Coderust: Hacking the Coding Interview review [FAANG interview prep]

Coding interviews are a pain in the butt.

Frequently, the questions asked have nothing to do with the tasks you’ll be performing on the job as a software engineer.

For example – when’s the last time you needed to serialize and deserialize a binary tree when debugging that Vue ecommerce app?

Yeah…never.

But these types of questions are becoming more popular among employers, and are the de facto practice at the FAANGs.

And of you want to pass the FAANG coding interviews, you have to play their game.

Disclosure: I’m an affiliate of Educative.io and may get compensated if you buy something. Read my disclosure for more details.

TLDR

💾 Hacking the Coding Interview by Coderust on Educative.io helps you solve very specific coding challenges asked at FAANG companies.

🛎️ It features over 400 FAANG-level challenges, nearly 550 coding playgrounds, and 1500 illustrations.

🔎 Best part? Educative.io offers a 7-day free trial.

So where do I start?

Coderust on Educative.io dropped a course exactly for that purpose.

Hacking the Coding Interview walks you through over 80 problems, showing you their solutions with step-by-step visualizations.

With coding playgrounds that run in the browser, there is zero configuration time and you can modify your solutions easily.

Today we’re taking a look behind Hacking the Coding Interview, what to expect, and whether or not you can benefit from it.

Vital Stats

• 83 lessons
• 414 challenges
• 548 code playgrounds
• 52 code snippets
• 1525 illustrations

Major sections include:

• Arrays
• Linked Lists
• Math and Stats
• String
• Trees
• Stacks and Queues
• Graphs
• Back Tracking
• Dynamic Programming
• Miscellaneous

Table 1: Coderust sections and challenges

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Coderust Sample Problem

Now let’s take a look at a sample problem you’ll encounter in Hacking the Coding Interview. Each problem starts off with a table of contents so you’ll know exactly what to expect.

Implement Quicksort

Given an integer array, sort it in ascending order using the quicksort algorithm.

Right away you’re given two “freebie” hints: 1) use the divide and conquer strategy 2) use Hoare’s algorithm.

Then, it’s time to have fun in the built-in coding playground with your language of choice:

• C++
• Java
• Python
• JavaScript
• Ruby

Then, you’re provided a written overview of how a quicksort algorithm works.

Finally, you’re provided another coding playground that contains a possible solution:

Of course, you should always optimize your answer. Try coming up with a few and see how they perform!

There is a timer in each playground for that purpose. The implement quicksort challenge is less “bulky” than many of the other questions here, but the layout and workflow is essentially the same for each of them.

Coderust Pros & Cons

There are lots of courses out there that show you how to solve computer science challenges. So what makes Coderust’s Hacking the Coding Interview stand out? And what makes it not so great? Let’s look at its pros and cons.

Pro: Multiple Programming Language Support

Most prep courses offer solutions in only one language. For example, the highly acclaimed Cracking the Coding Interview book only includes solutions in Java. But Coderust expands to five languages. That means you can test your solutions in C++, Java, Python, JavaScript and/or Ruby. This is the case for every challenge, whether you’re asked to rotate an array, implement quicksort or find the smallest common number.

Pro: Feature rich

Platforms like leetcode and codewars can help prepare you for real-life interview coding questions.

But one of their downsides is that they don’t walk you through the solutions in explicit detail.

This is where the Coderust course outshines the free platforms.

From its organization and diversity of topics, to the code playgrounds, code snippets and illustrations, it’s a classic case of “you get what you pay for.”

There are over 1500 illustrations including slideshows that should you exactly how things work.

For example, while the quicksort algorithm is explained with text in bullet points, it’s also depicted in a 22-slide illustration:

Pro: Fair Pricing & Subscription Option

From a financial investment standpoint, the nice thing about Coderust’s Hacking the Coding Interview is that you can buy a monthly subscription to Educative.io.

That way, you can take this course and hundreds of others as needed.

In my opinion, you can’t go wrong with the subscription even if you just need to prepare for a technical interview.

But if you only need this course, you can buy it a la carte too.

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Con: Perpetuates an impractical ritual

Asking a candidate to find Kth permutation at an interview is nothing less than a high-tech hazing ritual.

These questions almost always have nothing to do with your daily duties as a software engineer.

Unfortunately, interview prep for software engineers that centers on computer science trivia is now a cottage industry.

And although a solid course, Coderust’s Hacking the Coding Interview does play into these practices originally adopted by FAANGs, and are now used by many other companies.

So like it or not, it’s here to stay. And something you should probably learn if you want to pass the FAANG interview.

Coderust vs Grokking the Coding Interview

Let’s take a look at how Hacking the Coding Interview by Coderust compares to Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions by Design Gurus.

Software engineer interview prep materials are competitive.

And Coderust has plenty of competition just on the Educative.io platform alone. Their biggest rival is Design Gurus, whose Grokking series includes fan favorite Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions.

And while Grokking is a high quality series, it targets intermediate developers while Coderust is geared towards beginners.

Additionally, the Coderust course emphasizes challenges over lessons, whereas Grokking the Coding Interview weaves in a lesson (often multiple) for each coding challenge.

Both courses offer multiple programming language support, but Grokking the Coding Interview doesn’t support Ruby.

The Coderust course also has nearly 7x more illustrations than the Grokking the Coding Interview course. If you’re a visual learner, Coderust has the clear advantage here over Grokking.

Most significantly, the Coderust course focuses on solving very specific coding challenges, while Grokking teaches you patterns to solve problems thrown your way.

For example, Coderust wants you to reverse a singly linked list, while Grokking introduces you to the Fast & Slow pointers pattern.

This is a pointer algorithm that uses two pointers to move through an array/sequence/linked list and you can use it to solve many problems.

If you are a beginner, a visual learner, or need Ruby support choose Coderust’s Hacking the Coding Interview.

And if you’re more advanced, and need to focus more on patterns rather than implementation, choose Grokking the Coding Interview.

📚 If you want to know more, read our full Grokking the Coding Interview review.

Hacking the Coding Interview: Conclusion

Hacking the Coding Interview by Coderust is an ambitious entry into the FAANG interview prep world.

Its strongest selling points are its selection of programming language options, diversity of questions, and visual aids such as illustrations and code snippets.

This course is highly useful for people wanting a FAANG-level job where they are certain to encounter computer science trivia questions.

And while there are numerous other platforms like leetcode that provide similar coding challenges, the Coderust course Hacking the Coding Interview is more illustrative and descriptive with step-by-step explanations.

🔎 Check out Hacking the Coding Interview here.

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• 9 FAANG Interview Courses You Can’t Afford to Miss Out On [Get Hired at a FAANG]
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SUMMARY Hacking the Coding Interview by Coderust is an ambitious entry into the FAANG interview prep world. Its strongest selling points are its selection of programming language options, diversity of questions, and visual aids such as illustrations and code snippets. Despite perpetuating an impractical ritual, Hacking the Coding Interview is highly useful for people seeking a FAANG-level job.	4.5