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Show HN: Onsites.fyi - Curated Big Tech Interview Experiences

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Re: Show HN: Onsites.fyi - Curated Big Tech Interview Experiences

#101

Post by [deleted] »

CalRobert wrote: post #38
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #36

To reiterate: Ignore all study materials. Go to leetcode.com and literally memorize the most common questions for the company you are interviewing at. This is what your competition is doing. DO NOT LEARN THE MATERIAL. Just memorize it Do the same thing for system design. Memorize the answers word for word. DO NOT LEARN THE MATERIAL. The highest paid tech jobs go to candidates that regurgitate perfect answers to inter…

This is true. And it's a bit frustrating because I have to take care of two young children when I'm off work, not grind leetcode. But maybe that's the point.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Onsites.fyi - Curated Big Tech Interview Experiences

#102

Post by synaesthesisx »

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #36

To reiterate: Ignore all study materials. Go to leetcode.com and literally memorize the most common questions for the company you are interviewing at. This is what your competition is doing. DO NOT LEARN THE MATERIAL. Just memorize it Do the same thing for system design. Memorize the answers word for word. DO NOT LEARN THE MATERIAL. The highest paid tech jobs go to candidates that regurgitate perfect answers to inter…

A former colleague of mine is at Meta thanks to this exact strategy. There are also apparently leaked question banks available to facilitate the process!

Re: Show HN: Onsites.fyi - Curated Big Tech Interview Experiences

#103

Post by michaelt »

paulddraper wrote: post #64
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People need to know the truth that these "genius" engineers at Meta/FAANG are mostly getting in by memorizing. They try interviewing at five top companies. One of those interviews they will absolutely crush, and then will get an offer at 400k+.

When you say "memorize" what do you mean? You mean that they remember common patterns to solve problems? Or they memorize questions verbatim?

For example, if asked "how would you detect a cycle in a linked list?" you might memorise "Tortoise and hare algorithm, two pointers one slow and one fast, fast overtaking slow indicates the presence of a cycle"

A person with a deep passion for algorithms might be tempted to try to solve it themselves before checking the answer - which can be a time consuming business. Time your competitors have used to memorised the answers to 25 more questions.

ldjkfkdsjnv has exaggerated a bit, to be provocative - but I've certainly had interviewers ask me questions that stumped the greatest minds in computer science for 25+ years; I don't know what they were expecting if not memorisation.

Re: Show HN: Onsites.fyi - Curated Big Tech Interview Experiences

#104

Post by Der_Einzige »

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #62
paulddraper wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone is going to take you seriously. Don't memorize it, learn it, become good at it. No matter how much you memorize, there's going to be something you don't. But I think you know that.

People need to know the truth that these "genius" engineers at Meta/FAANG are mostly getting in by memorizing. They try interviewing at five top companies. One of those interviews they will absolutely crush, and then will get an offer at 400k+.

They mostly get in by cheating. A lot of people, even before ChatGPT cheated in college, cheated on their FAANg interview, and then still get promoted later since none of that shit matters and their promotion criteria is on if the button is moved 3CM correctly or not in some app that will be killed in 5 months anyway

Re: Show HN: Onsites.fyi - Curated Big Tech Interview Experiences

#105

Post by Der_Einzige »

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #61
vjerancrnjak wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently stumbled upon an interviewer that asks "what will happen to this algorithm if I delete these 2 lines of code?" (the interviewee is the author) and deletes happen on simple if-else condition that maintains useful invariants and the interviewer said it eliminates most candidates. I guess that's how memorization works.

I'm telling you, most candidates at Meta that got in and are making 400k+ sat in a room and memorized question by question. People need to know how they are getting hired. They are MEMORIZING the question bank.

Most of them cheated, they didn’t actually memorize all that leetcode. Ive personally witnessed candidates at my own university successfully cheat on FAANg interviews which later landed them successful jobs/internehips

Re: Show HN: Onsites.fyi - Curated Big Tech Interview Experiences

#106

Post by Der_Einzige »

itronitron wrote: post #92
frozenport wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're probably making 3x less

and yet their quality of life is likely 5X higher

Ultra mega cope. Many FAANG engineers are testing and vesting, doing almost no work while taking that money in

Re: Show HN: Onsites.fyi - Curated Big Tech Interview Experiences

#107

Post by paulddraper »

michaelt wrote: post #103
paulddraper wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say "memorize" what do you mean? You mean that they remember common patterns to solve problems? Or they memorize questions verbatim?

For example, if asked "how would you detect a cycle in a linked list?" you might memorise "Tortoise and hare algorithm, two pointers one slow and one fast, fast overtaking slow indicates the presence of a cycle" A person with a deep passion for algorithms might be tempted to try to solve it themselves before checking the answer - which can be a time consuming business. Time your competitors have used to memorised the…

That's a funny example, because once in an interview I had exactly that question and the week before I saw tortoise and hair.

But that wasn't FAANG that's pretty exceptional.... Most stuff is DFS, memorization, etc... Things that are good principles and don't have "this one weird trick"

Re: Show HN: Onsites.fyi - Curated Big Tech Interview Experiences

#108

Post by airstrike »

otteromkram wrote: post #88
airstrike wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly not everyone is equally adept at memorization, so if you're solving for that as a hiring manager, you will only (mostly) appeal to this subset of people

Then they're probably not a good candidate for a high-paying, high-expectations job. Thank you for pointing that out.

> Then they're probably not a good candidate for a high-paying, high-expectations job.

[Citation needed]

Memorization isn't the one variable we should be solving for. God forbid people take notes in meetings as opposed to remembering every word that was said

Re: Show HN: Onsites.fyi - Curated Big Tech Interview Experiences

#110

Post by yieldcrv »

mnd999 wrote: post #27
DanAtC wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice, make your problem the interviewee's problem and waste more of everyone's time.

The arrogance of these companies makes me never want to work there. I did go through the Apple process once though and it was pretty much as described.

People that need jobs really shouldn't view this kind of approach as advice or relevant to them. I feel like that's often left out of these kind of takes.

For anybody that needs reminding:

Companies' abrasive or uncoordinated interview processes likely has nothing to do with your experience in your team on the company.

Your manager's uncollaborative behavior may have nothing to do with your day to day, or mental health on the job.

Ignoring or leaving any of these companies because you considered any one behavior a red flag is a privileged take for people that have trust funds, masquarading their version of life as normal.

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