Review — Coding Interview Patterns: Nail Your Next Coding Interview by Alex Xu & Shaun Gunawardane: Is It Worth It?

Hello guys, if you are wondering whether Coding Interview Patterns: Nail Your Next Interview book by Alex Xu and Shaun Gunawardane is worth it or not then you have come to the right place. Yes — Coding Interview Patterns is a strong book for anyone preparing coding interviews (especially algorithm / data structure rounds). It will teach you essential coding patterns like two pointers, fast and slow pointers, sliding window, prefix sum, Hash table, Set, DFS and BFS which can be used to solve most of the coding problems from interviews. It won’t cover every corner (no single resource ever does), but it does pattern-recognition, explanation clarity, and problem variety very well. Combined with ByteByteGo platform and the 50% discount on lifetime plan, it becomes a powerful part of your interview prep stack.

Who wrote this & why it matters?

Before reading any book, you must know who is the author as that will give you the reasons to read the book and decided whether its worth it or not. This book is written by Alex xu and Shaun Gunawardane. 

Alex Xu is well known in the interview-prep / system design space. Bestselling author of System Design Interview: An Insider’s Guide (Volumes 1 and 2), Machine Learning System Design Interview, Generative AI System Design Interview, among others. His style: clean visuals, real-world examples, trade-offs, frameworks, and making large systems intelligible. 

Shaun Gunawardane is co-author here. He’s a competitive programmer (ex-Google), with deep experience in puzzles, coding pattern identification, and helping others prepare for interviews. Their collaboration means you get both clarity of layout and rigor in problem selection. 

The collaboration and combination of Alex and Shaun is good enough to read this book, after all it gives you chance to learn from two ex FAANG engineers.

Click here to get the book

What Coding Interview Patterns Contains?

It's one of the important book for coding interview preparation because it teaches you coding interview patterns which can be used to solved multiple coding problems.

The book offers:

• 101 real coding interview problems, with detailed solutions.

• 1,000+ diagrams to help illustrate reasoning, flow, pattern recognition, concept underlying each solution. 

• Topics are organized by pattern / problem type: Two Pointers; Hash Maps & Sets; Linked Lists; Fast & Slow Pointers; Sliding Windows; Binary Search; Stacks; Heaps; Intervals; Prefix Sums; Trees; Tries; Graphs; Backtracking; Dynamic Programming; Greedy; Bit Manipulation; Math & Geometry. Essentially most of the common DSA categories. 

• Introductory explanation for each pattern: what the pattern is, when it's useful, how interviewers expect you to think about it. The explanations aim to help reduce the “grinding thousands of problems without understanding” issue.

The good thing is that the book is now also available on ByteByteGo website which means if you have a ByteByteGo subscription then you can read the book for free and if you don't have one, now is probably the best time to buy because they are offering 50% discount on annual and lifetime plan. It also provide access to 7 of their best selling books for coding interviews. 

What I Liked in this book?

Here are strengths I believe are especially valuable in 2025:

1. Pattern Focus Saves Time
   Instead of randomizing LeetCode problems by difficulty or tags, the book emphasizes patterns. If you understand a few patterns well (e.g. sliding windows, two pointers, binary search), you get much more leverage. Their explanation of two pointer pattern is the best explanation I have read online. It's also free chapter so I highly recommend you to read it here. 

2. Visuals & Clarity
   The diagrams make a big difference. Many problems are easier to reason about when structure (trees, graphs, intervals) is visualized. Helps both understanding and recall, especially in interview speed-contexts.

3. Breadth + Enough Depth
   Covers many of the patterns commonly asked by large tech companies. While not every pattern is deeply explored, most are sufficient to give you a solid baseline. If you already have some experience, it helps fill in gaps and connects patterns to trade-offs.

4. Good for Both Beginners & Intermediate Learners
   If you’re new to algorithm questions, it’s structured in a way that you can gradually build up. If you already solve many problems, it's helpful for polishing, understanding edge cases, and better explaining your solutions.

As I said before, their explanation of two pointer pattern is the best explanation I have read online. It's also free chapter so I highly recommend you to read it here. 

What Could Be Better / Limitations?

No resource is perfect and this book is also no exception but depending upon what do you want to learn. 

Here are trade-offs / what to watch out for:

• Practice vs Explanation Ratio
  While there are 101 problems, the book is heavier on explanations and pattern recognition, relatively lighter on interactive or challenge exercises. For mastery, you’ll still need to pair book reading with hands-on coding (LeetCode / Algomonster etc.).

• Lighter Coverage on Some Advanced Topics
  Patterns are well covered, but many key data structures and algorithms concepts are out of scope. If you're interviewing for extremely senior roles, you may need extra resources.

• Not a Substitute for System Design Work
  This is largely about coding / algorithm patterns. It doesn’t deeply cover architectural or system design interviews. So if your target role includes system design, you’ll want to combine this with other books or platforms.

Community / Feedback & Early Reception

The book has received overall good feedback from readers, here are some references I found online:

• On Goodreads, many users report that the book helped them “refresh and structure” their pattern recall. A frequent comment: it makes “grinding LeetCode” more effective when you have pattern foundations. 

• On Reddit, people acknowledged that although there are many pattern resources already, this book stands out for being well-organized, visually explained, and with problems that cover many standard patterns. 

• Some debate whether it's a “must buy” if you already have resources, but many believe for interview focus it’s very solid. 

If you ask me, its a great resource, especially if you like to read book, otherwise ByteByteGo website is the master resources for coding interviews which also contains the content of this book and you can also practice all those 101 problems, also known as ByteByteGo 101 online with built-in test-cases evaluating your solution. 

How It Compares to Other ByteByteGo Books & Offerings

ByteByteGo doesn’t just have this book; their catalog includes:

• System Design Interview: An Insider’s Guide (Volumes 1 & 2) — long-standing favorites for system design prep. 

• Machine Learning System Design Interview — for those targeting ML/AI roles.

• Generative AI System Design Interview — newer, focused on GenAI challenges.

• Coding Interview Patterns (this book) adds pattern coding focus in algorithm rounds.

The ByteByteGo platform (website + subscription) bundles many of these resources; as Alex Xu has noted, their goal is to help engineers tackle all parts of tech interviews: coding, system design, (ML & GenAI if relevant), and patterns. 

If you are preparing for coding interviews in 2025 then I highly recommend you to join ByteByteGo as its offer a complete package for coding interview preparation and they are also offering a rare 50% discount now. 

I just bought their lifetime plan as it provides best value and recommend the same to other engineers as you will be keep using it every time you look for change. 

Is Coding Interview Patterns Worth It in 2025?

Putting it all together: If I were preparing for interviews in 2025, especially FAANG / large tech companies, here’s how I’d assess its value.

Audience	Likely Benefit	Usefulness
New grads / juniors preparing for first coding interviews	Very high — will structure your practice and help avoid common pitfalls.	Great
Mid-level engineers needing polish / frequenter of interview rounds	High — helps speed up recognition of frequently used patterns, aids clarity.	Very Useful
Senior / specialized algorithm / system roles	Moderate — good foundation but needs supplement with deeper topics, system design / optimizations beyond patterns.	Useful with extras

So yes, for many candidates Coding Interview Patterns is more than “just another book”; it's a time-saver and clarity-giver.

If you’re interested, you can grab Coding Interview Patterns via Amazon: Coding Interview Patterns: Nail Your Next Coding Interview by Alex Xu & Shaun Gunawardane. 

Also, ByteByteGo often runs a 50% off lifetime plan offer for their platform. If you expect to use multiple of their books, video content, system design + pattern practice, investing in lifetime access makes sense. It gives you access to all books, updates, and resource additions in one place.

Verdict & Recommendations

If you’re building your interview prep strategy, here’s how I’d combine resources:

1. Use Coding Interview Patterns for solid pattern recognition, explaining algorithms clearly, and faster recall under pressure.

2. Pair it with hands-on platform practice (LeetCode, Algomonster if you can), especially implementing, timing, optimizing.

3. For system design and more senior architectural rounds, combine with ByteByteGo’s System Design Interview books (Vol 1 & 2), and the Generative AI System Design Interview if relevant.

4. If budget allows, get the lifetime ByteByteGo plan at 50% off — this gives ongoing value, new content, and all books + platform features.

In short: yes, Coding Interview Patterns is worth it, especially when used as part of a broader prep stack. On its own it’s excellent for coding rounds; combined with design and real-practice resources it becomes very strong.

Final Thoughts: The Complete ByteByteGo Platform as Interview Prep Powerpack

ByteByteGo isn’t just a collection of books anymore—it’s shaping up into a full interview prep platform:

• Coding pattern books plus system design books

• Visual diagrams, clear frameworks, tradeoff discussions

• Platform / membership that bundles access to multiple books + video content

• Regular updates & newer books (e.g. GenAI design)

For anyone serious about the next tech interview (coding + design + maybe ML/AI), ByteByteGo + Coding Interview Patterns + subscribing (or securing the lifetime plan while the 50% deal is on) is a recommendation I make with confidence.