Ask HN: How do I prepare for an interview for AMZ/GOOG/APL/FB?

I went through the whole process with Google and Amazon, just to get rejected at the end. I prepared by cramming Cracking the code interview in 2 weeks and reading classic algorithms books; it wasn't enough to meet the bar (anecdotally I remember Google being much harder than Amazon).

Fast forward another couple of years and I got contacted by Microsoft and Amazon recruiters, went through and got offers from both companies. Recently I also got approached by a Google recruiter but I politely declined since I recently started a new position.

What changed in those couple of years?

This time around I prepared by solving problems in leetcode and other platforms a longer time. For about 2 months I spent almost all my free time writing code out of the office.

But that's only half of the story. I noticed that as you apply to more senior roles, the interviews focus more on behaviour and experience rather than hardcore programming. I would say that the weight of these factors was between 2x and 2.5x this time around.

Finally, I myself changed during that time. I adopted an 'abundance mindset', where opportunities are plentiful instead of single chances that we can't let get away. Now I see interviews as two way streets where companies need you as much as you need them. Lastly, when I go to an interview I don't see it as 'I practiced x days for this interview', but as 'I have 10 years professional experience, if that didn't prepared me for this job, no amount of cramming in a few days will'. That doesn't even touch the

So my advice is to just relax, do your best and don't get discourage if you are rejected. If your goal is to break in one of the big 4, continue accruing experience and improving yourself and try next time, it will just get better.

P.S.: In my comment I don't mention luck, but personally I think that it also plays a huge role in getting a job. One time recruiters from a company got in touch with me; two years later they wouldn't even read my CV for the same position. Get to the right position at the right time, and the right set of people can be the difference between an offer or none. It's hard to come to terms with the idea than something other than yourself can dictate your future, but the sooner you do it, it will save you a lot of grief.

https://www.pramp.com - 1 hr online interviews where you interview someone and they interview you back. Go through ~20 of these to get really comfortable solving problems while talking through them. They also give you the optimal solution at the end. This will prepare you really well for the initial technical phone screenings.

https://leetcode.com/ - collection of 700+ interview coding challenges. You should be able to solve any random medium difficulty question within 15 minutes if you want a shot at the companies you listed. Keep doing a couple of these per day till you get really good.

"Elements of Programming Interviews" or "Cracking the Coding Interview" - Read through either one of these to get an overview of the interview process and what companies expect.

Polish your resume - This is only important to get the interview. Once you are interviewing onsite the resume doesn't matter much. Here is mine to give you an example. http://joshcockrell.com/joshua_cockrell_resume.pdf Feel free to send me yours if you want some feedback.

That seems much shorter than I had expected, considering there's so many questions on Leetcode. Do you recommend focussing only on the marked interview questions on LeetCode or start at the beginning and work my way up to the hardest?