How much DSA to prepare for frontEnd developer interview
I get these questions very often in my Youtube channel — Uncommon Geeks and in my LinkedIn.
“Vasanth I’m preparing for the Microsoft frontEnd role, should I need to prepare for Graphs or not ?”
“ I’m preparing for SAP, is JavaScript sufficient or do I need to learn any other language? So that I can find DSA solutions quickly. “
I decided to write this article, to cover all the things that you need to know about frontEnd developers preparing for DSA.
If you’re too lazy to read, you can watch my 14 Minute Youtube video below, that explains everything in detail or you can also read my article.
I have summarised the entire frontEnd DSA interview into a small image which is attached below.
Lets bifurcate the list of companies into 3 parts depending on the salary that they offer.
Tier 1 — MAANG
If you’re preparing for MAANG (Meta, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) there is no fixed pattern that you can practice during interview preparation. They can ask questions from almost all the DSA topics. So, Don’t just stick to JavaScript in this case. As you may not find all solutions in JavaScript. Learn languages like Java or Python, so that you will find solutions to all the problems.
Tier 1 — NON - MAANG
There are many premium companies that will fall in Tier 1 category but they are not MAANG. Ex: Adobe, Microsoft etc. You can skip Graphs DS for these interviews. But you need to prepare Array, String, Stack, Queue, LinkedList and trees. JavaScript should be sufficient to learn these DSA and related questions. But if you have a good amount of time for preparation, then you can also learn Python orJava. But it is not mandatory.
Tier 2
For tier 2 companies you can limit yourself to Array, String, Stack, Queue, LinkedList, Trees only if you get time. Compared Tier 1 MAANG and non-MAANG interviews in these companies will be very easy. You can practice all common medium difficulty and company tagged questions in Leetcode. That should be sufficient to crack interviews in these companies.
Tier 3
All service companies and emerging startups who are not funded will fall in this category. Obviously their bar will be low w.r.t to DSA. Reason for that is simple. First of all the salary that they offer will be very less. Second of all, the DSA needed inside the company will also be very limited. So, JavaScript as a programming language and Array, String, Stack, Queue as DS should be more than sufficient to clear these interviews. You can limit yourself to practice all questions in geeksforgeeks, only if you have time, you can use Leetcode.
Above diagram may not hold good in all the cases, because some companies may move between Tier’s. So, my advice is to constantly look out for interview feedback in Glassdoor and Leetcode interview feedback section for most recently asked interview questions. Sometimes the company’s bar might reduce and sometimes it will increase, you can align your preparation accordingly.
Thank you for reading catch you in the next article. In case if you not already followed me on medium then please follow, you can follow me on Linked Here. Do not forget to subscribe to my Youtube Channel UncommonGeeks.
Feel free to add your feedback in the comment section.
In case if you want to talk to me personally for mock interview, tips and tricks to clear interview or resume review, you can book a session here:
If you’re preparing for a frontend developer interview, please watch the below series of mine:
If your a reactJS developer and looking for interview preparation, watch my complete interview preparation guide here:
