Top 5 Books to Crack Java Programming Interviews - Best of Lot

If you are preparing for Java Programming interviews, then apart from blogs and articles, you should also take the help of my book (Grokking the Java Interview) and courses specially written for Java interviews. Though nothing can substitute actual job experience, cracking the coding interview is a little bit different beast. Even if you have a good experience you may struggle to crack the online coding tests which are becoming very challenging for Java developers of all levels of experience. Similarly,  if you are not going for the exact same profile job then you can expect a hell of a lot of questions from vast topics of Java domain, which you might not have heard before. 

That's why good planning and preparation are a must to crack any Java development interviews. It's equally important for both beginners with no professional experience and seniors with years of Java development experience.

In a Java developer interview, you often get two kinds of questions, first for core Java development role where the focus is mostly on core Java concepts like multi-threading, concurrency, design patterns, OOP, error handling, collections, JVM internals, GC, and Java performance tuning.

The second kind of Java interview is for Java EE or Java web development role where the focus is mostly on Java EE related technologies like JSP, Servlet, EJB, JDBC, and frameworks like Spring, Hibernate, Web services like REST And SOAP, and messaging technologies like JMS and MQ Servies.

But, in both cases, you need to pass an online coding test and there will always be some questions on Data Structure and Algorithms, and Software Design which are very difficult for any programmers without practice.

In this article, I have covered two types of books, the first type are specially written to help with programming interviews, covering a wide range of questions starting from object-oriented design, coding, Data Structure, and Algorithms, Computer Science, Networking, Database, SQL, XML, and problem-solving skills

And, second which are specially written to cover Java-related concepts like Java Concurrency, Java Collections, JVM, and other Java APIs.   Once you are done with these books, you can take on any Java interview with confidence.

5 Best Books to Prepare for Java Programming Interviews

Java Interviews usually have two kinds of questions, one based upon the facts and concept of Java programming language and API and other sare typical programming questions, some based on data structure and algorithm, software designs, computer science basics.

Some require you to develop logic and coding and others related to object-oriented programming and design patterns. If you are preparing for Core Java, or Java Web developer interviews formerly and popularly known as Java EE, then you also need to ask some questions on popular frameworks like JSF, Spring MVC, and Hibernate.

In this list, I am going to share 5 books that will cover all the topics you need to prepare for Java Programming interviews, including an online coding test.

1. Elements of Programming Interviews in Java: The Insiders' Guide

This is another excellent book, particularly to prepare for questions from Java programming concepts and API. You will find everything you need to Crack any Java interviews in this book. It's like the ultimate guide for Java programming interviews.

The book is particularly useful for passing online coding tests which are now an integral part of any Java developer interviews. Gone are the days where you can get a Java developer job by just knowing Java concepts, now you also need to pass a coding test that is heavily based on algorithms and data structure.

If Coding and Data Structure is your weak area then this book can really help you and if you need a bit more practical guidance then you can also combine this book with the Data Structures & Algorithms - Interview!! course on Udemy for instructor-led training.  It will help you to pass the online coding test, the first hurdle of any software engineering interview.

This book not just covers that but also designs patterns, software design questions, object-oriented programming and design,  questions on JVM, multi-threading, and every other Java-related topic you need to know for interviews.

I have referred to this book in the past, and nowadays, I prefer the first book in this more than this one, but it's still a relevant book. If you connect to this book, then you will find it enjoyable as well. The good thing about these books is that it's full of diagrams which help to understand the concept quicker and better.

2. Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions

This is probably the most popular book for Java and Programming job interviews. It's very similar to any coding interview preparation book, but it got more questions and also covers more topics, better explanations and covers things like how to negotiate a job offer.

As the title suggests 189  programming questions and solutions, you will find all popular questions there like a program to find all pairs from the array whose sum is k or how to reverse String in Java, etc. Once you will do the exercise given in this book, you will feel a lot more confident going to the Java interview.

If you are going for a senior Java developer role and if you want to improve on particular areas like System design, which is often the toughest then I suggest you check out Grokking the System Design Interview course on Educative, a new, text-based interview online learning platform.

This course is prepared by people who have worked as hiring managers on tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, and you are bound to learn a lot to tackle this most difficult topic for coding job interviews.

3. Java Programming Interview Exposed By Markham

This is clearly one of the best books on Java interviews. It covers each and every topic you would need to prepare, including Java fundamentals, data structure, and algorithm, multi-threading and concurrency, unit testing and JUnit, frameworks like Spring and Hibernate, JVM internals and GC, and even Android, Scala, and other JVM language.

This is clearly the right book for Java developer doesn't matter if you are going to core Java, JEE, or Android interview. I cannot recommend this book enough; certainly, you need a copy of it in yourself to prepare for both telephonic and face-to-face Java interviews.

If you need more Java-specific questions, you can also check out  Java Interview Guide: 200+ Interview Questions and Answers course by Ranga Rao Karnam on Udemy.

4. Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job

This is another excellent book to prepare for programming interviews, including Java. Before they released the Java Programming interview exposed, I used to read this book because it also covers a lot of good topics like data structures like the array, String, binary tree, Database and SQL, networking, coding, and many others.

A good thing about this book is that it also covers non-technical interviews like HR interviews and how to negotiate with them. Indeed, a great book to prepare for a programming job interview, even today, I still refer to this book to refresh my concepts, particularly on data structure and algorithms.

5.  Daily Coding Problem: Get Exceptionally Good at Coding Interviews

This is another book that focuses on coding skills and a must-have book if you struggle to pass the online coding test, often the first hurdle on any Java developer interviews. This book is full of programming and coding puzzles, which is the main topic of any programming job interview.

Their explanations are in-depth and you will learn several strategies to solve a particular coding problem like Dynamic Programming, Recursion, Greedy Algorithms, Memoization, and a lot more.

If you have done programs from the 1st and 2nd books already, you can try this one. It will help your coding skills for interviews. Btw, you can also combine this book with the Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions course on Educative to master underlying patterns of common interview questions, and you'll be able to tackle anything you face on the interview

That's all in this list of 5 excellent books to prepare Java Programming interviews. You can use these books to prepare both core Java and Java EE interviews because a couple of books has questions from Java EE technologies and frameworks as well as Servlet, JSP, EJB, JMS, Spring Framework, Hibernate Framework, etc.


Other Useful Resources for Coding Job Interviews

• How to design a Vending Machine in Java? (solution)
• 10 Data Structure and Algorithms Courses to Crack Coding Interviews (courses)
• 5 websites to prepare for Data Structure and Algorithm Questions (see)
• Top 20 String Algorithm Interview Questions (list)
• Top 30 Array Interview Questions for Programmers (list)
• 10 Online Courses to Crack Coding Job Interviews (courses)
• 5 Books to Pass Technical Job Interviews (books)
• Top 20 Amazon and Google Programming Questions (list)
• Top 10 SQL queries from Interviews (queries)
• Top 5 Object Oriented Design Interview Questions (practice)
• Top 50 Programming Phone Interview questions (list)
• 133 Core Java Interview Questions from the last 5 years (list)
• 50+ Data Structure and Algorithms Interview question (list)
• Top 10 Data Structure and Algorithms Books for Programmers (books)
• 10 Programming and SQL Courses for Interviews (courses)
• Top 5 Courses to Learn Data Structure in-depth (courses)

Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like these book recommendations, then please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or suggestions or any book you want to see on this list, then please drop a note.

P. S. - If you are looking for more resources then I highly recommend you to check out Ace the Java Coding Interview track on Educative, an interactive learning platform. This track contains an awesome course to prepare you well for Java interviews.  You can get access to all of their courses for just $14.9 per month on their annual plan.