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by realjohng 484 days ago
This is a good book but it’s more of a starter step. Not being able to solve the problems (which I think is the common case) should hint to you that deeper review of fundamentals is needed. Unfortunately there are not many resources that teach the fundamentals lucidly, so extensive searching is required.
2 comments
optymizer 484 days ago
Algorithms by Sedgewick is pretty good for learning the fundamentals, imo, and sufficient (together with the Cracking the Coding Interview book) to pass interviews at the FAANGs I've worked at (and was an interviewer at for years).
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michael_mroczka 484 days ago
Oooh, I'm a BCtCI author, but I admit Sedgewick is the algo expert! His book is more about data structures and algorithms than about coding interviews (related but very different).

If you needed to completely learn data structures and algorithms from scratch, I would NOT recommend his book, but instead, his FREE COURSE since it is so much more visual (and free): https://www.coursera.org/learn/algorithms-part1

For what it is worth, taking a course on DS&A is very different than getting good at these interviews for most people. The two are closely related but very different.

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leeny 484 days ago
I'm Aline, one of the authors. We actually doubled down on teaching the fundamentals in this book. If you've read it, please tell us where we could have done better.

If you have not read it, check out two of the technical chapters to see our approach to teaching binary search and sliding windows and let us know what you think: https://bctci.co/free-chapters

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realjohng 484 days ago
Sorry the opinion was based on the prior version of the book. I took a look at the link. My honest opinion is that binary search is kind of rushed in its break down. On the other hand, I really liked the explanation of the various sliding window problems since that is a topic that is normally not covered in CS fundamentals. I also like the pseudocode -- it reads well. I think a book focused on concepts could serve as a delightful companion to this book. Or simply add the pages. Thanks, i'm sure you will sell tons of copies.
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