Benefits 173

Understanding the company’s health plans 173

Matching your 401(k) benefits 174

Learning how much time off you get 174

Retiring with benefits 175

Chapter 14: Honing Your Negotiating Skills 177

Finding Information from Employees Online 178

Glassdoor 179

Comparably 180

CareerBliss 182

Dealing with Company Salary Information and Expectations 183

Learning the company’s cards 183

Keeping your cards close to your vest 184

Forcing your hand 185

Managing the Negotiation Process 185

Giving a counteroffer 185

Negotiating more than salary 186

Avoiding pitting companies against each other 186

Walking away 187

Part 5: The Part of Tens 189

Chapter 15: Ten Ways to Stand Out 191

Have a Professional Headshot 191

Establish a GitHub Profile 192

Get Plenty of Referrals 193

Have a Video Résumé on Social Networking Sites 193

Create Your Own YouTube Channel 194

Have a Good Blog to Show Your Expertise 195

Produce a Podcast and/or Vlog 196

Point to Mobile Apps You’ve Already Developed in App Stores 197

Write and Self-Publish a Book 198

Speak at Developer and Business Events 199

Chapter 16: Ten Non-Technical Questions You May Be Asked 203

What is your greatest strength? 203

What is your greatest weakness? 204

Where do you see yourself in five years? 204

Why did you leave your last company? 205

Name a time you got into a conflict with a coworker, and how was that resolved? 206

What did you like about your last job? 206

What did you dislike? 207

Why do you want to work for us (or this company)? 207

Why should we hire you? 208

Why are you the best candidate for this job? 208

Chapter 17: Ten Reasons Your Résumé Will End up in the Round File 211

Your Résumé Has Typos, Spelling Errors, and Uses Incorrect Grammar 212

Your Résumé Is Too Long 212

You Start Your Résumé with an Objective 213

Your Résumé Layout Looks Sloppy and Is Hard to Read 213

You Have Inappropriate Material on Social Media 214

You Lie during the Phone Screen or Interview 214

You Are Arrogant and/or Argumentative 215

You Have a Bad Reputation 216

You Don’t Dress Properly for the Interview 216

You Give the Impression You’re Hiding Something 217

Chapter 18: Ten Useful Websites to Check Out 219

LeetCode 219

Interview Cake 220

Reddit Programming Forum 221

Simple Programmer 222

Pluralsight Design Patterns Library 223

Hired.com 225

142 Resources for Mastering the Coding Interview 226

Stack Overflow Careers 227

Interviewing.io 228

Information Technology Résumé Services 229

Chapter 19: Ten Great Books to Read 231

Cracking the Coding Interview 231

Never Split the Difference 232

Programming Pearls 232

Daily Coding Problem 233

The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide 234

The Imposter’s Handbook 234

How to Win Friends and Influence People 235

Programming Interviews Exposed 236

The Passionate Programmer 237

Head First Design Patterns 237

Index 239

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.