Introduction
As I get nearer to the start date of my software engineering job, I am beginning to reflect on the trials and tribulations I faced during the OSU program and the interview process. In this post, I would like to shout out some learning resources that have personally helped me out a ton.
Abdul Bari (YouTube)
Algorithms was one of the hardest classes I took at OSU, if not the hardest. I often felt very lost during the course, and the course materials were not sufficient enough to make the material click in my head. I found Abdul Bari’s lectures to be a great supplement to learning algorithms. He is excellent at explaining theoretical concepts, and walks through examples and coding implementations to demonstrate more clearly how these algorithms work.
Grokking Algorithms – Aditya Bhargava
Grokking Algorithms is a great book for anyone who is looking to learn or review data structures and algorithms. It is a digestible, easy-to-read book that explains algorithmic concepts in layman’s terms. This book definitely helped me out when I found that the CS 325 textbook was too dense or full with jargon for me to understand.
NeetCode (YouTube)
For anyone who is still in the process of undergoing technical interviews (especially to those who use Python), I recommend taking a look at this channel. I have tried using various books, including the famed Cracking the Coding Interview, but I have found that I learn much better in a video/audio format. NeetCode does a good job of diagramming out a problem, and walks through many examples while checking for edge cases. This is a key technique to learn for an actual interview, as it is essential that you communicate your reasoning before actually writing out your code. This channel’s solutions have helped me greatly any time I have found myself stuck on a LeetCode question.
Corey Schafer (YouTube)
Corey Schafer is a great YouTube resource for anyone who is looking to learn Python or one of its frameworks. His Python tutorial for beginners is actually meant for beginners – meaning that he expects you to have no previous technical experience and walks you through from the basics (including installing Python, setting up IDEs, etc.). I am currently using his Django tutorial in order to implement some of the features for the capstone project I am currently working on!
