8-Week Interview Prep Roadmap

Structured study plan referencing specific files in coding-interview-patterns/. Spend ~1 hour/day, 5 days/week.

Week 1: Foundations (Arrays + Hashing)

Day	Pattern	Files to Study
1	Two Pointers	cpp/Two Pointers/pair_sum_sorted.cpp, triplet_sum.cpp
2	Two Pointers	cpp/Two Pointers/largest_container.cpp, shift_zeros_to_the_end.cpp
3	Hash Maps	cpp/Hash Maps and Sets/pair_sum_unsorted.cpp, zero_striping.cpp
4	Hash Maps	cpp/Hash Maps and Sets/longest_chain_of_consecutive_numbers.cpp
5	Review	Re-solve Day 1–4 problems in Python or Go

Week 2: Linked Lists + Sliding Windows

Day	Pattern	Files to Study
1	Linked Lists	cpp/Linked Lists/linked_list_reversal.cpp, remove_kth_last_node.cpp
2	Linked Lists	cpp/Linked Lists/linked_list_intersection.cpp, palindromic_linked_list.cpp
3	Sliding Windows	cpp/Sliding Windows/longest_substring_with_unique_chars.cpp
4	Sliding Windows	cpp/Sliding Windows/longest_uniform_substring_after_replacements.cpp
5	Fast & Slow	cpp/Fast and Slow Pointers/ cycle detection problems

Week 3: Binary Search + Stacks

Day	Pattern	Files to Study
1	Binary Search	cpp/Binary Search/find_the_insertion_index.cpp
2	Binary Search	cpp/Binary Search/first_and_last_occurrences_of_a_number.cpp
3	Binary Search	cpp/Binary Search/find_the_target_in_a_rotated_sorted_array.cpp
4	Stacks	cpp/Stacks/valid_parenthesis_expression.cpp, evaluate_expression.cpp
5	Stacks	cpp/Stacks/next_largest_number_to_the_right.cpp

Week 4: Trees + Heaps

Day	Pattern	Files to Study
1	Trees	cpp/Trees/invert_binary_tree_recursive.cpp, binary_search_tree_validation.cpp
2	Trees	cpp/Trees/lowest_common_ancestor.cpp, rightmost_nodes_of_a_binary_tree.cpp
3	Trees	cpp/Trees/serialize_and_deserialize_a_binary_tree.cpp
4	Heaps	cpp/Heaps/k_most_frequent_strings_min_heap.cpp, sort_a_k_sorted_array.cpp
5	Heaps	cpp/Heaps/median_of_an_integer_stream.cpp

Week 5: Graphs

Day	Pattern	Files to Study
1	Graphs (DFS)	cpp/Graphs/count_islands.cpp, longest_increasing_path.cpp
2	Graphs (BFS)	cpp/Graphs/shortest_path.cpp, matrix_infection.cpp
3	Graphs (Topo)	cpp/Graphs/prerequisites.cpp
4	Graphs	cpp/Graphs/shortest_transformation_sequence.cpp
5	Tries	cpp/Tries/ all problems

Week 6: Dynamic Programming

Day	Pattern	Files to Study
1	DP (1D)	cpp/Dynamic Programming/climbing_stairs_bottom_up.cpp
2	DP (1D)	cpp/Dynamic Programming/neighborhood_burglary.cpp, min_coin_combination_bottom_up.cpp
3	DP (2D)	cpp/Dynamic Programming/longest_common_subsequence.cpp
4	DP (2D)	cpp/Dynamic Programming/knapsack.cpp, matrix_pathways.cpp
5	DP	cpp/Dynamic Programming/longest_palindrome_in_a_string.cpp

Week 7: Backtracking + Greedy + Intervals

Day	Pattern	Files to Study
1	Backtracking	cpp/Backtracking/find_all_subsets.cpp, combinations_of_sum_k.cpp
2	Backtracking	cpp/Backtracking/find_all_permutations.cpp, n_queens.cpp
3	Greedy	cpp/Greedy/jump_to_the_end.cpp, gas_stations.cpp
4	Intervals	cpp/Intervals/merge_overlapping_intervals.cpp
5	Prefix Sums	cpp/Prefix Sums/ all problems

Week 8: Mixed Practice + Weak Areas

Day	Pattern	Files to Study
1	Bit Manipulation	cpp/Bit Manipulation/ all problems
2	Math & Geometry	cpp/Math and Geometry/ all problems
3	Sort & Search	cpp/Sort and Search/ all problems
4	Weak areas	Revisit patterns you struggled with
5	Mock interview	Pick 2 random problems, solve under time pressure

Tips

• After solving in C++, port to Go using coding-interview-patterns/go/ as reference
• Time yourself: Easy (15 min), Medium (25 min), Hard (40 min)
• Write the approach in comments before coding
• If stuck for >10 minutes, read the solution then re-solve from scratch next day