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Ask HN: How was your interviewing experience this cycle?

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Re: Ask HN: How was your interviewing experience this cycle?

#11

Post by vanusa »

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #8
tra3 wrote: post #3

a: I did not apply to any; recruiters reached out. b: all of them c: at least 2. d: see below. d#2: 2 so far. e: poorly. I haven't interviewed properly in 10 years so this experience been a bit of a shock. 1. FAANG: Leetcode hard; failed hard. 2. Another FAANG: everything went ok; eventually rejected. Found through back channels that fudged the system design. Didn't go low enough in the stack . 3. Medium sized compan…

you should be able to do 50% of mediums < 30 mins before you start. easy problems just don't cut it anymore.

You should be able to do 50% of mediums

Great. So if they give you 2 or 3 mediums in the course of the interview process, with a strict 30 minute deadline -- what is your chance of failing?

Re: Ask HN: How was your interviewing experience this cycle?

#12

Post by vanusa »

tra3 wrote: post #3

a: I did not apply to any; recruiters reached out. b: all of them c: at least 2. d: see below. d#2: 2 so far. e: poorly. I haven't interviewed properly in 10 years so this experience been a bit of a shock. 1. FAANG: Leetcode hard; failed hard. 2. Another FAANG: everything went ok; eventually rejected. Found through back channels that fudged the system design. Didn't go low enough in the stack . 3. Medium sized compan…

Java/DynamoDB that I've never done. Why?

Thanks for the data points. Those lengthy tests focusing on stack components you've never claimed to know or use - yup, those are my favorites.

Re: Ask HN: How was your interviewing experience this cycle?

#13

Post by vanusa »

decafninja wrote: post #5

By season, I am assuming you mean the Covid period (2020 to present). Got showered with dozens of recruiter emails for various companies. As a rule, I generally do not cold apply to any company as my experience has been that doing so is a first class ticket to being ignored. However I'm also pretty selective as to what companies I'm interested in, so the vast majority I did not proceed with. 1. First interview was wi…

FAANG, where I failed the phone screen largely due to the interviewer having a thick accent on top of him using a speakerphone that made things worse.

That's why they only hire the top 0.2 percent - for their "communication skills". And for their awareness of the pros and cons of key technologies. Like speakerphones.

Had a friend refer me to the FAANG he works at, but was ignored.

Which is kind of an internal FU to that employee, right? Bet they'll never do that again.

And as to the take-homes:

In both cases I got exceptional marks, but also took far more than the supposedly "few hours" they said.

As these companies must be perfectly aware of, on some level.

Re: Ask HN: How was your interviewing experience this cycle?

#14

Post by aditya_rs »

k4ch0w wrote: post #6

a. 0 b. 15ish c. 3 d. Systems Design, distributed systems, communication d. 3 e. Took PTO

Congratulations on the offers! Did you have not have any leet code kind of interviews, I should asked this in the question, but do you mind mentioning what level were you interviewing for and how long did your whole interviewing process last (i.e, from when you first started interviewing for a company to when you stopped)

Re: Ask HN: How was your interviewing experience this cycle?

#15

Post by aditya_rs »

voakbasda wrote: post #10

Speaking for the past month: a. 0 b. 3 c. 1 d. Three short interviews: two technical and one informal with the CEO. One easy pseudocode problem via shared screen. d. 1 e. PTO

Congrats on the offer! Do you mind sharing the level you were interviewing for and how long did the whole interview process take?

Re: Ask HN: How was your interviewing experience this cycle?

#16

Post by aditya_rs »

fatnoah wrote: post #4

a) 1 b) Too many to count c) 6, I think? d1) System design, performance management, product eng partnership/relationship, management principles d2) 1 e) Not really necessary I interviewed more as a favor to someone I knew at the company, but I ended up liking the company. When it came time to talk compensation, I threw what I thought was an FU number at them (i.e. I started my then current job with a max band offer a…

Congrats on the offer!

> e) Not really necessary

What do you mean? As in you didn't have a need for managing the time because you weren't really interviewing for a lot of companies or you didn't find the number of interviews too much of a burden on your time?

Re: Ask HN: How was your interviewing experience this cycle?

#17

Post by aditya_rs »

tra3 wrote: post #3

a: I did not apply to any; recruiters reached out. b: all of them c: at least 2. d: see below. d#2: 2 so far. e: poorly. I haven't interviewed properly in 10 years so this experience been a bit of a shock. 1. FAANG: Leetcode hard; failed hard. 2. Another FAANG: everything went ok; eventually rejected. Found through back channels that fudged the system design. Didn't go low enough in the stack . 3. Medium sized compan…

Thanks for the detailed answer!

I think in general I can see that startups are exploiting the interviewing process itself as an arbitrage to get smart people in. Large companies to some extent are very set on the interview "loop" and would go through the whole assortment of their test suite irrespective of who it is, maybe they can afford to and they may even have to at scale as a process discipline to avoid false positives. But this is a clear advantage for startups hiring since by their nature itself get lower inbound so they can customize their interviews to either make it more specific or remove certain rounds altogether depending on the signal they get from the candidate.

Re: Ask HN: How was your interviewing experience this cycle?

#18

Post by aditya_rs »

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #7

a. How many companies did you apply for? Ans: 0, they reached out to me through linkedin, hired etc.. b. How many companies reached out to you? Ans: 10-12 c. How many interviews did you typically go through for a company? Usually 1 screen and 4 rounds onsite (2 coding, 1 sys design, 1 behavior) d. What were the type of interviews? (Have the number of companies asking leet code questions decreased? haha) Phone screen…

Congrats on the job offer!

If you don't mind sharing what was the level you were interviewing for and how long did the whole interview process take?

Re: Ask HN: How was your interviewing experience this cycle?

#19

Post by strikelaserclaw »

vanusa wrote: post #11
strikelaserclaw wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you should be able to do 50% of mediums < 30 mins before you start. easy problems just don't cut it anymore.

You should be able to do 50% of mediums Great. So if they give you 2 or 3 mediums in the course of the interview process, with a strict 30 minute deadline -- what is your chance of failing?

they usually do 2 medium problems in 45-50 minutes, first one is generally an easy medium, second is a bit more challenging. Chance of failing is dependent on many variables, you should practice some leetcode and hope that luck is on your side.

Re: Ask HN: How was your interviewing experience this cycle?

#20

Post by strikelaserclaw »

aditya_rs wrote: post #18
strikelaserclaw wrote: post #7

a. How many companies did you apply for? Ans: 0, they reached out to me through linkedin, hired etc.. b. How many companies reached out to you? Ans: 10-12 c. How many interviews did you typically go through for a company? Usually 1 screen and 4 rounds onsite (2 coding, 1 sys design, 1 behavior) d. What were the type of interviews? (Have the number of companies asking leet code questions decreased? haha) Phone screen…

Congrats on the job offer! If you don't mind sharing what was the level you were interviewing for and how long did the whole interview process take?

Sr level, process, interviewing took one month, negotiations and stuff took another 2-3 weeks.
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