So you’ve gotten this far: you’re taking coding seriously. You’re studying and disciplined. At this stage, you’ve probably made the decision to pursue a programming career.
And you’re ready to take the next step: Applying to your favorite FAANG companies.
With all the options out there, it’s hard to know what coding interview course to pick.
But never fear.
Today we’re dropping our top 5 courses to get you interview-ready:
- AlgoExpert
- Ace the JavaScript Coding Interview
- Coderust: Hacking the Coding Interview
- Grokking the Coding Interview
- Master the Coding Interview: Data Structures & Algorithms
Plus, we have 3 bonus resources to prepare you for your coding interviews:
- How to Get a Job in Web Development – non-technical job preparation course on RealToughCandy.io.
- Candidate Planet – engineering interviewers give video guidance of the interview process and offer consultations
- Cracking the Coding Interview – comprehensive book written by a Google hiring committee member. Contains almost 200 actual FAANG interview questions
Each coding interview course is densely packed with content: playgrounds, snippets, challenges, samples, illustrations, and so much more.
And the bonus materials are filled to the brim with real-world insight from experienced software developers.
This post contains affiliate links. I may receive compensation if you buy something. Read my disclosure for more details.
Coding Interview Course 1: ALGOEXPERT
For many of us, Clément Mihailescu has been a staple throughout our coding journey. He worked at Google and Facebook, and has a wildly successful YouTube channel sharing tips, experience and advice.
He left the FAANGs behind to create his own platform, AlgoExpert.
It combines interactive code editors with two-part video explanations. Plus with its set of 150+ questions, this coding course is immersive.
Integrated Training Environment
A unique feature of AlgoExpert is the 4-pane coding section. For example, in one pane you can:
- read prompts
- use a scratchpad
- view coded solutions
- watch solution videos
In addition, there are also some fun options in the editor key maps: Sublime, emacs, vim, whiteboard toggle, stopwatch, and some others.
And you can practice coding in the programming language of your choice:
- JavaScript
- Python
- C++
- C#
- Java
- Go
- Swift
- TypeScript
- Kotlin
150+ Questions
Currently AlgoExpert features 150+ questions you’re most likely to encounter at a FAANG. The 5 difficulty levels range from Easy to Extremely Hard.
Categories include:
- Binary Search Trees
- Binary Trees
- Linked Lists
- Searching
- Strings
- Arrays
- Stacks
- Dynamic Programming
- Famous Algorithms
- Recursion
- Sorting
- Graphs
- Heaps
- Tries
Also, some challenges include Nth Fibonacci, depth-first search, group anagrams and palindrome partitioning, just to name a few.
100 Hours of Video
Clément uses Python in the video walk-throughs because it’s an easy language to read.
The videos are separated in two parts:
Conceptual Overview: You’ll develop a strategy on how to approach, implement, optimize, and analyze space-time complexity for the given algorithm.
Code Walk-through: This code walk-through focuses on implementation of how you code solutions to given problems.
NEW TO THE PLATFORM
AlgoExpert now offers:
Behavioral Interview Prep
This is a set of 15 videos:
- 3 videos providing advice for behavioral interviews
- 12 videos offering theoretical answers to behavioral interview questions
Coding Interview Assessments
4 practice assessments mimic a realistic coding interview:
- spend 4 hours answering 2 questions
- take a 1-hour break
- spend 4 hours answering 2 questions
This is a more challenging portion of AlgoExpert.
AlgoExpert provides a thorough, in depth approach which will leave you with a deeper understanding of algorithms. In turn, you will be better prepared for your FAANG interview.
👉 Check out AlgoExpert here. Use the code realtoughcandy for 10% off.
Coding Interview Course 2: ACE THE JAVASCRIPT CODING INTERVIEW 7-Course Track ✨
Ace the JavaScript Coding Interview is a comprehensive 7-course track by Educative. It covers all things JavaScript and prepares you for technical interview questions with courses on:
- Data structures
- Recursion
- Big O notation
- Patterns for coding questions
- System design
- Object-oriented design
- Programming patterns
Along with these topics, you’ll go over theory and have ample chances to practice concepts within each course. This track can benefit anyone preparing for a JavaScript interview.
Courses
✨ i. Data Structures in JavaScript
⚠️ Level: Beginner
| Lessons | 217 |
| Quizzes | 25 |
| Challenges | 60 |
| Playgrounds | 163 |
| Code Snippets | 163 |
| Illustrations | 817 |
Data structures are essential in developing efficient programs. And they’re considered to be a vital component of computer science knowledge.
This course contains detailed reviews of common data structures. It also provides real-world application examples.
✨ ii. Recursion for Coding Interviews in JavaScript
⚠️ Level: Intermediate
| Lessons | 58 |
| Quizzes | 6 |
| Challenges | 15 |
| Playgrounds | 39 |
| Code Snippets | 53 |
| Illustrations | 666 |
This course is for developers already familiar with recursion. Moreover, it’s for those who want to understand it better or polish their skills.
With detailed explanations and visualizations, this is a great way to practice recursion before the big interview.
✨ iii. Big-O Notation for Coding Interviews and Beyond
⚠️ Level: Beginner
| Lessons | 47 |
| Quizzes | 12 |
| Playgrounds | 15 |
| Code Snippets | 21 |
| Illustrations | 60 |
Simply put, this is a practical guide to algorithmic complexity.
While listed as a beginner-level course and using simple terminology, this course is intended for professionals that lack formal education in computer science and mathematics.
✨ iv. Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions
⚠️ Level: Intermediate
| Lessons | 182 |
| Challenges | 125 |
| Playgrounds | 1051 |
| Code Snippets | 342 |
| Illustrations | 214 |
This course contains a list of 16 coding patterns that use similar techniques. Importantly, the idea is that you’ll be able to solve multiple problems once you become familiar with a pattern.
The techniques taught in this course have helped numerous software engineers receive offers at top FAANG companies.
✨ v. Grokking the Object Oriented Design Interview
⚠️ Level: Beginner
| Lessons | 25 |
| Code Snippets | 181 |
| Illustrations | 108 |
Because it’s so open-ended with no standard answer, many engineers struggle through the object-oriented design portion of interviews.
Luckily, this course is designed by the people who understand it better than most: the hiring managers of Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon. And they’ve selected the most frequently asked object-oriented design scenarios as examples in this thorough course.
✨ vi. Grokking the System Design Interview
⚠️ Level: Beginner
| Lessons | 31 |
| Playgrounds | 2 |
| Code Snippets | 22 |
| Illustrations | 102 |
Engineers often struggle with system design interview due to its unstructured nature and lack of experience.
Like the previous course, Grokking the System Design Interview was designed by hiring managers from Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon. They use top questions asked at interviews and provide thorough details on how to handle any major system design problem.
✨ vi. Grokking Dynamic Programming Patterns for Coding Interviews
⚠️ Level: Beginner
| Lessons | 38 |
| Challenges | 28 |
| Playgrounds | 392 |
| Code Snippets | 44 |
| Illustrations | 252 |
Dynamic Programming problems are solved in this course using a recursive brute-force solution. Then advanced dynamic programming methods of memoization and tabulation are applied.
The questions selected in this course are some of the most frequently asked during coding interviews.
If JavaScript is your preferred programming language, this 7-course track is an effective tool for interview prep.
👉 Check out Ace the JavaScript Coding Interview here.
Coding Interview Course 3. GROKKING THE CODING INTERVIEW: Patterns for Coding Questions
| Lessons | 182 |
| Challenges | 125 |
| Playgrounds | 1051 |
| Code Snippets | 342 |
| Illustrations | 214 |
This interactive interview prep course is useful for aspiring FAANG engineers. And the coding playgrounds can be navigated using Java, Python3, JavaScript and C++.
With 16 patterns, you can map new problems from existing ones. By understanding each pattern, you can solve multiple problems using them. There are ample help sections to guide your learning.
The 16 patterns in this coding interview course include:
- Sliding Window
- Two Pointers
- Fast & Slow Pointers
- Merge Intervals
- Cyclic Sort
- In-place Reversal of a LinkedList
- Tree Breadth First Search
- Tree Depth First Search
- Two Heaps
- Subsets
- Modified Binary Search
- Bitwise XOR
- Top ‘K’ Elements
- K-way Merge
- 0/1 Knapsack (Dynamic Programming)
- Topological Sort (Graph)
The patterns and questions in the course are regularly asked FAANG interviews.
👉 Check out Grokking the Coding Interview here.
Coding Interview Course 4: CODERUST: HACKING THE CODING INTERVIEW
| 83 lessons |
| 548 coding playgrounds |
| 52 code snippets |
| 414 challenges |
| 1525 illustrations |
Coderust’s mission is to help you prepare for programming interviews. And Hacking the Coding Interview is their latest coding interview course.
This course features over 80 coding problems, step-by-step solutions, and in-browser coding playgrounds.
Some major sections of the course include:
- Strings
- Trees
- Stacks and Queues
- Math and Stats
- Dynamic Programming
- Graphs
- Trees
- Linked Lists
- Arrays
Additionally, there’s some miscellaneous coursework.
Pick your programming language
Similar to AlgoExpert, Hacking the Coding Interview you allows you to choose your programming language:
- Java
- C++
- JavaScript
- Python
- Ruby
There are detailed walk-throughs in this coding interview course.
Along with a little bit of…
Computer Science Trivia 😱
Love it or hate it, we can’t escape the hazing-type trivia questions surrounding FAANG interviews. Although it has little to do with your actual job, these companies still want to see if you know your stuff.
This course prepares you for such questions. As irrelevant as these questions often are, you’d be kicking yourself if you didn’t get the job for not knowing them.
👉 Check out Coderust: Hacking the Coding Interview here.
Coding Interview Course 5: MASTER THE CODING INTERVIEW: DATA STRUCTURES & ALGORITHMS ⚡
While Andrei Neagoie has been a wildly successful instructor on Udemy, he’s finally launched his own: Zero to Mastery. As a self-taught full stack developer, Andrei climbed the ranks to senior developer for various companies in Silicon Valley and Toronto.
With a focus on underrepresented populations, he wants to show the world the opportunities that open up with a career in web development. He does this by using up-to-date real-life skills and topics.
Master the Coding Interview: Data Structures & Algorithms features both technical and nontechnical questions.
Technical ⚡
Technical topics include:
- Big O notation
- How to Solve Coding Problems
- Data Structures: Introduction
- Arrays
- Hash Tables
- Linked Lists
- Stacks + Queues
- Trees
- Graphs
- Recursion
- Sorting
- Algorithms: Searching + BFS + DFS
- Dynamic Programming
- Google, Amazon, & Facebook interview questions
Non-Technical ⚡
Non-technical topics include:
- The social aspect of interviewing
- Offer & negotiation
- Learning Guide
And there’s much more.
With over 19 hours of video, this coding interview course is a must-have for those who prefer videos.
👉 Check out Master the Coding Interview: Data Structures and Algorithms here.
🌊 BONUS MATERIALS 🏄♀️
Once you decide on a coding interview course, check out these extras:
HOW TO GET A JOB IN WEB DEVELOPMENT
RTC started off as a self-taught web developer. Through trial and error, she learned how to forage ahead to become a successful dev.
She’s since authored 4 books, started the education platform RealToughCandy.io, and has hundreds of videos on all things web development.
How to Get a Job in Web Development is a highly acclaimed course among students and peers:
“RTC is a fantastic instructor. Her passion shows in everything she puts out. Everything is explained in a very understandable way for aspiring and established developers and she knows her stuff. Great job!” – Brad Traversy, Traversy Media
This course offers over 2 hours of on-demand video of explanations, examples, and real-world interview scenarios. It also contains downloadable resume and cover letter samples.
Course overview
You’ll learn how to:
- craft your “Holy Clover” of application materials: resume, cover letter, GitHub account, and portfolio
- harness the power of LinkedIn, Meetups, and social media
- efficiently organize and prioritize job applications
- maximize your salary demands during negotiation
- prepare for interviews (phone, video, or in person)
- check in and follow up with your potential employer
And much more!
Course Sections
How to Get a Job in Web Development is broken down into specific, digestible chapters:
- Introduction to the Holy Clover
- Resume Revamp
- The Craft of the Cover Letter
- Gitting Good with GitHub
- Polishing your Portfolio
- Finding A Job
- The Post-Application Process
- The Interviews
- The Follow-Up
- Job Offer & Salary Negotiation
- Your First Week on the Job
- Where to Find Coding Questions and Challenges
- Minimizing Discrimination
- Plus BONUS VIDEOS
Unlike other courses on our list, How to Get a Job in Web Development is designed for junior web developers.
This course also has a best-selling companion book.
👉 Check out How to Get a Job in Web Development here.
💫CANDIDATE PLANET
What better way to prepare for a coding interview than getting tips from active engineering interviewers? Candidate Planet is a a project by Lusen Mendel offering interview and negotiation coaching.
Their YouTube channel covers a range of coding interview topics:
- Acing remote interviews
- OOP design questions
- Salary negotiation
- And much more
One of my favorite aspects of this channel is their mock interviews. After acting out the role of interviewer/interviewee with featured guests, they dissect the interaction. From there, they offer realistic expectations for interview pace, questions, responses and more.
If you’d like some guidance when it comes to interviews and salary negotiation, check out Candidate Planet.
👉 Check out Candidate Planet here.
📗 CRACKING THE CODING INTERVIEW
Cracking the Coding Interview is pretty much the book version of a coding interview course. Author Gayle Laakmann McDowell has insider knowledge: she’s worked as a software engineer at Google, Microsoft and Apple. And she interviewed hundreds of software engineers at Google.
McDowell compiled this book from actual coding problems used at these major companies. She goes over everything from interview prep to soft skills, Big O notation to technical questions, and salary negotiation to your first week on the job.
The book also contains almost 200 coding questions with hints and solutions.
Note: The programming questions are written in Java.
Cracking the Coding Interview is broken down into two sections.
📗 The first section covers:
- The Interview Process
- Behind the Scenes at FAANG companies
- Special Situations
- Before the Interview
- Behavioral Questions
- Big O notation
- The Offer and Beyond
📗 Section 2 covers interview coding questions:
- Object-Oriented Design
- Data Structures
- Threads and Locks
- Arrays and Strings
- Linked Lists
- Stacks and Queues
- Trees and Graphs
- Concepts and Algorithms
- Bit Manipulation
- Math and Logic Puzzles
- Recursion and Dynamic Programming
- System Design and Scalability
- Sorting and Searching
- Databases
And all problems contain hints and solutions.
Some advanced topics include Dijkstra’s Algorithm and Hash Table Collision Resolution. And a LOT much more. (Check out our detailed review here.)
“This got me through four interviews, and I got an offer from each one.” – Sean Callanan
👉 Check out Cracking the Coding Interview here.
CONCLUSION
If you’re ready to interview with a FAANG, a coding interview course might be just what you need. Our top five picks:
- AlgoExpert
- Ace the JavaScript Coding Interview
- Coderust: Hacking the Coding Interview
- Grokking the Coding Interview
- Master the Coding Interview: Data Structures & Algorithms
Many students from these courses have gone on to work for Amazon, Google, Facebook, and others.
And don’t forget our bonus resources:
- How to Get a Job in Web Development course on RealToughCandy.io
- Candidate Planet videos and consultation on all things interview-related
- Cracking the Coding Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell
By using a combination of these recommended courses and bonus resources, you’ll access insight from industry experts – on both sides of the interview table.
Up next: 4 high-quality HackerRank alternatives (plus 7 honorable mentions)
Do you need to take a coding interview course to get hired at a FAANG?
No you don’t need to take a coding interview course to get hired at a FAANG. However, if want to improve your chances, it is highly recommended. A benefit to taking one of the courses we have listed is that they all have helped get their students hired at a FAANG. And many of the instructors have worked at places like Facebook, Amazon and Google. Our top 5 courses are:
1. AlgoExpert
2. Ace the JavaScript Coding Interview
3. Coderust: Hacking the Coding Interview
4. Grokking the Coding Interview
5. Master the Coding Interview: Data Structures & AlgorithmsWhat are alternatives to coding interview courses?
You can prepare for a FAANG interview without a coding interview course. While they are helpful, they are not for everybody. Check out Cracking the Coding Interview. The book offers almost 200 programming questions asked at FAANGs. In addition, RTC created the course How to Get a Job in Web Development on RealToughCandy. It’s to help junior developers land their first dev job. This course largely focuses on the non-technical aspects of interviews and landing a job. Thirdly, Candidate Planet is a YouTube channel by Lusen Mendel. As an active software engineer interviewer, they offer tips, advice, and consultation for anyone preparing for their big interview.