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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

#61

Post by ldjkfkdsjnv »

vjerancrnjak wrote: post #58
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…

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.

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

#62

Post by ldjkfkdsjnv »

paulddraper wrote: post #49
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…

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+.

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

#63

Post by khzw8yyy »

guessmyname wrote: post #50
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…

The interviews I had at Apple were surprisingly straightforward compared to those at many other tech companies. I didn’t find the need to memorize anything, in part because I knew the concepts they were questioning me about after putting them in practice during the last decade of work, but also because the questions were quite straightforward, almost akin to general knowledge, for example: • What is an SSL certificat…

This simply doesn't work without grinding, and grinding happens to be sufficient (whereas understanding is not).

You aren't just supposed to solve a problem (and can't think back to your college years, pull out your copy of CLRS, or whatever). You are supposed to rapidly pattern-match to a specific problem type, and implement. You only have 20-30 minutes (because the rest of the hour gets eaten up by small talk) and this includes testing. Anyone who thinks they can do this with just their knowledge of algorithms without any grinding is in for a shock.

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

#64

Post by paulddraper »

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+.

When you say "memorize" what do you mean?

You mean that they remember common patterns to solve problems? Or they memorize questions verbatim?

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

#65

Post by Etheryte »

pimlottc wrote: post #20

The title is misleading. When someone says they offer “curated experiences” I assume they actually host and run activities. Like, if a company advertised “curated travel experiences”, I’d expect to be able to book a trip with them.

It seems like you might have a misunderstanding of what "curated" means. To quote the dictionary: "selected, organized, and presented using professional or expert knowledge." A museum is curated not because someone guides you through it and talks about things, it's curated because someone specifically took the time and effort to decide what to put out on display and what to omit.

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

#66

Post by davely »

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #57
krooj wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you do this and I am the one interviewing you, I will fail you. I will figure out what you actually do/don't know and if you are incapable of performing at the applied level, I will fail you.

Thats fine, but the majority of engineers at Meta/Google will be impressed

This needs a [citation needed] sort of flag.

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

#67

Post by [deleted] »

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?

[deleted]

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

#68

Post by Denzel »

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…

While this advice may work for some FAANG companies, I can assure you this won’t work for Google, especially at higher levels. You won’t find their questions in any public test bank online (trust me, I searched after my interviews).

Also, a good system design interview isn’t about designing a “perfect” system (hint: there isn’t one), it’s about defending a reasonably considered design.

Google’s system design interview very closely approximates my day-to-day experience designing solutions with my teammates.

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

#69

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#70

Post by _dark_matter_ »

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.

This happened to me for meta. Saw the qs on Glassdoor, memorized, and passed with flying colors. Did not take the job. I was astounded that they asked the same question, word for word.
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