The Best Resources to Prepare for FAANG Coding Interviews

You’ve decided to aim for FAANG. Good. You’ll need more than LeetCode grinds and blind luck. The difference between a solid prep and a wasted six months often comes down to the resources you choose—and how you use them.

Here’s the short version of what works: systematic theory, focused problem-solving, and realistic mock interviews. No single book or platform will carry you. But a curated stack of the right tools? That’s how you go from "I can reverse a linked list" to "I can design a distributed cache under pressure."

1. Books That Actually Teach You Thinking, Not Patterns

"Cracking the Coding Interview" (Gayle Laakmann McDowell) Still the gold standard for scope—behavioral questions, system design basics, and a curated problem set. It’s not deep enough alone, but it gives you the map.

"Elements of Programming Interviews" (Aziz, Lee, Prakash) This is the boot camp. Harder problems than CtCI, with a focus on algorithmic thinking rather than memorization. If you can do 70% of these problems, you’re ready.

"Algorithm Design Manual" (Skiena) Not a quick read. But for understanding why you use a graph algorithm or a dynamic programming approach, nothing beats it. Read the chapters on trees, graphs, and DP before you start LeetCode hard problems.

2. Online Platforms: Your Daily Gym

LeetCode Let’s be honest—this is non-negotiable. But don’t do 500 random problems. - Use the "Top Interview 150" list for breadth. - Use company-specific tags (Google, Meta, Amazon) only after you’ve built fundamentals. - Spaced repetition matters: redo problems you got wrong after 3, 7, and 14 days.

HackerRank Good for niche topics like regex, SQL, and math-heavy problems. Not as strong for algorithmic interview prep, but useful if you know you’re weak in a specific domain.

AlgoMonster A structured, pattern-based approach (sliding window, two pointers, BFS/DFS). Less famous than others, but better for learners who need a syllabus rather than a firehose.

3. System Design: The Elephant in the Room

FAANG interviews now weight system design heavily—even for senior IC roles.

"Designing Data-Intensive Applications" (Kleppmann) The single best resource. Read chapters on replication, partitioning, and consistency models before you even look at mock interviews.

Grokking the System Design Interview (Educative) Structured and practical. Gives you templates for common designs (URL shortener, chat system, etc.). Don’t copy the templates—understand the tradeoffs.

System Design Interview YouTube channel Free, realistic whiteboard walkthroughs. Watch at 1.5x speed and pause before the solution to think through it yourself.

4. Mock Interviews: The Part Everyone Skips

You can solve 200 LeetCode problems and still freeze when someone asks you to walk through your thought process.

Pramp Free peer-to-peer mock interviews. The quality varies, but the practice of explaining your reasoning aloud is invaluable. Do at least 5 sessions before your first real interview.

Interviewing.io Anonymous technical mock interviews with real FAANG engineers. Pay per session, but the feedback is sharp. Great for reducing anxiety before the real thing.

LeetCode’s Mock Interview feature Timed, with a company-specific data set. Not as realistic as a live human, but good for calibration.

5. The Hidden Tools That Make a Difference

Big O Notation Cheat Sheet (like the one on BigOCheatSheet.com) Print it. Memorize the common time/space complexities for arrays, graphs, heaps, etc. Interviewers will ask you to justify your tradeoffs quickly.

Anki (spaced repetition flash cards) Create cards for common patterns (e.g., "When to use Union-Find?" or "Sliding window vs. two-pointer"). Review 10 cards daily for 10 minutes.

Blind 75 (curated list of 75 LeetCode problems) Not a secret, but a perfect sanity check. If you can explain the solution to every problem in the Blind 75 from memory—both code and reasoning—you’re in strong shape.

A Final Piece of Honest Advice

Don’t try to master everything. FAANG interviews test depth more than breadth. Pick 3-4 resource types (book, platform, mock interview tool, system design), and use them consistently for 8-12 weeks.

If you’re still grinding random mediums after a month without tracking your weak spots, stop. Analyze which pattern you keep failing (graphs? DP?), target that, then move on.

The best resource is the one you actually use. Now go freeze your screen in a mock interview—it’s the best thing you’ll do today.