Hi there, I need some suggestions from this community-
I am in final year now and going to start preparing for job interviews. I am basically starting to practice Data structures and Algorithms.
I am a Full stack developer specialised in Frontend (React) development.
I'll be targeting full stack (MERN) developer role for my career.
I know most of the people use C++/java/python to do DS+Algo but since I am targeting Full stack developer role, I am thinking of using JavaScript to do the same.
I don't think using C++ will benifit me as I'll be using JS for my daily job.
So here is my question-
Should I go ahead and use JavaScript to practice DS+Algo for the preparation of job interviews?
Any extra suggestions/tips/resources will be appreciated 🙂
Please don't hesitate to discuss/share your opinions/experience. It will be helpful for me and other people having the same confusion.
Top comments (13)
I am in my final year too!
With specialization in react.
I had the same problem of choosing which one to go for and I went for JS.
Now after learning the DSA in JS, I can say that it doesn't matter what language you choose.
The logic is exactly the same for them
Now I can implement a tree in JS and even in python and C++ because the logic is exactly the same although I just learned in it JS 😉
I took the Colt Steele's JS DSA course from Udemy.
Great to know that you didn't have any issue choosing JS for DSA. I have decided that I'll go with it. Thanks for sharing your experience Shubham.
This will help, regardless of the language you choose (I give my opinion about programming languages for tech interviews too):
dev.to/codinglanguages/how-to-ace-...
TLDR: Unless the requirements specify JS, you can usually pick any of the major languages during your interview.
for big companies language doesn't matter (unless you are applying for a domain-specific job like machine learning etc...) but the approach and techniques would matter. Sometimes the interviewer might expect you to use the language-specific features like map, reduce, filter etc... when it comes to JS. The interviewer may or may not know the language so, in the end, they will only look at the approach and technique
Exactly Ganesh, this is right that most of the companies will only focus on the logic rather than the language itself. Since I'll primarily be applying for the JS related roles, I think choosing JS is the right thing to do in my case.
JS is awesome for interviews because of its concise syntax and the fact that it's garbage collected :)
You can really focus on the problem at hand.
Yes, I also like to use JS in interviews for this reason. It really abstracts things and allows us to focus on the interview's main problem.
JS is helpful, however make sure you're really comfortable with all the gotchas of the language.
You could also specialize in python for the interviews because problems translate really well to a simple python solution especially when you use the data structure libraries.
Yes Abdisalan, I am aware of the fact that JS has some wiered quirks. The thing is I am a JS developer so I have experience working with the language. I think I won't face any problem going with it for the DSA too.
Go for it. Of course there might be special requirements, but in general FAANG treat JS on the same level
Thanks for the response. I'll just wait for 1-2 days to see what others has to say about this.
Then I'll take the decision :)
Thank you for addressing this question . I too had this doubt in which language to prepare for coding interview if you are full stack developer.
I'm happy that my question could help you too Tim :)