no brainer plan
A FAANG study plan you can depend on.
Use this FAANG study plan to prepare for the three major parts of a software engineering interview loop: coding, system design, and behavioral questions. Best for skimming and refreshing your memory on specific topics right before interviews.
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Week 1
Sharpen your coding fundamentals
Refresh Big O time and space complexity, identify your weakest topics, and rehearse a repeatable coding interview process: clarify the problem, plan the solution, write the code, test edge cases, and analyze complexity.
Big O · baselines · communication
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Week 2
Build coding pattern fluency
Practice common coding interview patterns involving arrays, hash maps, sliding windows, two pointers, stacks, and binary search. Focus on recognizing structural clues instead of memorizing individual answers.
Arrays · hashing · search
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Week 3
Tackle trees, graphs, and dynamic programming
Work through trees, graphs, heaps, recursion, and dynamic programming. For each problem, explain why the selected data structure fits the required access pattern and compare it with at least one alternative.
Trees · graphs · dynamic programming
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Week 4
Learn the system design toolkit
Study load balancing, caching, indexes, partitioning, distributed queues, replication, proxies, and consistency tradeoffs.
Scale · reliability · tradeoffs
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Week 5
Run through system design questions
Practice clarifying requirements, estimating scale, outlining a high-level architecture, and explaining critical tradeoffs. Apply the process to chat systems, social feeds, rate limiters, and URL-shortening services.
Chat · feeds · rate limiting · URLs
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Week 6
Rehearse behavioral stories and full interview loops
Prepare five to seven adaptable STAR stories that demonstrate ownership, judgment, collaboration, failure, and measurable impact. Combine them with mock coding and design rounds, then review company-specific interview questions for your target roles.
STAR stories · mock interviews · review
Inside the free download
What’s inside the FAANG interview cheat sheet?
The 99-page PDF brings coding, system design, and behavioral interview preparation into one place. Use it to choose what to study next or refresh important concepts before a phone screen, mock interview, or onsite loop.
Coding interviews
Coding
75 practice questions on algorithms and data structures. You can also use Lodely’s company online assessment guides for more targeted practice.
System design interviews
System design concepts and worked examples
12 system design concepts that always come up in interviews. 5 worked through questions.
Behavioral interviews
Behavioral preparation using the STAR framework
Understand how behavioral expectations change from entry-level to senior engineering roles. Use the STAR framework and see how to answer 3 popular behavioral questions.
The daily rhythm
A 90-minute daily interview preparation routine.
A productive daily routine should be a system.