Engineering Knowledge Base

PrepareforTechInterviews

A practical, structured reference for Java backend engineers. Covering interview preparation, DSA training, engineering books, and cloud certification — all in one place.

Start Learning →Interview Prep DSA Roadmap

13+

Learning Paths

DSA Weeks

Engineering Books

15+

AWS Topics

500+

Pages of Content

🗺️ Overview

Learning Paths

Choose your domain. Each path builds from fundamentals to senior-level topics with practical examples, interview questions, and real-world context.

☕JavaFundamentals, OOP, collections, JVM, concurrencyCore 🌱SpringBoot, Data JPA, Security, Cloud, BatchCore 🏗️System DesignDistributed systems, CAP, caching, API designArchitecture 🗄️DatabaseACID, indexes, transactions, replication, NoSQLCore 📨KafkaTopics, partitions, consumers, Kafka StreamsMessaging ⚡RedisData structures, pub/sub, caching, Lua scriptingCache 🧱Design PatternsCreational, structural, behavioral patternsCore 🔒SecurityAuth, OAuth2, JWT, JWE, OWASP, encryptionSecurity 🌐NetworkingTCP/IP, DNS, TLS, HTTP/2, gRPC, QUICInfra 🐧DevOpsDocker, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelinesInfra ☁️AWSLambda, DynamoDB, S3, IAM, ECS, DVA-C02 prepCloud 🏦BankingPayments, SWIFT, NPP, FX, AML/KYC, core bankingDomain 🗃️GitBranching, rebase, hooks, worktrees, workflowsTooling

💼 Interview Prep

Interview Preparation Roadmap

A three-phase curriculum for engineers targeting backend, system design, and Java/Spring interviews.

Phase 1 — Foundations

1Java FundamentalsTypes, generics, memory model 2OOP PrinciplesEncapsulation, polymorphism, interfaces 3Collections & ConcurrencyMap, List, Queue, locks, executors 4JVM InternalsGC, class loading, JIT, heap/stack 5SOLID PrinciplesSingle responsibility → dependency inversion 6Design PatternsCreational, structural, behavioral

Phase 2 — System Design

1Interview FrameworkHow to approach any design question 2Architecture FundamentalsMonolith vs microservices trade-offs 3Distributed SystemsCAP, consistency, partitioning 4Caching StrategiesCache-aside, write-through, eviction 5API DesignREST, versioning, rate limiting, idempotency 6Microservices PatternsSaga, circuit breaker, service mesh

Phase 3 — Domain Depth

1Database Deep DiveACID, indexes, transactions, sharding 2Kafka ArchitectureTopics, offsets, idempotency, streams 3Security PatternsAuth flows, zero trust, secrets 4ObservabilityMetrics, tracing, logging, alerting 5Scaling Reads & WritesCQRS, event sourcing, sharding 6Common Interview QuestionsURL shortener, Twitter clone, payment

✅ Explain choices with at least one alternative

📈 Describe what breaks first at 10× traffic

🔧 Connect concept → trade-off → operations

🚨 Avoid definition-only answers

View Full Interview Roadmap →

📊 DSA Training

20-Week DSA Coding Roadmap

A structured algorithm curriculum from arrays to graph theory and dynamic programming. Each week targets one core pattern with progressive difficulty.

Week 1Arrays & Prefix SumsRunning totals, subarray sums Week 2Two Pointers & Sliding WindowContainer with water, substrings Week 3Linked Lists & PointersReversal, cycle detection, merge Week 4Hash Tables & SetsFrequency counting, anagram, grouping Week 5Stacks, Queues & MonotonicParentheses, next greater element Week 6Binary Trees & BSTDFS/BFS, LCA, BST operations Week 7Graph FoundationsBFS, DFS, adjacency list Week 8Advanced GraphsTopological sort, Dijkstra Week 9Binary SearchSearch space reduction, rotated arrays Week 10Recursion & BacktrackingPermutations, N-Queens, subsets Week 11Intervals & Sweep LineMerge intervals, meeting rooms Week 12Heaps & GreedyK-largest, task scheduling Week 13Dynamic Programming 1DFibonacci, house robber, DP strings Week 14Dynamic Programming 2DGrid DP, edit distance, LCS Week 15Advanced Sliding WindowVariable windows, multi-condition Week 16Tries & Prefix TreesAutocomplete, word search Week 17Shortest Paths & MSTDijkstra, Bellman-Ford, Prim, Kruskal Week 18Disjoint Set UnionUnion-find, Kruskal, connectivity Week 19Bit Manipulation & MathXOR tricks, prime sieve Week 20Comprehensive ReviewMock interviews, system + coding

View Full DSA Curriculum →

📚 Books

Engineering Books

Distilled notes and key takeaways from the most impactful engineering books — organized by track.

💡 Recommended reading order — Software Craft: Clean Code → Clean Architecture → Effective Java | Deep Dive: DDIA → Building Microservices → OCP Java SE 21

🧹

Software CraftClean CodeRobert C. MartinNaming, functions, comments, error handling, formatting — 17 chapters

🏛️

Software CraftClean ArchitectureRobert C. MartinDependency rules, component isolation, SOLID, architecture principles

☕

Java MasteryEffective JavaJoshua Bloch90 best practices: generics, lambdas, APIs, concurrency, serialization

📊

Deep FoundationsDesigning Data-Intensive ApplicationsMartin KleppmannReplication, partitioning, transactions, streams, distributed systems

🔧

ArchitectureBuilding MicroservicesSam NewmanDecomposition, resilience, integration, testing, deployment — 16 chapters

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Java CertificationOCP Java SE 21 Study GuideBoyarsky & Selikoff14 chapters covering exam 1Z0-830: streams, modules, concurrency, I/O

☁️ Cloud Certs

Cloud Certifications — AWS DVA-C02

Targeted preparation for the AWS Certified Developer – Associate (DVA-C02) exam with exam tips, traps, and scenario-based practice questions on every topic page.

Development with AWS Services32%

Security26%

Deployment24%

Troubleshooting & Optimization18%

Topic 01DVA-C02 RoadmapFull exam roadmap and study strategy Topic 02LambdaInvocation, cold start, layers, destinations Topic 03DynamoDBKeys, GSI/LSI, streams, DAX, single-table Topic 04API GatewayREST vs HTTP API, authorizers, throttling Topic 05S3Storage classes, lifecycle, encryption Topic 06IAM & CognitoRoles, policies, STS, user/identity pools Topic 07SQS, SNS & EventBridgeMessaging patterns, fan-out, FIFO, Kinesis Topic 08CloudFormation & SAMIaC, stack management, SAM for serverless Topic 09RDS & ElastiCacheMulti-AZ, read replicas, Redis vs Memcached Topic 10ECS, ECR & FargateContainer orchestration, task roles, IAM Topic 11CI/CD (CodePipeline)Pipelines, buildspec, deploy actions Topic 12CloudWatch & X-RayMetrics, alarms, distributed tracing, logs Topic 13KMS & Secrets ManagerEnvelope encryption, rotation, SSM Topic 14Step FunctionsStandard vs Express, Map state, callbacks Topic 15Exam Tips & Mock ExamLast-minute facts, 50 practice questions

⚠️ High-priority exam topics — Lambda (invocation types, cold start, versioning) · DynamoDB (single-table design, GSI/LSI, DAX) · SQS (visibility timeout, DLQ, FIFO) · IAM (policy evaluation, role assumption) · CloudFormation (change sets, rollback triggers, cross-stack refs)

View Full AWS Study Path →

Ready to level up?

Pick a path and start building depth. Every page connects concepts to real engineering decisions, interview scenarios, and production systems.

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