Rating: 
Summary: A watered-down high school CS review book
Review: I've heard that programming interviews sometimes involve wacky, off-the-wall questions ("why is a manhole cover round?"). I bought this book with the belief that it would shed some light on how to approach these kinds of questions. I was dead wrong.There are only around 10 pages on actual interview/resume advice. The bulk of the book is taken up by mini-reviews of topics ranging from the utterly basic (arrays, strings, recursion) to the utterly unlikely to be asked in a programming interview (implementing linked lists, trees, graphs). A few pages are spent on mini-reviews of topics that might be worthwhile. However, the reviews are so short and basic as to be useless. For example, 1 page on graphics programming and 2 pages on SQL. The author spends a half-page in the SQL review expounding on the following: "Lesson:If you don't indicate that you know SQL, you probably won't be asked anything about it." The only redeeming factor (and the reason for 2 stars) are the 2 chapters on mathematical puzzles and brain-teasers. Readers would be better off buying a book on brain-teasers, but the chapters do give a general idea of how to approach these problems. Overall, this book reads like a watered-down high school CS review book. The mini-reviews are useless, actual resume or inteview advice is scarse, and the brain-teasers are better covered in other books. Programmers wanting interview or resume advice would be better served by a more traditional book on interviews/resumes.
Rating: 
Summary: Very helpful
Review: It covers major trade-offs in programming.
Very helpful in cracking 50% of the interview.
Rating:
Summary: Delivers as Advertised
Review: Programming Interviews Exposed gives a good refresher on data structure problems (and similar programming interview questions) in C with a concise discussion on the choices and trade-offs made in reaching the solution.
Programming Interviews Exposed was true to the book's description. It emphasizes programming problems that are typically asked in interviews (and to a lesser extent touches on logic puzzles and knowledge-based questions). My friends/colleagues and I have actually been asked several of these exact questions. If you want a book emphasizing logic puzzles this is not the book for you.
Programming Interviews Exposed doesn't quite give you "Everything you need to know to succeed in the programming interview", but it emphatically does give a very solid, general base you must demonstrate in order to give the other portions of your interview credibility.
The book emphasizes solutions in C, giving a couple solutions in Perl, and Java. The C language is appropriate as C++ and Java have syntax very similar to C and in the programming interview questions you are typically prohibited from using built-in and/or standard library features that would make the questions trivial. The point of the questions, after all, are to see how well you understand and can puzzle out the details involved in implementing data structures and similar.
Rating:
Summary: excellent advice..
Review: There are many types and levels of programming jobs. This book is useful advice for people aiming for system level or hardcore type jobs e.g. embedded systems, networks and operating systems etc. For example, this book would be highly useful for you if you go for a developer's job interview in Cisco systems, IBM, Microsoft, Sun or Lucent etc. This is not too useful for application programming stuff, as one of the reviewers mentioned about Sybase etc. I have been giving programming interviews for many years and believe me, I have come across a surprising number of questions right from this book. The other good books for these type of interviews are "Expert C Programming" by Van der Linden, "Programming Pearls" and " C interfaces and Implementations" by Hansen. The interviews in companies I have mentioned do indeed last full working days, or at least five to six hours, involving lunch. The interviewers include three to four people from the engineering team, one from Human Resources and one senior level person e.g. director or head of the group type person to finish it off. The engineering team asks you to write significant code involving commonly used data structures, linked lists and trees etc. and also code that would require certain tricks of the trade that only veteran or seasoned programmers would know. So in my opinion, this is a timely arrival and gives lots of useful information to build the required confidence and thinking pattern to ace such interviews. The techniques described are all familiar and used frequently by most engineers and computer scientists in the field, but being able to answer promptly in an interview is a different ball game and I have suffered because of the lack of confidence in interviews. So, in my opinion, it deserves at least four stars.
Rating:
Summary: This is a good book for interviews and refreshers
Review: These questions are the type that Microsoft will ask you in the interview (Interviewed there 5 times). If you can't get these questions right then forget about working for Microsoft. But I noticed that all organizations don't use this technique to determine the qualifications of a potential employee. I moved to washington, dc and companies here are more concerned about a canidates ability to do the job then to solve frivously puzzles.
Rating: 
Summary: Be Prepared!
Review: This book is all you will need to land the programming job of your dreams. After reading it, you will be prepared, and therefore comfortable answering any question, or solve any programming problem the interviewer can throw at you. The authors teach you how to approach a question, and give you plenty of practice with sample problems on recursion, trees and graphs, and a variety of other common interview problems. If you are like me, you will enjoy solving the brain-teasing puzzles just for the sheer challenge of it. Buy the book, and best of luck!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent to prepare your interview
Review: This book is indeed helpful when I prepare for my interviews. In fact, I found some hiring managers use this book to test the interviewers. :) I highly recommend this book to people who are interviewing with software programming jobs.
Rating:
Summary: First of it's kind, truely being prepared for the interview
Review: This book is the first of it's kind that I could find anywhere. There are lots of books with tips for interviewing, but interviewing in the programming field is very different as any programmer knows. The questions you face are get into a different type of logic, and this book tells you what to expect and how to prepare. If you really want the job, you should read this book first. Chances are other applicants will...
Rating:
Summary: Nice review of computer science and puzzles
Review: This book serves as a good review for the student of computer science, prior to entering the interview arena. The trick questions and puzzles that are in common use by technical interviewers are covered, as well as a general overview of the interview and job hunting process. I must recommend the book for those unfamiliar with the interview process, and unprepared for the sometimes bizarre questions that interviewers ask(particularly the infamous Microsoft questions, i.e., Why is a manhole cover round?). For those familiar with the interview experience, it may serve as a guide for interviewing your own job candidates (the reason I bought it, myself). For a better review of CS topics, I recommend Brookshear's Computer Science, An Overview, sold here on Amazon.
Rating:
Summary: helpful for experienced programmer long out of school
Review: This book was helpful in preparation for programming interview for professional whose school days are far behind. Recent graduates could probably do well without it. But if it had been quite a few years since you were in a class the book serves as a good practical reminder of generic programming exercises that are rarely encountered in everyday work. One problem from the book was actually presented at the interview. Good investment if you want to refresh your skills and look for new opportunity.
| 
