Thursday, August 10, 2023

Top 5 Websites for Coding Interview Preparation - Best of Lot

Are you preparing for Coding Interviews? If yes then you might know that there are a number of free online resources to practice important topics for coding Interviews like data structure and algorithms, database and SQL, and others. These websites are equally useful for both, new programmers who are just learning the fundamentals and for experienced ones who are brushing up their coding skills for interviews. I have been sharing useful resources for programming and technical interviews for a long time in this book. In the past, I have shared some recommended online courses and books for coding interviews, as well as some of the frequently asked programming interview questions from tech companies (see here). But, my readers have been asking about some recommended websites for practicing programming challenges and coding interview questions.

So, in this article,  I am going to share some of the best websites which will help you to practice Coding Interview questions for free. Some of them also have their paid version and a couple of them are also used by companies for screening candidates so you will get first-hand experience of what to expect on real coding interviews.

These websites are not just useful for anyone who is preparing for a coding interview, but also for any programmer who seriously wants to improve their coding skill, which is the most important skill for a programmer.

These websites will help you to improve both your coding sense and problem-solving skills. Alternatively, If you like books and courses, you can also see this list of books and courses to improve your coding skills.


Programming interviews have always been criticized for their theoretical nature, I mean anyone who knows a little bit of coding can get a job by just mugging some of the frequently asked coding interviews, like an anagram, string permutations, or linked list questions, but that is now the thing of past.

Just like to get a driving license, you need to pass both a theoretical test and a practical drive, many companies are now moving to a similar model where they will test both your theoretical knowledge and practical coding skills before they offer you a job.

This growing trend has made these resources even more sought after. I am a member of all of the websites I have shared here, solved a couple of problems, and still go there whenever I have some free time, particularly the LeetCode.





Top 5 Websites to Prepare for Data Structure, Algorithms, and Coding Interview Questions

Here is my list of some of the best websites which will help you to prepare for coding interviews. They are free and contain a lot of questions and offer different kinds of experiences. There are many others but I feel these five are more than enough. If you can even solve all the problems on the first website you have a very good chance of doing well on any coding interview.


1. Udemy

This is one of the best websites to find programming interview preparation courses at affordable prices. Udemy is actually the best website for online learning because of their unique pricing option which allows you to buy a quality course with $200 for just $10 and that's why it is also the first website I go to get any resource for programming or coding interviews. 

Udemy has the best online courses for coding interviews covering a wide variety of topics like Data Structure and Algorithms, System Design, SQL and Database Design, Programming language like Python, and much more. 

They also have specialized courses to prepare for FAANG interviews, I mean to prepare for big tech interviews like Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. If you are looking for the best coding interview courses, I suggest you check out the following courses on Udemy. 
These are a few top courses from Udemy you can join to start your preparation for coding and programming interviews. 

Top 5 Websites for Coding Interview Preparation - Best of Lot



2. Educative

When it comes to preparing for coding interviews or programming job interviews like Frontend and backend development, Educative is one of the best platforms. It has many text-based interactive courses to prepare different topics of coding interviews like System Design, Dynamic Programming, Object-Oriented Programming, Multithreading and Concurrency, Data Structure, and Algorithms, and much more.

Here are some of my recommended courses for people preparing for Coding interviews from the Educative.io platform:
  1. Grokking Modern System Design for Software Engineers & Managers
  2. Java Multithreading for Senior Engineering Interviews
  3. Data Structures in Java: An Interview Refresher

You can either buy these courses individually for preparing a specific topic or go for an Educative subscription which costs around $18 per month and gives access to all of their 100+ software engineering courses. I personally recommend Educative membership because it is both cost-effective as well as an easy way to learn on the platform.

Top 5 Websites to Learn Data structures and Algorithms FREE - Best of Lot



3. ByteByteGo

If you are preparing for coding interviews then you must also prepare for System design as this is often the difference between selection and non-selection and when it comes to learning System design for interviews, there is no better place than ByteByteGo.

This website is created by Alex Xu, author of popular System Design Interview - An Insider's guide and it contains a lot of content related to how to answer System design question and various key system design concepts like Scalability,  Resiliency, Database Sharding, SQL vs NoSQL, API designing, Microservices design patterns and more. 

He also share detailed analysis of things like How PayPal works or How NetFlix architecture works which really improves your knowledge about how system design plays a crucial roles in these Big Tech companies. 

He also shared detailed solution of popular System Design questions like How to design YouTube or How to design a CHat System like WhatsApp which is quite important for coding interview perspective. The website itself is a digital version of both his books and he also add new content on the ByteByteGo because its easier for him to update website with new information

You can actually go and explore the websites to see for yourself, here is the link - ByeByteGo


I have also wrote a detailed review of ByteByeGo, if you want, you can also checkout that to know more about the platform and what I liked about them. You can also use the bytebytego discount code JALJAD to get 10% discount. 


4. DesignGuru.io

This is another awesome website or resource for anyone who is preparing for coding interviews. In fact all the coding interview courses I liked to Educative like Grokking the System Design Interview and Grokking the Coding Interview Patterns they are now exclusively available on DesignGuru.io website. 

I first come across their courses a couple of years ago when I joined Grokking the System Design Interview on Educative, after that I joined many of their courses which are focused on coding interview patterns, dynamic programming, object oriented analysis and design etc and all of them are top notch quality.

It's not a surprise because those were created by people like Arslan Ahmed who have worked on Microsoft and other big tech companies. They not only have gone through the same process to get selected on those FAANG companies but also have been part of hiring side so they know what it take to go there. 

These courses are unique opportunity to learn from their experiences and that's why they are very crucial for any one preparing for coding interviews, especially if you are interested on top quality firms like Microsoft, Google, Apple, NetFlix, Meta and more. 

Here are the my favorite DesignGuru.io courses for coding interviews:
These are great resources to prepare for essential coding interview topics but instead of joining them one by one, you can also take their all course bundle as it provide big discount and you can save good amount.  You can also use discount coupon code GURU for 30% discount. 




5. LeetCode

LeetCode is a platform for preparing technical coding interviews. Pick from an expanding library of more than 450 questions, code, and submit your solution to see if you have solved it correctly. It is that easy!

This platform currently supports a total of 11 languages: C, C++, Java, Python, C#, JavaScript, Ruby, Swift, Go, Bash, MySQL. So, doesn't matter if you are a C++ developer or Java programmer, you can benefit from it.

You will find all kinds of different interview questions divided into four major categories like Algorithms, Database, and Shell Scripts. The Algorithms contain interview questions on the array, linked list, string, binary tree, graph, and others.


free Websites for Practicing Data structures and Algorithms for Coding Interviews

The Database section contains SQL query-based problems like writing SQL queries to find the second highest salary or Nth highest salary etc.



6. HackerRank 

The HackerRank Community is one of the largest learning and competition communities for programmers. HackerRank for Work is the leading end-to-end technical recruiting platform for hiring engineers.  HackerRank is also very addictive, once you start, you will likely spend hours solving coding problems.

More than 1 Million programmers are part of HackerRank which speaks volumes about the value it provides to programmers who want to prepare for coding interviews and improve their coding and problem-solving skills. Many tech companies also use HackerRank for arranging screening and written tests for candidates.

Btw, if you are one who loves books and wants to improve your algorithm and data structure skills, then you can also choose a good algorithm book from this list

Good website for practicing Coding Interview questions




7. CodeFights

CodeFighting is the best way to hone your programming skills by challenging friends and other programmers to head-to-head battles. When you create your account you will choose the programming language you’d like to use on CodeFights and then you will have your first fight with a robot, interesting, isn't it?

The CodeFights website tests how well can you code? It tests your skills against friends, co-workers, and companies. Some tech companies also use the services of this website for screening candidates based on their coding skills.

Good website to improve your coding skill



8. Interview Cake

The Interview Cake claims to teach you the right way of thinking to break down tricky algorithmic coding interview questions you've never seen before, something you will be likely asked by tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.

No prior computer science training is necessary—I'll get you up to speed quickly, skipping all the overly academic stuff.

This site also provides interview questions by companies like you will find questions asked by Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon. It also provides questions for different programming languages like Java, Python, SQL, Ruby, JavaScript, and Testing and QA Interview Questions.

Best website to prepare for coding interviews



9. Pramp

The Pramp is another good website that allows you to practice coding interviews for free. Join thousands of developers who already use Pramp to ace their coding interviews. I really like their unique style which allows you to practice coding Interviews in pairs.

Just tell when and what you want to practice and they'll pair you with an optimal peer. They provide interview questions (and answers) which both of you will use to interview each other.

Coding interviews are live video sessions with a collaborative code editor. You and your peers interview one another for 30 minutes each. After the interview, you both rate the other's performance.

This is seriously good because it gives you the chance to learn from peers’ feedback, gain confidence, and master the art of interviewing. Keep practicing until you interview like a rock star. Impress recruiters and land awesome job offers.

Pramp is also part of Exponent, which also have a lot of great System design courses which are very important for any coding interview, specially if you are preparing for FAANG interviews which puts lot of emphasis on System Design and Software Design. 

Top 5 websites for preparing Coding Interviews



Recommended Books for Coding interviews

If you like books, here are some of the best ones which will help you to do well in coding interviews:
  1. Cracking The Coding Interview By Gayle McDowell
  2. Programming Interview Exposed By Wrox
These are two of the tired and tested books for programming job interview and I highly recommend them to all the programmers, both beginners and intermediate developers. 

That's all about some of the best websites to prepare coding, or programming, or technical interviews for development and support Jobs. CodeFights is like HackerRank and is also used by some companies for screening candidates before face-to-face interviews.

Interview Cake is a freemium service for practicing data structures and algorithms through self-study. It will send you daily emails posing a challenge for you to code, solve, and submit the solution.

Pramp is a free service for practicing technical interviews by pairing up engineers who interview one another online.

These websites will not only help you to perform better in a real interview but will also help you to become a better programmer by improving your coding skills and think-through ability. Even if you are not preparing for a coding interview, you can use these websites to check your coding skills and improve them.

Other Programming and Interview Articles you may like

Thanks for reading this article so far. If you like these online courses to prepare well for programming job interviews, then please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback, then please drop a note.

5 comments:

  1. Codewars is nice too

    ReplyDelete
  2. http://www.codechef.com this one is also very good to improve your skills

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Anonymous and @Sawan indeed, codewars and codechef both are great website full of challenging problems to really test your coding skills.

    ReplyDelete
  4. i think hacker earth is good as it has mopre number of questions than hackerrank

    ReplyDelete