Posts tagged

Interview Prep

The Best FAANG Interview Prep Resources in 2026 (Free + Paid)

An honest, tiered guide to coding interview prep resources in 2026. The free tier covers LeetCode's free set, NeetCode 150, Tech Interview Handbook, the Blind 75, structured challenges like Algorithms in 60 Days, and CS50 for fundamentals. The paid tier reviews LeetCode Premium, AlgoExpert, Grokking-style pattern courses, interviewing.io mock interviews, and the classic books (CTCI, EPI) — with candid notes on what each is actually worth. The community tier covers Discord servers, Blind, and peer mock-interview platforms. Ends with recommended stacks by timeline and budget.

interview-prep resources faang
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Binary Search: Not Just for Sorted Arrays

Reframes binary search as a general search-space reduction technique rather than a sorted-array lookup trick. Covers the classic template and the two bugs that break it, then extends the idea to 'search on the answer' problems like Koko Eating Bananas and Split Array Largest Sum, and to rotated sorted arrays. Works through six real interview problems with Python solutions, explains how to recognize a hidden binary search from monotonicity, and shows why the same 15-line template solves problems that look nothing like array lookup.

algorithms python binary-search
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Recursion for Interviews: Think Before You Code

A mental model for solving recursion interview problems without tracing every call. Introduces the 'leap of faith' — trust the recursive call to solve the smaller problem, then define only the base case, the reduction step, and the combine step. Applies the three-question framework to five real interview problems in Python: reversing a linked list, validating a BST with min/max bounds, generating subsets by include/exclude, counting climbing-stairs paths (with memoization), and generating balanced parentheses with backtracking. Covers the recursion-to-DP pipeline, Python's recursion limit, and the follow-up questions interviewers actually ask.

algorithms python recursion
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