我开了一个叫做 AlgoTogether 的算法学习小组，面向在美国寻求软件工程师工作（实习或全职）的人。头两期学习小组的效果不错，第二期学生对项目打分 4.4/5.0 分，对老师打分 4.8/5.0 分（数据），所以我决定继续做第三期学习小组。针对头两期学生的反馈，我对第三期学习小组进行了调整，增加了提供标准化反馈的模拟面试环节，设立了学生共同维护的解题思路库。
我知道仅仅通过 LeetCode 准备算法面试是不够的，因为面试并不以题解的优劣来衡量你。你需要让面试官想要和你共事，这需要说服他你能跟他一起通过编程解决难题。AlgoTogether 是一个有教练指导的学习小组，帮助你训练多方面的面试能力，让你在面试时成为面试官的最佳未来同事。在这个学习小组中，你不仅仅需要解题和编码，你还需要练习沟通你的解题思路、接受模拟面试和倾听来自别人的反馈。我们的教练是 ACM/ICPC 奖牌得主，也曾带队其它学生参赛获奖，此外还是大型科技公司中富有经验的面试官。我们保证你投入到面试准备的每一滴汗水都能有充分的回报。
以下是往期学生对 AlgoTogether 的评价：
SKY：作为第一期的学员，还是非常推荐这个项目的。教练很上心水平也很高，有问必答。每周的资料都很有针对性，涵盖面很广。最后一周还有教练自己收集总结的的最新大厂 OA 以及面试题，受益匪浅，在这里说一声谢谢。
罗凯：第一期学员发表一下感想。1.题目归纳的很有条理，基本上跟着项目走下来 leetcode 上大部分题目都有思路了。 2.教练业界经验很丰富，回答了很多关于实际工作的问题，也给出了很多代码风格如何优化的建议。3.同学都很认真，每周一次 mock 的时候听同学讲也收获挺多的。很多题目的想法是 leetcode discussion 里面也没有的。教练也非常有耐心，有一次周二晚上讲一个比较难的题目，一直讨论了快半小时，我这边东边都11点多了。4.项目每周大概十个题，要都弄懂还是要花点时间的。做 mock 对真实面试帮助挺大，需要自己思路清晰，代码能跑到把代码讲清楚这之间也是有距离的，需要练习一下。
为了保证跟面试和工作环境一致，整个 AlgoTogether 采用全英语沟通。以下是 AlgoTogether 的详细信息及报名链接。$800 的 early bird 价格到 8 月 29 日周六结束，之后将变为 $1,000 的正常价格。
What is this program?
AlgoTogether is an algorithmic problem study group with a coach. The program focuses on all necessary skills for coding interviews: problem-solving, coding, debugging, articulating solutions, taking feedback. The coach leads the meetings and mock interviews and makes sure that students learn these skills in a way that they can reapply to new problems in real interviews.
What is the value of this program?
- Understand how an interviewer evaluates you. You are evaluated beyond correctness and optimality. If a company only evaluates these two it will replace human interviewers with LeetCode to save money. You should learn what’s missing beyond your LeetCode practice.
- Practice like you are in an interview. You will practice articulating your solution to an interviewer and taking hint or feedback from an interviewer. That’s what you don’t experience if you simply practice with LeetCode.
- Hold yourself accountable. Are you willing to commit to finishing a certain amount of problems within a specific time frame? If you can commit, we will hold you accountable and prevent you from slacking.
Who is this program for?
People who are highly committed to getting a software engineer job at one of the well-established tech companies. It’s best for people who are seeking a software engineer job for the first time, for example, newly graduated students. It’s also good for experienced software engineers who haven’t done interview preparation for more than a year.
What is the structure of the program?
The program is 9-week long. We meet in Zoom 3 times a week and practice together offline through other days.
Each week the coach picks a theme (e.g. dynamic programming) and assigns 10+ problems within this theme. You have one week to work on them. Then all students submit their solutions, share their thinking processes, vote on other students’ sharing, practice presenting solutions, and get mock interviews. The coach will provide support and feedback throughout the whole process.
We meet on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday 7 pm (Pacific Time) in Zoom to have lectures, office hours, solution presentations, and mock interviews. We convene on Slack on the other days at 7 pm (Pacific Time) to discuss a focus topic.
Who is the coach?
Our coach has many years of experience working and interviewing candidates at well-established tech companies. He is also an ACM/ICPC algorithm competition medalist and has coached other students for the competition.
How much does it cost?
Early Bird: $800. (Before 8/22 23:59 Pacific Time.)
Regular: $1,000. (After 8/23 00:00 Pacific Time.)
We think it’s the right price to identify committed students and hold everybody accountable. You will be able to pay with a credit card. It’s non-refundable once the payment goes through.
When does the program start?
We start on 8/29 Saturday and end on 11/1 Sunday. We plan to stop accepting signup and payment on 8/28 23:59 Pacific Time.
How do I sign up and pay?
Please open the following page and click the “purchase” button to start. We will contact you through email after successful payment:
https://chen.cat/algotogether
Update: Please open the link from above and check out the latest program’s date and price, and then signup.