jwasham/coding-interview-university

A single-engineer's full study plan for becoming a software engineer at a top tech company, sequenced into months of work.

What it is

A long markdown study plan originally written by John Washam to prepare for an Amazon SDE interview (which he passed). It grew from a personal to-do list into one of the most-starred educational repos on GitHub. Covers the canonical computer-science curriculum behind technical interviews — data structures, algorithms, complexity analysis, low-level systems concepts, design patterns, and behavioral prep — with explicit "study this, then this" sequencing and recommended resources at each step. 15+ language translations available via sibling READMEs.

Key features

Sequenced study path: the author surfaces what to learn first, what to defer, and what he wishes he'd skipped.
Heavy use of YouTube playlists and university lecture videos as primary references — fits learners who prefer recorded instruction.
Explicit "what's not necessary" notes — the rare resource that says "I wasted time here, you don't need to."
15+ language translations (Indonesian, Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Vietnamese, etc.).
Story-driven framing — the author's own 8-month preparation narrative is the implicit syllabus.

Tech stack

Markdown only. The "tech stack" of this repo is the curated external links — interview-prep canon assembled across YouTube, Coursera, MIT OCW, classic textbooks, and primary-source papers.
No build, no manifest.

When to reach for it

You're 6–12 months out from a senior tech-company SDE interview and want a long-horizon study plan, not a 2-week crash course.
You're rebuilding CS fundamentals after years of framework-only work.
You want a narrative-led path through the canon rather than a topic-list survey.

When not to reach for it

You only have a few weeks — the plan is intentionally long.
You're targeting senior staff/principal-level system design, where this repo's coverage thins out (system-design-primer is closer-fit).
You want polished, modern, integrated-IDE practice. The recommendations skew toward video lectures and books rather than interactive platforms.

Maturity signal

348k stars, 83k forks, CC-BY-SA-4.0 license — the rare big educational repo with a clean Creative Commons license. Last push August 2025 reads as a "settled curriculum, occasional refresh" cadence rather than constant churn — appropriate for a study plan that doesn't need to chase every framework release. Translation tracking via per-language sibling READMEs continues to attract contributors.

Alternatives

donnemartin/system-design-primer — use for system-design interview prep specifically; this repo is broader CS canon.
ossu/computer-science — use for a university-mirror CS curriculum if you want degree-equivalent breadth.
freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp — use for a paced, exam-gated curriculum with certifications.

Notes

The author's framing ("I studied 8-12 hours a day for months") sets unrealistic expectations for casual readers — the README explicitly walks that back with "you won't need to study as much." Treat the included resources as a buffet, not a syllabus to complete in order. CC-BY-SA-4.0 is unusually permissive for a personal study plan and makes this safe to fork into team study groups or training programs.

Wiki: jwasham/coding-interview-university