#6 Session 5: Linked Lists

So last Thursday, I attended the 6th session of Facebook’s ABCS. Besides covering Linked Lists, we covered tips on tackling the coding interview. Here are some notes again!

Workshop 5: Talking through your solution

Linked lists are more of a C++, C Java concept where pointers and references are involved.

How do you think about and tackle hard problems / communicate about code

• Evaluate your problem-solving skills to evaluate if you can translate thought into reasonably correct, well-structured code

How do you consider engineering tradeoffs (memory vs time)

• Limits of what you know
• Communicate verbally to demonstrate how you tackle hard problems
• Talk to the interviewer to give active feedback to the interviewer, to know what and what not to code
• Talking through your solution will help you avoid careless mistakes or catch them when they do happen

See interviewers as collaborators

• Use “We” instead of “I”
• Look up from the whiteboard and talk to the interviewer

Keep calm and think out loud

• Walk through your interviewer through your solution approach and code.
• Tell them you’re not sure, if you’re not sure
• Don’t try to appear like you know something when you don’t
• Ask questions, don’t ask for hints

Don’t rush

Reiterate the bounds

• Summarize the big-O of your solution and why it’s less than ideal
• Remember you can:
• Annotate chunks of your code with their various time and space
• Explain tradeoffs made with regard to time — and — space complexity in your current approach VS alternative approaches

Do mock interviews — like 30 of them

• Identify the crux of the solution, and do the obvious parts of the code later

Dinner, snack bar, more food =D