In this day and age of technology dominating the world, there is no dearth of technology jobs. But there is an even larger number of people wanting to get those jobs. So when you start aspiring for one of those FAANG/FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple (yuck), Netflix or Google) jobs or even one in the other big companies or startups, you need to practice coding.
But not just any coding. You need to practice algorithms and data structures to a degree that might make you question - will these ever be useful for me in real life? And the answer is... It doesn't matter. I'll discuss in a separate post why it doesn't matter, but for this blog, we want to talk about where should you go in order to practice.
The platform(s) you pick need to depend on your final objectives and the position you are applying for. Let us break it down platform.
This is probably going to be a valuable tool for anyone looking to enter the technology industry. Doesn't matter what position you are going for. As long as you are aiming for an Engineering or Data Science related field, you want to practice Leetcode-ing to some degree.
How much of it? A lot if you are applying for FAANG companies as a software engineer. Anywhere from Medium to even the Hard problems. If you are applying in the Data Engineering roles, then probably stick to Easy and a few Mediums.
This is such a great resource for anyone getting back up on the horse. It goes through all the problems in a structured fashion, by type of data structures. And that way, you get a great roadmap to get your skills to a decent state, before attempting more difficult problems either on this platform or or any other. Plus, they time you. Which means you can get a real good idea of where you stand. Another similar resource is "AlgoExpert".
Oh man, what wouldn't I give for the days when GeeksForGeeks was famous. It is an awesome resource to prepare for your interviews. Go to the "Tutorial" section, and start following the topics one by one, to revise all the theory you would ever need. It doesn't have a practice spot, but it provides more information than almost any other website.
If you are willing to shell out some money, the curated courses on educative.io are so awesome! Yes, I am selling my tutoring and interview preparation services on this website, but if your budget doesn't let you afford a tutor, please spend some money on educative.io courses. They are very well structured, and actually go into a lot of tips and tricks that will help for your interviews!
I personally don't like the clutter of their UX, but it is a great free resource to start off with in solving problems of different complexities.
If you are looking to solve Data Science specific questions, then Kaggle is a great resource. I personally haven't tried a lot of problems there, but that's mostly because I ain't a Data Science guy.
If you just pick these guys as your go-to platforms, they are more than enough to prepare you! But if not, I'll go into a more detailed comparison, probably in a few weeks!
Stay tuned.
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