Elements of Programming Interviews

Book excerpt: The core of EPI is a collection of over 300 problems with detailed solutions, including 100 figures, 250 tested programs, and 150 variants. The problems are representative of questions asked at the leading software companies. The book begins with a summary of the nontechnical aspects of interviewing, such as common mistakes, strategies for a great interview, perspectives from the other side of the table, tips on negotiating the best offer, and a guide to the best ways to use EPI. The technical core of EPI is a sequence of chapters on basic and advanced data structures, searching, sorting, broad algorithmic principles, concurrency, and system design. Each chapter consists of a brief review, followed by a broad and thought-provoking series of problems. We include a summary of data structure, algorithm, and problem solving patterns.