(From a class of 2012 graduate who wishes to be anonymous.)
Here are three books which I found very useful when preparing for software engineering interviews:
- John Mongan, Noah Suojanen, and Eric Giguere, Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job, 2nd edition This book was recommended to me by a Microsoft recruiter and in all my Microsoft interviews (3 in total) I have been asked a question directly from this book. The book covers the most common types of programming questions asked during interviews and is a must have. With this book you can cover the basics so you don’t get caught off guard during the easy questions.
- Gayle McDowell. Cracking the Coding Interview: 150 Programming Questions and Solutions This book is somewhat of a continuation from the one above. The author has spent a lot of time working as an engineer and interviewing and recruiting students at all the major software companies. The questions she presents are very relevant and useful. Her website (www.careercup.com) has a forum where students post questions they’ve been recently asked at some companies.
- Adnan Aziz and Amit Prakash. Algorithms for Interviews This is the last book you should work through. It has some of the more complicated problems asked during interviews like dynamic programming. It has a heavy emphasis on algorithm design. I have also been asked questions directly from this book.