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The bar for passing technical interviews is pretty low. All you need to do is to get reasonably competent in one or two mainstream programming languages (I emph
by tezka 13y ago
The bar for passing technical interviews is pretty low. All you need to do is to get reasonably competent in one or two mainstream programming languages (I emphasize reasonably, you definitely don't need expert knowledge), say Java or C++. This shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks of focused effort if you already have some degree in CS and know programming. At the same time you have to refresh your memory about data structures and algorithms. Dust off your favorite algorithm book, and go through sorting, searching, binary trees, hashing, elementary graph algorithms and dynamic programming. If you have taken a relevant course before and paid attention to it (you were told this was going to be your most important CS course ever, no?), it shouldn't take more than a day or two to remember this stuff (again assuming that your undergrad CS degree was not a waste of time). Then you need to solve a few exercises to practice, mostly to become confident in yourself. Topcoder, dozens of online sample questions would do. You won't need full coverage of every possibility, but to assure yourself that your brain still ticks and backed by your knowledge you can approach the problem presented to you at the interview. In total you need a week and a half or two weeks to get to top shape to pass interview at the likes of facebook, google, amazon et al.