aasthas2022/SDE-Interview-and-Prep-Roadmap

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README

SDE Interview and Prep Roadmap

Overview

Welcome to the SDE Interview Preparation Roadmap! This repository is not just about my personal journey; it's a collaborative space for collective learning. As I prepare for Software Development Engineer (SDE) interviews, I've created a comprehensive checklist to guide my preparation. By sharing this roadmap, I aim to foster a community of learners where we can all grow together. It covers various domains including Data Structures, Algorithms, System Design, Operating Systems, Networking, Databases, Programming Languages and Concepts, System Architecture, Problem-solving and Coding, as well as Behavioral and Soft Skills.

Printable PDF Version of Checklist - Click Here

Domains and Topics

1. Data Structures

Arrays
Linked Lists
- Singly linked lists
  - Circularly linked lists
  - Lock-free linked lists
- Doubly linked lists
  - Circular doubly linked lists
- Circular linked lists
- Skip lists
- Unrolled linked lists
Stacks
- Implementations using arrays and linked lists
  - Array-based stack
  - Linked list-based stack
- Applications (e.g., expression evaluation, backtracking)
- Priority stacks
Queues
- Implementations (e.g., array-based, linked list-based, priority queues)
  - Circular queue
  - Double-ended queue (Deque)
- Applications (e.g., BFS, job scheduling)
Trees
- Binary Trees
  - Full binary tree
  - Complete binary tree
  - Perfect binary tree
- Binary Search Trees (BST)
  - Self-balancing BST
    - Scapegoat tree
    - Tango tree
- AVL Trees
- Red-Black Trees
- Splay Trees
- B-Trees
- Heap Trees (min-heap, max-heap)
- Trie
- Radix Trees
Graphs
- Representations (adjacency matrix, adjacency list)
  - Edge list
  - Incidence matrix
- Traversal algorithms (DFS, BFS)
- Weighted graphs
- Directed graphs
- Acyclic graphs
- Bipartite graphs
- Spanning trees (Minimum Spanning Tree, Maximum Spanning Tree)
- Graphs with special properties (e.g., planar graphs, Eulerian graphs)
Hash Tables
- Collision resolution techniques (chaining, open addressing)
- Hash functions
- Perfect Hashing
- Cuckoo Hashing
- Robin Hood Hashing
- Count-Min Sketch
- Bloom Filters

2. Algorithms

Sorting Algorithms:
- Bubble Sort
- Selection Sort
- Insertion Sort
- Merge Sort
- Quick Sort
- Heap Sort
- Shell Sort
- Counting Sort
- Radix Sort
- Bucket Sort
- Comb Sort
- Cocktail Shaker Sort
- Tim Sort
- Cycle Sort
- Pancake Sort
- Bitonic Sort
- Gnome Sort
- Strand Sort
Searching Algorithms:
- Linear Search
- Binary Search
- Depth-First Search (DFS)
- Breadth-First Search (BFS)
- Jump Search
- Interpolation Search
- Exponential Search
- Fibonacci Search
- Ternary Search
- Hashing (Hash Table)
Dynamic Programming
- Memoization
- Tabulation
- Longest Common Subsequence (LCS)
- Longest Increasing Subsequence (LIS)
- 0/1 Knapsack Problem
- Coin Change Problem
- Matrix Chain Multiplication
- Edit Distance
- Subset Sum Problem
- Rod Cutting Problem
- Fibonacci Series
- Shortest Path Problems (e.g., Dijkstra's Algorithm using DP)
Greedy Algorithms
- Fractional Knapsack Problem
- Activity Selection Problem
- Huffman Coding
- Job Sequencing with Deadlines
- Prim's Algorithm (for Minimum Spanning Tree)
- Kruskal's Algorithm (for Minimum Spanning Tree)
- Dijkstra's Algorithm (for Single Source Shortest Path)
- Greedy Coloring of Graphs
- Greedy Set Cover
Divide and Conquer
- Binary Search
- Merge Sort
- Quick Sort
- Strassen's Matrix Multiplication
- Closest Pair of Points Problem
- Karatsuba Algorithm (for Fast Multiplication)
- Cooley–Tukey Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)
- Finding Maximum Subarray Sum (Kadane's Algorithm)
- Finding Peak Element in 1D/2D Array
String Algorithms:
- Rabin-Karp Algorithm
- Knuth-Morris-Pratt (KMP) Algorithm
- Z-Algorithm
- Boyer-Moore Algorithm
- Manacher's Algorithm
- Suffix Array Construction
- Longest Common Prefix (LCP) Array
- Aho-Corasick Algorithm
- Suffix Tree Construction
- Suffix Automaton
- Trie (Prefix Tree) Insertion and Search
- Breadth-First Search (BFS) in a Trie
- Depth-First Search (DFS) in a Trie
- Edit Distance (Levenshtein Distance)
- Hamming Distance
- Longest Palindromic Substring
- Longest Repeated Substring
- Longest Common Substring
- Longest Common Subsequence
- Shortest Common Supersequence
- Palindrome Check
- Count and Say Sequence
- String Hashing
- Baker-Bird Algorithm
- Burrows-Wheeler Transform (BWT)

3. System Design

Resources:
- System Design Interview by Alex Xu
- Designing Data Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann
Design patterns
- Creational patterns
  - Singleton
  - Factory Method
  - Abstract Factory
  - Builder
  - Prototype
- Structural patterns
  - Adapter
  - Bridge
  - Composite
  - Decorator
  - Facade
  - Flyweight
  - Proxy
- Behavioral patterns
  - Chain of Responsibility
  - Command
  - Iterator
  - Mediator
  - Memento
  - Observer
  - State
  - Strategy
  - Template Method
  - Visitor
Object-oriented design principles
- DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself)
- KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
- YAGNI (You Aren't Gonna Need It)
- Law of Demeter (Principle of Least Knowledge)
- Open/Closed Principle
- SOLID principles
  - Single Responsibility Principle (SRP)
  - Open/Closed Principle (OCP)
  - Liskov Substitution Principle (LSP)
  - Interface Segregation Principle (ISP)
  - Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP)
Scalability
- Replication vs. Partitioning
- Consistent Hashing
- Auto-scaling
Distributed systems
- ACID vs. BASE
- Eventual consistency
- Leader election algorithms (Paxos, Raft)
- Distributed tracing
- Fault tolerance and resilience
Microservices architecture
- Choreography vs. Orchestration
- API gateway
- Circuit Breaker pattern
- Saga pattern
- Caching strategies
  - Cache aside
  - Write-through caching
  - Write-behind caching
  - Cache stampede prevention
- Load balancing
  - DNS load balancing
  - Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
  - Anycast routing
  - Adaptive load balancing algorithms
Database design and optimization
- Partitioning
- Materialized views
- NoSQL databases (document, key-value, column-family, graph)
- Database normalization forms (1NF, 2NF, 3NF, BCNF)

4. Operating Systems

Processes
Threads
Thread synchronization mechanisms:
- Mutexes
- Semaphores
- Monitors
Deadlock detection and prevention
Scheduling algorithms
- Fair share scheduling
- Earliest Deadline First (EDF)
- Weighted Fair Queuing (WFQ)
Memory management
- Page replacement algorithms (LRU, FIFO, Clock)
- Memory-mapped files
- Buddy memory allocation
File systems
- Journaling file systems (ext3, ext4)
- Network file systems (NFS, SMB)
- File system encryption
- Distributed file systems (HDFS, Ceph)

5. Networking

TCP/IP stack
- OSI model layers
- TCP vs. UDP
HTTP protocol
- Request methods (GET, POST, etc.)
- Status codes
DNS (Domain Name System)
- Resolution process
Routing algorithms
- Shortest Path algorithms (Dijkstra's, Bellman-Ford)

6. Databases

Relational databases (SQL)
- Normalization forms
  - First Normal Form (1NF)
  - Second Normal Form (2NF)
  - Third Normal Form (3NF)
  - Boyce-Codd Normal Form (BCNF)
- Joins
  - Inner joins
  - Outer joins (left, right, full)
  - Cross joins
- SQL Data Manipulation Language (DML)
  - SELECT statement
  - INSERT statement
  - UPDATE statement
  - DELETE statement
  - MERGE statement
  - TRUNCATE statement
  - UPSERT operations
  - Explicit vs. Implicit transactions
  - Control-of-flow language (e.g., CASE, IF-ELSE)
- SQL Data Definition Language (DDL)
  - CREATE statement
  - ALTER statement
  - DROP statement
- SQL Data Control Language (DCL)
  - GRANT statement
  - REVOKE statement
- SQL Data Query Language (DQL)
  - Subqueries
  - Aggregate functions (e.g., SUM, AVG, COUNT)
  - GROUP BY and HAVING clauses
  - Window functions
- Transaction Control
  - COMMIT statement
  - ROLLBACK statement
- Database Constraints
  - Primary key
  - Foreign key
  - Unique constraint
  - Check constraint
  - Default constraint
- Stored Procedures and Functions
  - Creation
  - Execution
  - Parameters
- Triggers
  - Types of triggers (BEFORE, AFTER)
  - Trigger execution order
- Views
  - Materialized views vs. regular views
  - Advantages and use cases
NoSQL databases
- Types
  - Document-based
  - Key-value
  - Column-family
  - Graph
- Examples
  - MongoDB Interview Questions
  - Redis Interview Questions
ACID properties
- Atomicity
- Consistency
- Isolation
- Durability
Indexing
- B-tree
- B+ tree
- Bitmap Indexing
Transactions
- ACID properties in transactions
- Isolation levels
  - Read Uncommitted
  - Read Committed
  - Repeatable Read
  - Serializable
Database design and optimization
- Partitioning
- Materialized views

7. Programming Languages and Concepts

Programming paradigms
- Imperative programming
- Declarative programming
- Functional programming
- Object-oriented programming
- Procedural programming
- Event-driven programming
- Aspect-oriented programming
Memory management
- Stack vs. Heap
- Manual vs. Automatic memory management
- Garbage collection algorithms (e.g., Mark and Sweep, Generational GC)
Concurrency
- Threads vs. Processes
- Synchronization primitives (locks, mutexes, semaphores)
- Thread safety
- Deadlocks
- Race conditions
- Parallelism vs. Concurrency
- Asynchronous programming
Error handling
- Exceptions vs. Error codes
- Exception handling mechanisms
- Exception safety
- Error propagation
- Error recovery
Functional programming
- Higher-order functions
- Closures
- Lambda expressions
- Pure functions
- Referential transparency
Object-oriented programming (OOP)
- Encapsulation
- Inheritance
- Polymorphism
- Abstraction
- Composition vs. Inheritance
- Method overriding vs. Method overloading
Design patterns
- Creational patterns
- Structural patterns
- Behavioral patterns
Asynchronous programming
- Callbacks
- Promises
- Futures
- Coroutines
Functional vs. Imperative vs. Declarative programming
Type systems
- Static vs. Dynamic typing
- Strong vs. Weak typing
- Nominal vs. Structural typing
Lambda calculus
Garbage collection
- Tracing vs. Reference counting
- Generational GC
Regular expressions
Memory layout
- Stack vs. Heap memory allocation
- Data segment vs. Code segment
Recursion
- Tail recursion
- Mutual recursion
- Anonymous recursion
Virtual Memory
- Demand Paging
- Page replacement algorithms (FIFO, LRU, Optimal)
Networking
- Sockets
- Client-server architecture
- Protocols (TCP, UDP)
- Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

8. System Architecture

Client-server architecture
- Basics
- Communication protocols
RESTful architecture
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
- Principles
- Advantages
- Challenges
Message Queuing
- Basics
- Use cases
- Implementations (e.g., RabbitMQ, Kafka)
Microservices
Event-Driven Architecture (EDA)
- Basics
- Components
- Advantages
- Implementations (e.g., Apache Kafka)
Layered Architecture
- Presentation layer
- Business logic layer
- Data access layer
- Cross-cutting concerns layer
Caching strategies
- Cache aside
- Write-through caching
- Write-behind caching
- Cache stampede prevention

9. Problem-solving and Coding

Problem-solving strategies
- Understand the problem
- Break it down
- Solve a simpler problem
- Look for patterns
- Make a plan
- Implement the plan
- Test your solution
Coding techniques
- Modular programming
- Divide and conquer
- Recursion
- Dynamic programming
- Greedy algorithms
- Backtracking
- Bit manipulation
- Sliding window
- Two pointers
- Binary search
- Fast and slow pointers
- Hashing
Coding best practices
- Naming conventions
- Code readability
- Code reusability
- Error handling
- Testing
- Version control (e.g., Git)
- Code reviews
Time and space complexity analysis
- Big O notation
- Big Omega notation
- Big Theta notation
- Space complexity analysis
Debugging
- Print debugging
- Debugger tools
- Rubber duck debugging
Optimization
- Algorithmic optimization
- Space-time trade-offs
- Profiling tools

10. Version control System

Git
Bitbucket

Features

Structured Learning Path: Follow a well-organized roadmap covering key domains such as Data Structures, Algorithms, System Design, Operating Systems, Networking, Databases, and more.
Checklist-based Approach: Track your progress systematically with checklist-style items for each topic, ensuring thorough coverage of concepts and practical skills.
Recommended Resources: Access curated lists of recommended resources, including books, online courses, coding platforms, articles, and practice problems to enhance your understanding and skills.
Tailored Preparation: Customize your preparation based on the specific requirements and focus areas of the companies you're interviewing with, maximizing your chances of success.
Tips and Recommendations: Benefit from valuable tips and recommendations for problem-solving, coding practice, behavioral and soft skills development, and adapting to different interview formats.

How to Use

Clone the Repository: Clone this repository to your local machine using Git.
Navigate to Domains: Explore the Domains directory to find checklists for different domains/topics.
Check Off Items: As you study and practice, mark off checklist items to track your progress.
Explore Resources: Browse through the Resources directory for recommended resources corresponding to each domain/topic.
Customize Your Plan: Tailor your preparation plan based on your strengths, weaknesses, and the requirements of the companies you're targeting.
Community Learning: Engage with fellow learners, share insights, ask questions, and collaborate on improving the roadmap together.
Stay Updated: Periodically update your progress and revisit topics to reinforce your understanding and skills.

Contributions

Contributions are welcome! If you have suggestions for improving the roadmap, additional resources to recommend, or want to fix any errors, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

Disclaimer

This roadmap is intended as a general guideline and may not cover every aspect of SDE interviews. It's essential to supplement my preparation with additional resources and adapt based on individual needs and experiences.

Credits

This project is inspired by various interview preparation resources and the collective wisdom of the developer community.

interview-preparation

roadmap

Significant stargazers

Lanre Adelowo

550 followers · starred Aug 2026

Asish Kumar

168 followers · starred Aug 2026

nhducit

130 followers · starred Aug 2025

Muhammad Illiyin

14 followers · starred Aug 2026

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