Unscripted Interview Videos

The Cracking the Coding Interview Videos are unscripted videos showing you what happens in a real technical interview. Watch Gayle L. McDowell, the founder and CEO of CareerCup, interview a candidate, just like she did over 100 times for big companies like Google and Microsoft. Watch how candidates face a new problem, dissect it, and code it on the white board.

What do we mean by "unscripted?"

Exactly what it sounds like. The candidates were not told what to say when, or how to solve the question. They didn't even know what they would be asked until the cameras were rolling! In other words, what you are watching is 100% true-to-life.

These videos will:

  • Expose you to what a real Google / Microsoft / Amazon interview is like.
  • Show you how to handle questions when you don't know the answer.
  • Show you, via mid-video pop-ups, what is going well and what the interviewer is thinking about.
  • Teach you what Google, Microsoft and Amazon look for in an interview.

Episodes


BUY ALL

Full Interview with Danny


The Full Interview Video is a video that shows you what an interview is like, from start to end. The contents include:
- Overview of what companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon look for.
- Discussion of the candidate's resume, to show you how to discuss your resume and what you're likely to be asked.
- Two coding and algorithms questions (including white-boarding coding). This candidate didn't know the answers, so you can learn how to handle this situation.

Great For: General / Resume Questions. Algorithms and Whiteboard Coding. Understanding what a real interview is like.

Largest Increasing Subsequence (Interview with Jon)

Interview Question: Given an array with positive and negative integers, find the largest increasing subsequence in an array.

Great For: Algorithms and Whiteboard Coding.

T9 Auto-Correction (Interview with Alexey)

Interview Question: Implement T-9 auto-correction. That is, imagine a classic phone keypad where each digit corresponds to several letters. Given a sequence of digits, find a word in the dictionary that matches those digits.

Great For: Algorithms and Whiteboard Coding.

Ransom Note (Interview with Lauren)

Interview Question: Given a ransom note (an array of characters), design an algorithm to check if it can be built from a magazine (another array of characters).

Great For: Algorithms and Whiteboard Coding.

Implement GetNextNode in Binary Tree (Interview with Scott)

Interview Question: Implement GetNextNode, which finds the next node in an in-order traversal of a binary tree. Each node has a link to its parent.

Great For: Algorithms and Whiteboard Coding.

Design a Calculator for the Blind (Interview with Lauren)

Interview Question: How would you design a calculator for the blind?

Great For: Program Manager Interviews, Product Manager Interviews, and Design Questions.

About the Author
Gayle Laakmann McDowell's interviewing expertise comes from vast experience on both sides of the desk. She has completed Software Engineering interviews with - and received offers from - Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, IBM, Goldman Sachs, Capital IQ, and a number of other firms.

Of these top companies, she has worked for Microsoft, Apple and Google, where she gained deep insight into each company's hiring practices.

Most recently, Gayle spent three years at Google as a Software Engineer and was one of the company's lead interviewers. She interviewed over 120 candidates in the U.S. and abroad, and led much of the recruiting for her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania.

Additionally, she served on Google's Hiring Committee, where she reviewed each candidate's feedback and made hire / no-hire decisions. She assessed over 700 candidates in that role, and evaluated hundreds more resumes.

In 2005, Gayle founded CareerCup.com to bring her wealth of experience to candidates around the world. Launched first as a free forum for interview questions, CareerCup now offers a book, a video and mock interviews.

Gayle graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's and a master's degree in Computer Science.

Books

is a comprehensive book on getting a job at a top tech company, while focuses on dev interviews and does this for PMs.

Learn More

Videos

CareerCup's interview videos give you a real-life look at technical interviews. In these unscripted videos, watch how other candidates handle tough questions and how the interviewer thinks about their performance.

Learn More

Resume Review

Most engineers make critical mistakes on their resumes -- we can fix your resume with our custom resume review service. And, we use fellow engineers as our resume reviewers, so you can be sure that we "get" what you're saying.

Learn More

Mock Interviews

Our Mock Interviews will be conducted "in character" just like a real interview, and can focus on whatever topics you want. All our interviewers have worked for Microsoft, Google or Amazon, you know you'll get a true-to-life experience.

Learn More