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Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions (Cracking the Interview & Career) 6th Edition

by Gayle Laakmann McDowell (Author)

9,340 ratings

Part of: Cracking the Interview & Career (4 books)

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I am not a recruiter. I am a software engineer. And as such, I know what it's like to be asked to whip up brilliant algorithms on the spot and then write flawless code on a whiteboard. I've been through this as a candidate and as an interviewer.

Cracking the Coding Interview, 6th Edition is here to help you through this process, teaching you what you need to know and enabling you to perform at your very best. I've coached and interviewed hundreds of software engineers. The result is this book.

Learn how to uncover the hints and hidden details in a question, discover how to break down a problem into manageable chunks, develop techniques to unstick yourself when stuck, learn (or re-learn) core computer science concepts, and practice on 189 interview questions and solutions.

These interview questions are real; they are not pulled out of computer science textbooks. They reflect what's truly being asked at the top companies, so that you can be as prepared as possible. WHAT'S INSIDE?

189 programming interview questions, ranging from the basics to the trickiest algorithm problems.
A walk-through of how to derive each solution, so that you can learn how to get there yourself.
Hints on how to solve each of the 189 questions, just like what you would get in a real interview.
Five proven strategies to tackle algorithm questions, so that you can solve questions you haven't seen.
Extensive coverage of essential topics, such as big O time, data structures, and core algorithms.
A behind the scenes look at how top companies like Google and Facebook hire developers.
Techniques to prepare for and ace the soft side of the interview: behavioral questions.
For interviewers and companies: details on what makes a good interview question and hiring process.

Illustrations noteIllustrations: Illustrations, black and white

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gayle Laakmann McDowell is the founder and CEO of CareerCup and the author of Cracking the PM Interview and Cracking the Tech Career.

Her background is in software development. She has worked as a software engineer at Google, Microsoft, and Apple. At Google, she interviewed hundreds of software engineers and evaluated thousands of hiring packets on the hiring committee. She holds a B.S.E. and M.S.E. in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School.

She now consults with tech companies to improve their hiring process and with startups to prepare them for acquisition interviews.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0984782850
Publisher ‏ : ‎ CareerCup; 6th edition (July 1, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 687 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0984782869
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0984782857
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.75 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 1.59 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #7,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3 in Job Interviewing (Books)
- #6 in Software Development (Books)
- #8 in Job Hunting (Books)

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Gayle Laakmann McDowell

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Gayle Laakmann McDowell is an author, consultant, and founder focusing on improving tech hiring for both the interviewer and the candidate.

Gayle has worked as an engineer for Google, Microsoft, and Apple. Most recently, at Google, she served on the hiring committee where she interviewed hundreds of candidates and evaluated thousands more. It was here that she discovered the disconnect between candidates, their skill set, and their interview performance.

Though her company, CareerCup, Gayle has worked with many of the top tech companies to reform their hiring practices and implement interviewer training programs.

She is the author and creator the best-selling Cracking the Interview & Career series: Cracking the Coding Interview, Cracking the PM Interview (co-authored with Jackie Bavaro), Cracking the PM Career (co-authored with Jackie Bavaro), and Cracking the Tech Career

Gayle holds a bachelor's and master's in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

She currently consults, writes, and codes from her home in Palo Alto, California. She can be found online at gayle.com, twitter (@gayle), and facebook (@gayle).

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Customers find the book to be a great tool for technical interviews, with detailed explanations of advanced topics and the best explanations of basic algorithmic concepts. Moreover, the writing is clear and well-structured, and customers appreciate the numerous examples provided. However, the difficulty level receives mixed feedback, with some customers finding the hints helpful while others say the problems are unclear. Additionally, opinions on value for money are divided, with some finding it well worth the price while others consider it worthless.

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Interview preparation Algorithm knowledge Clarity Enlightenedness Value for money Difficulty level

279 customers mention "Interview preparation"270 positive9 negative

Customers find the book to be an excellent resource for technical interviews, with detailed explanations of advanced topics and insights into the interview process.

"While this book is meant for interview practice, I would recommend you still read it just for fun if you're into algorithms...." Read more

"...However, I already have the feeling that this book is the most enlightening book, if you are like me, not very confident, not very super smart and..." Read more

"...The first third of this book provides specific information about companies along with example problems...." Read more

"...Overall this is good book for preparing for coding interviews. A bit disappointed about what has become of the technical interviews nowadays." Read more

84 customers mention "Algorithm knowledge"79 positive5 negative

Customers appreciate the book's algorithm knowledge, praising its clear explanations of basic concepts and coding examples, while also covering advanced programming topics.

"...There's also a nice collections of custom data structures at the end of the book...." Read more

"...The book has extraordinarily smart real-world example solutions to some well-known/well-unknown interview questions, without which an average..." Read more

"...like I've better learned how to approach problem solving and writing algorithms in a way that's making me more excited to interview and work my way..." Read more

"...It focuses on algorithm knowledge, although there are chapters with problems about OOP, and the Java language...." Read more

77 customers mention "Clarity"56 positive21 negative

Customers find the book clear and well-written, with one customer noting that everything is explained perfectly with similar coding problems.

"...Gayle has done a tremendous job of using words to explain how that weird gooey gel inside your head moves like when problem-solving...." Read more

"...the book was a smart call because now, I'm thinking about runtime as I write solutions...." Read more

"...The book is in its sixth edition and it can be a disjointed read, you can probably identify the revisions by looking where the tone and style changes..." Read more

"...It is easy to figure out that the 14.1 is the chapter, but it is not marked, which makes me feel that small details have been omitted...." Read more

20 customers mention "Enlightenedness"15 positive5 negative

Customers find the book enlightening, appreciating its numerous examples and thoughtful approach, with one customer noting how it encourages thinking outside the box.

"...Then it contains a great deal of examples with very clear diagrams, and lots of exercises with full solutions...." Read more

"This book is well-written and thoughtful. It has a good focus for successful interviewing...." Read more

"...The second reason for a star less is the lack of rigorousness. Some of the problems are presented unclear...." Read more

"...it makes you think outside the box and come up with new ways to tackle problems in an efficient manner...." Read more

79 customers mention "Value for money"48 positive31 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's value for money, with some finding it well worth their money and appreciating the pricing, while others describe it as worthless and a worst investment of their career.

"This book brings value, specially if you don't have the fifth edition or not able to get the fifth edition...." Read more

"...most enlightening book, if you are like me, not very confident, not very super smart and still are planning to crack a coding interview with some..." Read more

"...But in general this is a priceless book definitely recommended not only for the interview prep but also for shaping your coding skills!" Read more

"Software development is an odd career - it's generally very well-paid but also one of the only careers where the status quo is to have a technical..." Read more

50 customers mention "Difficulty level"31 positive19 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the difficulty level of the book, with some appreciating the bunch of hints for every question and great example problems, while others find the problems unclear and scattered.

"...recursive calls as trees, thinking about BUD*, amortized analysis of ArrayList and much more...." Read more

"...I am still not confident about Programming because I could not stay enough with the Book...." Read more

"...During the interview I was able to solve the math problems except I needed basic definitions and one or two hints...." Read more

"...There are hints for each problem...." Read more

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Aditya Dhulipala
It's a great book
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2016
Verified Purchase

While this book is meant for interview practice, I would recommend you still read it just for fun if you're into algorithms.

I've always believed that there's no "crack" to coding interviews; it's just a matter of whether you can code or not (well, at least at those sane companies not filling up school buses with golf balls). And that requires practice. Lots of practice. Which is why I spent all my free time working out problems on Hackerrank. For me, this went well . . . for a while.

But there comes a point at which you get stuck. I remember working on some hackerrank problems in the medium to hard difficulty which I would not be able to proceed for weeks and weeks. No amount of googling for information, discussion boards or stack overflow threads paint a complete picture to help you when you're stuck.

After countless such occasions and failing a few interviews, I gave in and bought this book. After all it was $20 - the cost of an uber to work.
Now, I wish I had bought this sooner!

Within reading the first two chapters I've already learnt so much about how to think about coding problems. There's also a nice collections of custom data structures at the end of the book. I've swiped some data structures straight out of this book and use them in my day-to-day life too.

Gayle has done a tremendous job of using words to explain how that weird gooey gel inside your head moves like when problem-solving. She deconstructs every approach to tackle a problem into atomic pieces. She goes into great depth about alternative designs, tradeoffs and runtime complexity. She talks about visualizing recursive calls as trees, thinking about BUD*, amortized analysis of ArrayList and much more. The great thing is that Gayle goes into copious amounts of details for each solution - she talks about how to start from a brute force solutions and optimize each component one-by-one and talks about tradeoffs in approaches.

Overall, I think this a very helpful book. I would recommend you begin reading this book immediately after your first course on Algorithms. It will certainly help drill down the concepts and help strengthen your fundamentals.

*BUD is a special term the author uses to describe strategies to optimize solutions

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Amazon Customer
I was never a smart student in the classroom
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2017
Verified Purchase
I was never a smart student in the classroom. However, I was lucky to get selected to the best Engineering college in the country, where only top 300 maths stream students from the whole country yearly get selected to the national University Program. I passed out in 2006, but was not selected to the CSE program, because only the smarted 50 was chosen. Since then I never thought I will ever learn programming, or I could never work in the lucrative Software Field. However later after the Uni, I developed an interest in learning Programming for my Living, and since then I kept learning ever since, failing at some places, never giving up, growing up with some confidence...But was a tough Journey. Trying many courses, working every day after hours, for 11 years continuously working hard generally more than 12 hours at average on this field, and Have read, and followed a lot of books, nothing truly makes me confident. I realized, somewhere I have missed some fundamentals, some patterns of thinking, which kept me scared and unconfident, keeping a doubt about my fundamental expertise, in a far unrecognize place of my heart.

Recently I got an interview call to work as a Google Contractor, which really impressed me. Again I found out, getting my self-prepared for such a challenge, I am not yet ready. I was feeling, I am missing some way of thinking. I got an Amazon interview. One of my friends recommend me this book, But by that I have already read, enough about the feedback for the book. I have my second interview for Amazon today, in other few hours. I am still not confident about Programming because I could not stay enough with the Book. However, I already have the feeling that this book is the most enlightening book, if you are like me, not very confident, not very super smart and still are planning to crack a coding interview with some smart answers. The book has extraordinarily smart real-world example solutions to some well-known/well-unknown interview questions, without which an average ordinary hardworking brain like of mine (not a college superstar nerd), could not imagine alone. Thank you, Gayle Laakmann McDowell. She is a Genious.

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15 people found this helpful

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Mayank
One of the best books
Reviewed in India on February 2, 2025
Verified Purchase

A must buy for software engineers

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AS
Excellent for coding interviews preparation
Reviewed in France on December 9, 2024
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A valuable resource to prepare your next coding interviews. You should however practice problem solving in your language to get the best of the book.

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Justin
Changed the way I looked at a lot of problems
Reviewed in Canada on October 3, 2016
Verified Purchase
This is a really good book. It has a lot of really good problems, amazing career advice, and just a lot of worthwhile content for the price. My favourite thing about this book is how it explains how you should get in the habit of being able to do the same problem different ways or look at it at a different angle. Sure, you might be able to write a one line hack that solves a problem quickly and very efficiently, but what if you had to solve it another way, using a much more unconventional approach?

Personally I'm working towards being a sysadmin/database admin and programming isn't the main focus of my education but the more I use it the more I can see it being a required skill for employment as I approach my now graduating year. Also this book has motivated me to learn Java much better.

Anyway aside from all the great programming advice, it also offers some really nice insights into the hiring process of very high end tech companies and also things you should do to improve your chance of being hired.. and I can tell you it doesn't always come down to how well you can solve complex problems.

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Golino Michele
Ottimo libro di algoritmica
Reviewed in Italy on December 23, 2019
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Ho comprato questo libro sotto consiglio di alcuni amici, il libro contiene tutto ciò che riguarda le interview con le grandi aziende, le possibili domande/richieste che possono farti al colloquio. I quesiti sono molto intriganti e le possibili soluzioni proposte sono spiegate molto bene. Nonostante il libro sia completamente in inglese, si intuisce molto facilmente e si ha una lettura molto fluida. Il pacco, contenente il libro, è arrivato in ottime condizioni con tempi di consegna precisa. Lo consiglio.

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Golino Michele

Ottimo libro di algoritmica

Reviewed in Italy on December 23, 2019
Ho comprato questo libro sotto consiglio di alcuni amici, il libro contiene tutto ciò che riguarda le interview con le grandi aziende, le possibili domande/richieste che possono farti al colloquio. I quesiti sono molto intriganti e le possibili soluzioni proposte sono spiegate molto bene. Nonostante il libro sia completamente in inglese, si intuisce molto facilmente e si ha una lettura molto fluida. Il pacco, contenente il libro, è arrivato in ottime condizioni con tempi di consegna precisa. Lo consiglio.

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abdias
Nice one
Reviewed in Spain on September 25, 2024
Verified Purchase
i would never think that the book contain so many pages :D, i am prepared to enjoy!

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Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions (Cracking the Interview & Career) 6th Edition

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Top reviews from the United States

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5.0 out of 5 stars It's a great book

5.0 out of 5 stars I was never a smart student in the classroom

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for coding interviews preparation

5.0 out of 5 stars Changed the way I looked at a lot of problems

5.0 out of 5 stars Ottimo libro di algoritmica

Ottimo libro di algoritmica

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5.0 out of 5 stars Nice one

It's a great book

I was never a smart student in the classroom

One of the best books

Excellent for coding interviews preparation

Changed the way I looked at a lot of problems

Ottimo libro di algoritmica

Nice one