Technical Interview Preparation for CS Majors
An ongoing workshop series by UW Bothell's Association for Computing Machinery chapter.
Table of Contents
About the Workshop
Every quarter, UWB ACM hosts a 6-8 week workshop series covering common technical topics and programming paradigms that are of special interest to future employers. The workshop is formatted to give students an opportunity to practice problem-solving techniques in a low-stress, low-risk environment prior to encountering similar problems in stressful interview settings.
In particular, the workshop focuses on solving programming problems and communicating thought processes to participants' peers. It is lead by current UW Bothell students.
Interview Preparation Resources
Question Banks
Depth First (Topic-Intensive)
If you need intensive, concept-specific practice, the following resources are excellent. Each of them includes an extensive question bank organized by concept, accompanied by complete solutions.
These resources include solutions for the given problems; some are published and provably correct and others are sourced from community contributors.
- CTCI, the workshop's namesake
- LeetCode
- HackerRank
- GeeksForGeeks
- EDUCBA Question Bank*:
Breadth First (General Guides, Structured Courses)
- Interview Cake: a friendly-sounding structured course for technical interview practice
- Four Semesters of Computer Science in Six Hours: a study guide for core concepts
- The Interview Study Guide for Software Engineers: a study guide for core concepts, specifically targeted for interview preparation
Mock Interview Resources
If you're looking for forums to practice interviewing and communication skills, these resources are a good place to start.
- Fellow students, friends, alumni, and LinkedIn connections. Reach out and ask if these people would be willing to give you some time to do a mock interview. The worst answer you can get is "no".
- PraMP: free for 6 sessions**
- interviewing.io: free**
- UWB-ACM: annual Mock Interview event, free for all attendees. Check the club's event calendar for upcoming dates.
Resume Resources
Revising and polishing your resume is a little bit easier with these resources and guides.
- CareerCup Resume Guide: written by the author of CTCI, this resume guide breaks down the structure, content, and best practices of Software Engineer resumes.
- X, Y, Z Formula and Other Google Application Advice: best practices and company-specific advice that helps your resume make an impression on recruiters and engineers (at Google and elsewhere).
Make sure you get other humans to review your resume drafts for issues and points of interest; a second pair of eyes is your best defense against typos.
Footnotes
* The contributors haven't used this platform before; YMMV.
** We have specifically looked for resources that are free of charge. At the time of this writing, the contributors have not personally vetted these platforms for limitations and pricing. YMMV.
The content listed here is opinionated and is not all-encompassing. If you use or know of resources you believe are relevant and valuable and you think they should be listed here, please let us know by opening an issue or a pull request!