How To Prepare For Coding Interviews Efficiently

Preparing for technical coding interviews can being a daunting and monotonous task, but I think I have developed an efficient way to improve to quickly pass FAANG style data structures and algorithm videos. In this video I share exactly how I approached studying for my interviews and how I would recommend you study for yours.
Prepping for your frontend interviews? Use code "conner" for a discount on my course FrontendExpert:
www.frontendexpert.io/conner
LinkedIn: / connerardman
TikTok: / connerardman
Video/Coding Gear: www.amazon.com/shop/connerardman
Free Resources For Coding Interviews:
Geeks For Geeks: www.geeksforgeeks.org/graph-d...
Big-O Cheat-sheet: www.bigocheatsheet.com/
Timestamps:
0:00 Preparing For Coding Interviews
0:58 Prerequisites
1:24 Learning Data Structures
4:23 Choosing A Platform
5:34 Finding Good Questions
7:07 Solving Practice Questions
9:38 Problems You Fail To Solve

[@clem]

Conner at 0:46: "Just don't tell Clement." 😤😤😤 Jokes aside, great video (and video quality!). I couldn't agree more with making sure you nail down the fundamentals rather than purely focusing on the quantity of practice problems you do. Basically, quality practice is better than quantity practice.

[@ConnerArdman]

Who told you??? 😡

[@iShubhamPrakash]

@@ConnerArdman Looks like Clement has definitely clicked on that little bell icon on your channel. 😉

[@esm2000]

yall are awesome. love algoexpert

[@danielazulay4936]

I actually failed an interview 1 hour ago and it got this in my recommendations. This was a python position, now I realized I need to be a better problem solver instead of learning CPython's internals... great vid, love this guy.

[@sunnymankame362]

Love the content Conner, getting to learn a lot from you. Please keep it up !

[@twerkyfingers]

Great video like always🔥. To the point and without any fluff

[@michaelangelocash2529]

I ❤ this channel just found it but I feel like Conner explains things way better than other yr channels I’ve watched 🎉

[@PedroFerreira-kz6mq]

I was just searching for this rn, fits perfectly, great video, help me a lot!

[@CorvinuzXI]

love the content, i love to wait for those content, even tho i know some of it, it will help me improve my ways on coding. thanks in advance!

[@king998100]

I like that last few tips, esp the looking at the conceptual solution. It's really helpful, you just get the idea, and work out the code.

[@horacecedrix7733]

Great video, keep it up. Just venturing into coding and hope to learn alot from you. Cheers!

[@smajdovamanka]

Really great video thanks for the tips!

[@claudivansilva5828]

Great video! Looking forward to more.

[@tarn84]

great content as always. Great advice

[@Drannn54]

I am really excited of how you passionate to become an KZbinr. Wish you all the best!!!

[@ConnerArdman]

Thank you!

[@mdzaidsiddiqui4262]

Great content Connor! I'll be starting DSA soon and this video really helped. Thanks for all the tips. Keep up the good work. 💯

[@ConnerArdman]

Thanks, glad you found it helpful!

[@akhilpadmanaban3242]

That gave me a confidence, I know arrays , strings, searching and all...and allI do was practicing all level of problems on these tags. and it fucks me sometimes when im unable to solve......I started learning all the DSA like those 8 as u told and then step into practicing.... I really like your video, it motivated me. Thanks a lot

[@markopolo2224]

amazing timing!!

[@user-ng4bc3cv6g]

Glad I can find guidance

[@Wlodixpro]

Actually awesome advice, will definitely apply

[@bun_bun17]

wow not blinking is quite a skill 😊

[@correabuscar]

Clever and sneaky: head movements to obscure the fact that you're reading out what you're saying. Neatly perfected this trick I see :) I didn't even notice until 80% of the video. Please, consider this a compliment.

[@martin_and_gina]

Great video really! Thanks a lot

[@user-ko1cw6mv4q]

Great video i love your videos bro 😊❤️

[@yaroslavmazhar2906]

Thanks Conner!

[@mohameddiaa3037]

Thanks last one is greate idea 💡

[@Bryan-rz1zg]

Connor, your videos are so well constructed and enjoyable to listen to!Looking forward to more react / redux content.

[@ConnerArdman]

Thanks! And more React will come fairly soon 😀

[@kkc5919]

Great Advice!

[@k_SE__VishalRoy]

its really helpful for me to learn coding 😊

[@robertd6832]

Thanks Conner, I’m saving money to get the full stack bundle. I can’t wait to get started.

[@ConnerArdman]

Awesome, best of luck!

[@chakhmanmohamed9436]

@@ConnerArdman is that course? Idk where to find it?

[@ConnerArdman]

It’s a bundle of FrontendExpert, AlgoExpert, and SystemsExpert. FrontendExpert is linked in the description, and the bundles show up on the purchase page.

[@emmanuelerinwusi5539]

Thanks!!

[@johnddonnet5151]

Yes, I really need to know how to reverse binary tree when on the job I'm changing button colors, yes, trully

[@norejudeisa]

A friend shared your channel and I'm glad I checked it😊

[@ConnerArdman]

That’s a good friend right there 🤝

[@nurbolatkenzhekulov1469]

you are reiterating the materials all other people (event Cliement) said millions of times

[@igeolasoji3513]

Understanding algorithm patterns and which patterns can be applied to the question.

[@0xtz_]

I passed my first interview for an internship as junior frontend developer, all question was related to Laravel PHP classes 😂 I failed bc I never tried Laravel before even if I passed the PHP OOP question. fun life

[@GauravKumar-ue7nz]

Love Frontend, But Doing only DSA now as Interview preparation.

[@ripto9005]

Can you share more about how to practice css and react every day

[@amanksdotdev]

Is javascript/typescript good for coding interviews? I feel like some languages compilers provide better compilation errors which further help in writing the algorithm.

[@ConnerArdman]

The best language for coding interviews is the language you know best. Your understanding of the language will be far more important than its syntax or error messages (plus in many interviews you can't run the code to see the error messages anyways). If you somehow knew every language equally, I'd usually recommend Python for interviews because of its concise syntax, but it really doesn't matter too much. JavaScript is a perfectly fine language to do interviews in, and it's one I have done a few of my interviews in.

[@amanksdotdev]

@@ConnerArdman thanks, appreciate you for a thorough answer

[@bagzhansadvakassov1093]

С

[@jerleeloo9682]

Ya I the one will talk to the computer screen all the time. One of the reason I preferred remote work

[@codelivewithme]

channel deserves 4M subscribers

[@ConnerArdman]

Thanks! Maybe one day 😂

[@mageshyt2550]

i Love your Video bro . Keep doing 😄

[@ConnerArdman]

Thanks!

[@calgary2025]

Conner, please make a video about how to learn Front end System design for the coding interview 🙏 I'm FE engineer currently learning FE expert and Algoexpert at the same time, and don't know about system design for the FE.

[@ConnerArdman]

Yeah this is something I want to make a video about eventually 👍

[@calgary2025]

@@ConnerArdman Thanks a tons, man 🙏

[@AznBoiDan]

Yeah I got system design interview for frontend coming up so that’d be cool

[@muditsatija3636]

opening line 100/100

[@janindunimsara178]

hey I just want to know what are the programming languages that you know/code?

[@ConnerArdman]

I'm not sure this is actually an important metric, because really most languages are similar enough to each other that once you know a couple they are really easy to learn. But to answer your question, professionally I've mostly worked in JavaScript (along with a bunch of JS frameworks), PHP/Hack and Python. I also know Java pretty well, because my university pretty much exclusively used it for introductory programming classes. There's also a bunch of random languages I've used for a project or two, but I wouldn't say I really know those.

[@fredianriko5648]

what would you do if somehow you served a hard coding questions by the interviewer and you already think that you can't solved it or never seen this problem before? what is your approach to this kind of condition?

[@ConnerArdman]

I try to never go into an interview expecting to see a problem I have already done or instantly know the answer to. Realistically that is the more likely scenario. In that case, you just need to slowly work through the problem. Ask lots of clarifying questions and consider different possibilities based on patterns you have seen before. I don’t think there’s really any secret trick/hack, it just comes down to showcasing the problem solving skills you have developed through practice.

[@JudoboyAlex]

I know Meta has frontend focus technical interview rounds for Front End Engineer position where there are 0 algorithms questions, but very JS heavy. Would you say for those targeting FEE to study Dynamic Programming and Bit Manipulation? Or is it enough just to study basics algorithms that relate to frontend like traverse tree? Also are design patterns such as factory pattern, observable pattern mandatory to study for FFE interviews?

[@ConnerArdman]

I think it depends on how much time you have to prepare. If you have an interview next week, I would say focus on JavaScript and standard data structures and algorithm questions unless you are really confident in those. If you are studying for the next 6 months, maybe allocate a small percentage of time to dynamic programming and bit manipulation. I don't think it is completely out of the question that you see a question using them, but it also is probably unlikely. I'd say the same is true for design patterns, although they might come up in more senior interviews, and they definitely don't hurt to learn as you can get the basics down pretty quickly anyways.

[@kiron1826]

Your eye contact is unreal. How do you not need to look away to think

[@ConnerArdman]

Probably mostly because I record in really short chunks. But also the raw footage of this video was over an hour, so I had plenty of time to think 😅

[@subhasrini2706]

More books videos pls!

[@noymar2210]

LeetCode has nothing to do with your job because 1) it's a proxy for intellectual ability. The average programmer is never going to solve the mediums unless they've done hundreds of problems. Someone reasonably bright on the other hand, can get to that point in less than 100 questions. 2) How else would you standardize hiring a large number of engineers at scale? Quizzing people on random code trivia to test for "passion" can be exploited even more than doing LC prep. Evaluating engineers based on their work experience has a major major flaw because 1) anyone can embellish their accomplishments, 2) you can easily pigeonhole yourself into being stagnant for 20 years, 3) there aren't enough senior engineers in existence to accurately judge another senior engineer. Take home coding assignments can also be hacked and honestly, I'd rather do an hour-long mathematical puzzle than 15 hours of coding for a job that I may not get. If your opening comment was a troll bait to get more comments, then you win haha.

[@ConnerArdman]

Yeah I think it makes sense from the perspective of companies, and unfortunately that means the process will likely not change anytime soon. At the end of the day, the interviews have been proven to work with a fairly low false-positive rate (i.e. it is pretty rare they accidentally hire someone they shouldn't have). They might pass up on a good engineer who didn't want to study for interviews, but they have enough job candidates to not worry about that. That said, I think there are alternatives that could achieve the same thing without applicants needing to study specifically for the interview. For example, I interviewed at Stripe a few years back. In one of the interviews, they linked me to a GitHub issue and gave me 45 minutes to debug it. This was a real repo and a real bug. The interviewer was there to help answer questions, and in a way he acted like we were collaborating to fix the bug together. This was one of the most challenging interviews I have ever gone through, but it was also something that I couldn't study for other than by just becoming a better software engineer. It also very closely reflected work that I have actually done on the job. As for the intro being a troll, I was just trying to make it engaging lol, I didn't expect this many people to comment on it but I'm not complaining either 😂

[@noymar2210]

@@ConnerArdman That legitamately sounds like a great replacement for LC. The only problem might be standardizing the process and leaks (and math majors like me would have a much harder time getting hired)

[@maucantu]

im interest in the advice for learning to code 1:18

[@smajdovamanka]

Can I pay you to get coaching lessons? I’m late in my career but I need some advice on where to progress further

[@ConnerArdman]

I don't currently do any individual coaching, but happy to try to answer questions on here 😊

[@whiskerAndPetal]

This seems like time consuming approach. What if I have only 2 months to find a job as software engineer with some former working experience. What are the things I should focus on?

[@ConnerArdman]

I actually don't actually think this is a particularly time consuming approach. If your metric is the number of problems solved, then yes it is very time consuming. But if your metric is the ability to solve problems and pass interviews, I think this will take a fairly reasonable amount of time. As for what to spend time on with only 2 months, it really just depends where you're at and how much time you have each day. Generally speaking, if you're shaky on the data structures themselves, focus on those. If you aren't able to consistently solve easy/medium questions, focus mostly on solving more questions. Otherwise, I would focus on a mix of solving questions and improving your communication skills (although this too will depend on where you are at with that).

[@whiskerAndPetal]

@@ConnerArdman Hi Conner, thanks for responding. I said time consuming because for software engineer interview its not only problem solving abilities that are tested, one have to prepare for some frameworks, design patterns, databases, basic system designing concepts too. So to get good grasp of DSA and along with other things would definitely take lot of time. As for me I am able to solve easy to medium questions but mostly with brute force, not able to provide optimal solutions. And when I start solving Bfs/dfs questions it takes me whole day to solve one. But thanks for your suggestions. 🙏

[@ConnerArdman]

Yeah it's definitely time consuming, I didn't word that super well. What I meant was that I don't think this is more time consuming than other methods (i.e. there is no real shortcut, passing FAANG-style interviews just takes a lot of study time regardless for most people). And it sounds like you're on the right path, best of luck with the studies/future interviews!

[@whiskerAndPetal]

@Zaw Htet Aung Yes these screenings are really pointless sometimes and also not right way to judge if candidates are able to perform their duties once hired. Like there is a company Intersystems which take PET and TET screening before conducting actual interviews. Those are nothing related to coding skills more like aptitude tests. Its like putting too much pressures on candidates

[@HashedBahooz]

Hey :) I am interested (about your question at 1:18)

[@OfoeNelson]

I keep reading that developers use skills used to answer DSA questions in everyday work so hearing you say this isn't the case is a bit surprising.

[@ConnerArdman]

It's not that there is no skill overlap at all, but you almost definitely will never reverse a linked list or implement merge sort on the job. There is of course overlap of coding ability and problem solving skills, but the actual algorithms (and many of the data structures) just aren't very common, and if you needed them you'd likely just use a library or Google it.

[@CodingInterviewTV]

Prep is needed but there are apps like Coding Interview Champ that people use to solve these LeetCode interview questions during the coding interview, it's beyond me to judge

[@codelivewithme]

bro make rodemap videos like front end or react.js learning roadmap

[@ConnerArdman]

Yeah this is something I’m considering 🤔

[@codelivewithme]

@@ConnerArdman and I'm waiting 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@vaishnaviprasad2051]

I want to learn everything from the basics to senior frontend engineer advanced expert web dev

[@ConnerArdman]

Good luck!

[@vaishnaviprasad2051]

@@ConnerArdman Hey Conner,Thanks. What does it take to be a senior frontend engineer ? I do have around 3 years of experience but in the technical aspect, not as "meaty " as it should be .what kind of projects should I be adding to my portfolio outside of work ? This answer could be helpful for ppl with 2 to 7years of experience.

[@ConnerArdman]

I quit my job before I had enough time to get promoted to senior, so I'm not sure I am the best person to answer this. But really I think it is mostly about time. For instance, no projects or resume will get someone with 1 year of experience a senior engineering job. From what I've seen, interview performance (especially system design) and years of experience seem to be the major factors in getting senior engineering roles. And as for what kinds of projects to work on, do whatever interests you and seems relatively challenging. In most cases, the project idea doesn't matter nearly as much as just doing the project to gain the development experience (unless of course it is a project that actually takes off as a business).

[@vaishnaviprasad2051]

@@ConnerArdman thank u sooo much Conner,ill definitely keep ur advice in mind.you're the first tech youtuber that I look forward to watching.I recognized from ur mock interviews that u had great confidence in ur skills.and it's been a pleasure watching u .Can't wait to see u with a million subscribers.

[@RahulKumar-ri9rx]

Can you review some of the coding profiles and give some advice where we should focus on??

[@ConnerArdman]

What do you mean coding profiles? Like profiles where?

[@twerkyfingers]

I guess he meant something like: You can post a form and subscribers can submit their Resumes and you can review them and give tips.

[@ConnerArdman]

Yeah I've been thinking about doing a resume or portfolio review type video, I've gotten a lot of requests for it 🤔

[@srijeevbhowal]

Just don't tell Clement 😂😂😂😂

[@sharoncohen318]

Don't overthink what language you interview in, just use Python 👍

[@basilyusuf5201]

Why don’t you blink bro? Awesome content otherwise.

[@ConnerArdman]

Lol probably from focusing so hard on what I was trying to remember to say 🤷‍♂️

[@abhirajkumar882]

@@ConnerArdman I am an Indian and speaks in hindi primarily, however I do speak english but not as fluent as a native does, so my question to you is: Do natives also have to remember things when they speak in english? Like can't they naturally speak whatever just comes to mind. When I speak in hindi, Whatever I know about comes effortlessly, but in english I almost always pass out .

[@abhirajkumar882]

Btw Conner I have purchased FrontEnd expert last month and Contents are really awesome. All the garden's best fruits curated at one place . 🎉

[@ConnerArdman]

Thanks, glad you are enjoying FrontendExpert! As for speaking fluently, I would imagine there isn't much difference from one language to another if you are speaking your native language. That said, there is a difference between speaking fluently and speaking concisely. I mostly meant I was focused on the concise part, because I don't want to sound like I am rambling.

[@DYLOGaming]

Anytime I’ve done on camera work, I can’t stop blinking lol. I wish I could hold my eyes open as long!

[@justinma9518]

public static void gum

[@jsg9575]

Conner at 6:45: "The interviewer isn't going to sit you in some room, link to leetcode, and come back in 45 minutes" - That's literally what happened in my first interview except it was 30 minutes for 6 questions on their own platform. 🤣

[@ConnerArdman]

That sounds awful 🤣. What's the point of having an onsite if they just want to give you a coding challenge? And 5 minutes per question, they better be asking FizzBuzz exclusively...

[@soviut303]

If an interview requires studying, it's broken. They're interviewing you on ability to study for an interview, not on your skills, knowledge or aptitude. I really wish these types of videos would come with a bigger disclaimer at the beginning and more suggestions on what actual good interviews are supposed to be like. Because I fear these just reinforce the cargo culting mentality of tech companies because applicants aren't demanding better of them. Left unchecked, it'll infect more and more startups as ex-FAANG folks start companies or get hired as CTOs.

[@noymar2210]

So how else would you standardize hiring a large number of engineers at scale? Quizzing people on random code trivia to test for "passion" can be exploited even more than doing LC prep. Evaluating engineers based on their work experience has a major major flaw because 1) anyone can embellish their accomplishments, 2) you can easily pigeonhole yourself into being stagnant for 20 years, 3) there aren't enough senior engineers in existence to accurately judge another senior engineer. Take home coding assignments can also be hacked and honestly, I'd rather do an hour-long mathematical puzzle than 15 hours of coding for a job that I may not get.

[@soviut303]

@@noymar2210 Never trivia or brain teasers! What's worked best for all of my hiring is a simple take-home that more accurately reflect the actual job they'll be expected to do. They choose the languages and/or frameworks they're most comfortable with. If the take home looks decent, you proceed to an on-cam maintenance session where you ask them to perform some updates to their own code. I've encountered plenty of candidates who copied the assignment and couldn't maintain it, or chose a language/framework they're not familiar with trying to impress me/us. On the flip side, for example, I've seen backend devs do the entire exercise as a CLI application and wind up killing it on the frontend once hired. If we'd be testing them outside their comfort zone, we never would have passed right over a hidden gem. What an interview is REALLY after is APTITUDE; I want to know how well you'll mesh with a team, how well you communicate, how you think through problems. Not how well you can memorize shit you'll almost never use.

[@noymar2210]

@@soviut303 Brain teasers have been used by quant firms since time immemorial and they're making bank, so you shouldn't discount them outright. It's a proxy for IQ (some firms make you do an IQ test outright despite it being illegal). Also, as a new grad math major who was able to land a role as a SDE II at Amazon with minimal coding experience, I'll take the math puzzle over a take home anyday. I only took the intro to python, MATLAB, and the honors algorithms course from my uni, doing most of the blind 75, and typical interview prep. Your method does sound attractive, but 1) some companies might abuse this to get infinite free labor, 2) again, I and probably many others would rather not do a take home even without a math background bias. It's just too much of a time investment if I'm interviewing for multiple jobs and they all want me to do something. With LC, I can take the few months to build the skill and do some light reviews a few years down the line for interviews. 3) if big tech adopts your method, it seems verrrrry ripe for abuse by paying an experienced engineer to code an amazing solution and have them coach you by drilling potential interview questions related to the assignment. At least with LC, you can guarantee a minimum level of problem solving and coding skills (disregarding the few who get lucky by getting tested on questions they've seen before ofc)

[@soviut303]

@@noymar2210 Brain teasers were other orgs trying to cargo cult Microsoft in the 90s. They've since moved on because they realized that they're responsible for attracting a monoculture. 1) The take home is never an actual task; it's a mild abstraction. I usually get candidates to build a todo list (something that's obviously not our product, but the operations it require are used day-to-day). It's also meant to be very short; 2-3 hours tops. These people are often already working and they don't need days worth of homework. 2) Take homes should be reflective OF THE WORK, not something theoretical. If the job requires a lot of math on a day to day basis, fine, include it. But don't test for things you don't do regularly. 3) You can't abuse the take home. The whole point is you do the work because you'll be expected to maintain your own code in the follow up. All you're looking for is whether they met the requirements of the take home. Them _overdoing_ it often disqualifies them because it shows they can't follow a spec.

[@soviut303]

@@noymar2210 The whole point is to avoid tests that can be gamed or the "answer" posted on Glass Door. Hell, we posted our current test requirements right on the job board.

[@taushutk19]

whats that hairstyle called

[@Od253]

Bruh nobody needs to know what red black trees are…

[@ziadamer7621]

thanks sir for this huge amount of information ❤

[@ConnerArdman]

Thank you! But now you got me curious, what happens if you pass Math.Infinity to repeat? Pretty sure that’s how to break the simulation 🤔 Edit: The repeat thing was edited out and now I look crazy 😂

[@ziadamer7621]

@@ConnerArdman no sir i can redo that again 😂😂 console.log("bigLoveSir".repeat(∞))

[@ziadamer7621]

@@ConnerArdman ooh i forget semicolon but any way javascript is friendly 😂 sir that make me asking .. i saw you doing semicolon in coding interview although that is okay if u don't in javascript ... the question is .. Would this affect me if I didn't do it in coding interview ?

[@ConnerArdman]

I think it’s fine either way, just be consistent. From what I’ve seen, it seems to be more common to include them than not, but excluding semicolons is perfectly fine if you prefer it. There are some edge cases where automatic semicolon insertion doesn’t work great, but they’re basically impossible to run into unintentionally.

[@ziadamer7621]

@@ConnerArdman Thanks sir Appreciate ur advices ♥️ Following from Egypt

[@emmanuelerinwusi5539]

Thanks!!