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Ask HN: Senior Positions Interview Prep Resources?

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Re: Ask HN: Senior Positions Interview Prep Resources?

#41

There are companies that will pay near FANG levels (maybe 10-15% haircut) without subjecting yourself to onerous completion of hundreds of LeetCode problems. There are other options, and we should be aware of them. You'll still need to prove you can code, but the questions we ask have practical application to our codebases: we use recursion and trees, for example, so we ask questions about those. Other companies will…

Care to share specific names?

Re: Ask HN: Senior Positions Interview Prep Resources?

#42

There are companies that will pay near FANG levels (maybe 10-15% haircut) without subjecting yourself to onerous completion of hundreds of LeetCode problems. There are other options, and we should be aware of them. You'll still need to prove you can code, but the questions we ask have practical application to our codebases: we use recursion and trees, for example, so we ask questions about those. Other companies will…

It's almost like it's easier to start your own company than to get hired at one of these places and actually be happy.

If you have the privilege, then yeah absolutely.

Re: Ask HN: Senior Positions Interview Prep Resources?

#43
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you list some examples of actual companies? Because, I haven't seen any here in SV. Everyone and their mom asks leetcode AFAICT.

I interviewed with Lyft for a front end SWE role and got no leetcode questions. I ran through a bunch of 45-minute "make-this-thing-in-React" panels, and passed all with flying colors. That's only one example, but the type of questions I find unusually challenging (dynamic programming) -- the only time I was asked those, was at Google.

I wouldn't expect frontend to get random DP questions at any company (well you never know with Google..)

I interviewed a couple of years ago at Lyft (for a backend team) and definitely got FAANG-class systems whiteboard questions.

Re: Ask HN: Senior Positions Interview Prep Resources?

#44
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t be serious. It’s not that hard.

TBH, it's not far off... I've done 200+ problems on leetcode, all of ctci, and lots more. Hundreds of hours of prep over the last 5 years. Never received an offer from FAANG after 10+ on-sites with them. Know others with similar experience. People I know who get offers are even more aggressive with prep but also get lucky. (As they sometimes get rejected even when they've received an offer from the company before...)

Are you sure you aren't being rejected for other reasons?

Generally, if you can finish any random medium difficulty leetcode question in 30 minutes, you are at the algo bar. But there's still systems, behavioral, communication, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Senior Positions Interview Prep Resources?

#45
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you list some examples of actual companies? Because, I haven't seen any here in SV. Everyone and their mom asks leetcode AFAICT.

I interviewed with Lyft for a front end SWE role and got no leetcode questions. I ran through a bunch of 45-minute "make-this-thing-in-React" panels, and passed all with flying colors. That's only one example, but the type of questions I find unusually challenging (dynamic programming) -- the only time I was asked those, was at Google.

I thought it was common for frontend interviews to not focus as much on CS stuff/things people typically associate with FAANG-style interviews. Facebook does this for example[0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18782786

Re: Ask HN: Senior Positions Interview Prep Resources?

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interviewed with Lyft for a front end SWE role and got no leetcode questions. I ran through a bunch of 45-minute "make-this-thing-in-React" panels, and passed all with flying colors. That's only one example, but the type of questions I find unusually challenging (dynamic programming) -- the only time I was asked those, was at Google.

I wouldn't expect frontend to get random DP questions at any company (well you never know with Google..) I interviewed a couple of years ago at Lyft (for a backend team) and definitely got FAANG-class systems whiteboard questions.

Google doesn't hire front end software engineers specifically. They hire general-purpose leetcoding machines (e.g, people that can can crank out DP problems), then assign those people to work on front end tasks.

Re: Ask HN: Senior Positions Interview Prep Resources?

#48
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> From experience, while Google does this for their HQ, they don't for remote offices This is not true. Google interview experience is identical everywhere. Source: spent 6+ years at Google, not in HQ.

/shrug. When I was considering positions in SF a few years back, I was chatting with hiring managers I'd be under first before going through any whiteboard interviews. Maybe things have changed?

Yeah, you can chat with whoever you like if you're reasonably senior, but then you do the same exact interview as everybody else. That "chat" was just a "chat". It wasn't a part of the hiring process. There are likely exceptions at the truly stratospheric levels, for people whose credentials aren't debatable, but for 99.99% of people it's all the same 5-person loop with a whiteboard or a Chromebook.
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