CTCI gives you a great birds-eye view of the relevant data structures and algorithms, but it doesn’t get deep enough into the fundamentals. FANG interviews are notorious for being very difficult because the problems are designed to test your fundamentals and your ability to apply them.

CTCI’s approachability is its downfall here. It’s designed to be a great resource for engineers looking to get a job at a mid-size or non-fang company. It’s meant to be a book you can study, take 30 interviews, and eventually, you’ll see something you saw in the book and get a job. Any developer looking to land a non-fang level company should consider using this book.

The problem with FANG interviews is you don’t have 30 chances and the odds of getting 5 interview questions directly out of the book are slim to none. There will always be a success story about how someone just did CTCI problems and landed the job. This is the exception to the rule. With Fang interviews, you need to prepare for problems you’ve never seen before. To do that you need a resource that gets into the thick of it.

Buy The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skienna instead