You Don't Need 300 LeetCode Problems. You Need a Better Plan.
You've got a full-time job, a life, and maybe a vague sense that you should be grinding LeetCode if you ever want to switch companies. But somewhere between problem 12 and problem 13, you start wondering if there's a smarter way. The Tech Interview Handbook exists precisely for that gap—it's a free, curated set of interview prep materials for engineers who don't have time to brute-force their way through hundreds of algorithm questions.
What It Does
The Tech Interview Handbook is a collection of practical, condensed interview preparation content covering the entire technical interview lifecycle—from applying for a job through passing interviews to negotiating an offer. It's maintained by Yangshun Tay, the author of Blind 75, and according to the README, over 1,000,000 people have used it.
The repository itself is a companion to the website at techinterviewhandbook.org, where the actual reading happens. Content includes coding interview study plans, the Grind 75 question list (described as the next evolution of Blind 75), preparation guides, a coding interview cheatsheet with straight-to-the-point do's and don'ts, algorithm cheatsheets organized by topic, a step-by-step resume guide aimed at FAANG-readiness, behavioral questions from top tech companies, and a separate front end interview preparation resource. It's not just algorithms—the scope is deliberately broader than what you'd typically find in a LeetCode-focused repo.
Why It's Cool
It's curated rather than aggregated. The README makes a pointed distinction here: many interview repositories are essentially link dumps that point you elsewhere. This one contains top-quality curated content directly for your consumption. That matters because the last thing you want when you're already short on time is to spend an hour figuring out which of forty bookmarked resources is actually worth reading.
It covers the non-technical parts too. Most prep material stops at algorithms. This handbook walks through the full arc: applying, preparing, interviewing, and negotiating the offer. The README notes that even technically competent candidates might find the non-technical content helpful—and honestly, that's where a lot of qualified engineers quietly lose offers.
The information is intentionally condensed. The author states this directly: "I tell you the minimum you need to know on how to go about navigating the interview process, you go and practice and land your dream job." There's no padding, no 40-page preamble about the history of Big O notation. It respects that your actual practice time is the scarce resource.
Grind 75 is the headline feature. If you know Blind 75, Grind 75 is its successor—bigger and better, per the README. It's a structured study plan rather than a flat list, which is the difference between "here are the problems" and "here's how to work through them given the time you actually have."
The audience is explicitly defined. This isn't only for new grads. The README calls out seasoned engineers who haven't been on the other side of the interviewing table in a while. If you've been at the same company for five years and your last interview involved a whiteboard and a handshake, that's a real use case.
How to Try It
The repository is primarily a gateway to the website, so the fastest path is straightforward:
- Head to the website: techinterviewhandbook.org
- If you want to jump straight into the coding interview material, start with the Software Engineering Interview Guide
- For a structured question list, go to Grind 75
- If you're refreshing your algorithm fundamentals, the study cheatsheet by topic is a reasonable starting point
The source repository lives at github.com/yangshun/tech-interview-handbook. Contributions are welcome—the README explicitly asks for help from the community in contributing content. There's also a Discord server, plus presence on X (Twitter), Telegram, and Facebook if you want to follow updates or ask questions.
Final Thoughts
This isn't a magic shortcut, and the README doesn't pretend otherwise—it says plainly that consistent practice is the key to succeeding in technical interviews. What the handbook offers is leverage: a curated, condensed path so that the practice time you do have goes toward the right problems and you're not blindsided by the resume, behavioral, and negotiation stages. It's best suited for working engineers preparing for a job switch, people returning to interviewing after a long gap, and anyone who's tired of grinding without a plan. If that's you, start with the study plan and let the rest of the handbook fill in the gaps around it.
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