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Avoiding Leetcode Anxiety

leetcodetherapy.com

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Re: Avoiding Leetcode Anxiety

#41

Post by 01100011 »

pmiller2 wrote: post #35
jitl wrote: post #24

Don’t want to do Leetcode? Me neither — after I left Airbnb I vowed to not work at any company that asks this kind of question. I interviewed at a bunch of interesting companies (Airtable, Brex, Eaze, Figma, Lob, Notion, ...) none of which asked this kind of algo brain teaser question. There are tons of places out there with great product, interesting problems, and good compensation - so if you hate this bullshit, do…

I'm just gonna glom on to this for visibility, but I'd like to say I wish there was a good list of companies that don't do leetcode-style interviews. Frankly, I'm sick of leetcode, and I feel like it takes a lot of fun out of working in tech to have to grind this skill that's completely unrelated to any sort of real work. (Rant mode off) Anybody know of such a list? Edit: I should add that I'd really like to be point…

Do you want companies that don't do leetcode, or companies that don't do leetcode yet pay you a FANG salary? The list of companies that don't do leetcode are probably quite long, but you're looking at an average salary in an average town(i.e. $120-180k/year salary with decent benefits and meager stock opportunities). There's nothing wrong with that. I'd certainly go that route if I could afford to. If you're looking at making above average pay, you'll probably have to jump through those hoops though.

For what it's worth, as an "embedded guy" who went into programming with a EE degree and no algorithm experience, I used to loathe the leetcode dance. After working at a FANG where I actually needed to know some of that stuff, I now don't see it as pure evil. Sure, it's a bit overboard, but some of the problems you'll encounter at some of these companies really do require a level of competence and dedication that is something I rarely encountered in 20 years outside the valley. Maybe it's the particular company I ended up at, but I am working with some insanely smart and dedicated folks. I definitely do not belong among them but it's certainly been a learning experience and something I'm thankful for.

Re: Avoiding Leetcode Anxiety

#42

Post by beforeolives »

I'm going through this now and it isn't leetcode anxiety, it's interview anxiety. If you haven't had that many great opportunities in your career, getting a FAANG interview feels like your one shot. And yes, in your rational mind you understand that it's just a job and you already have one so you aren't desperate, there are many other companies too, and there will probably be other chances to interview at the same company... but the anxiety is still real.

Re: Avoiding Leetcode Anxiety

#43

Post by 01100011 »

ipnon wrote: post #2

After crashing and burning the startup rodeo, I gave up. I live off my savings, dabble in crypto for some income, and work on my own software to sell. I've never been happier. Silicon Valley didn't seem to want me anyway.

Nothing wrong with that. SiValley is fucking toxic and I'd leave in a second if I could afford to(mid-life divorce... long story). Leave SiValley for the folks that need to be there(for ego, for money, to satisfy the lofty goals instilled by their society/family/etc). You'll lead a much more fulfilling life in a normal town with your friends and family around you.

Re: Avoiding Leetcode Anxiety

#44

Post by tester34 »

nirui wrote: post #13

> We don't realize something important - Leetcode is a competitive programming platform at its core, not an interview platform. Yet, we fall into the trap of thinking it's an educational website. There is a word circling China's Internet call "内卷", which can be translated directly to Involution, but on the ground it actually means "Over competition" or "Doing zero-sum competition". People trying to climb over the oth…

>Funny thing is, even though the top dogs in China got the best talented engineers in the entire nation, their public-facing products are still nothing but trash (or even fruaddy). And as for those engineers, many of them has their own big dreams, but they cannot realize it because the market is a highly restricted blood sea.

How so? when it comes to scale they easily compete with FAANG, don't they?

Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, Bytedance...?

Re: Avoiding Leetcode Anxiety

#45

Post by sirpunch »

nirui wrote: post #13

> We don't realize something important - Leetcode is a competitive programming platform at its core, not an interview platform. Yet, we fall into the trap of thinking it's an educational website. There is a word circling China's Internet call "内卷", which can be translated directly to Involution, but on the ground it actually means "Over competition" or "Doing zero-sum competition". People trying to climb over the oth…

Do you know about the 1point3acrea forum for LeetCode-based interview preparation. I was told by a friend to check it out as they have an extensive set of tips, tricks and general suggestions. Their forums and posts seem to be mostly in Mandarin and Google translate doesn't take you far. So I was hoping to get some Chinese tech person's opinion on 1p3a.

Re: Avoiding Leetcode Anxiety

#46

Post by EvilEy3 »

thom wrote: post #40
jitl wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We ask questions similar to the work you'd actually do at Notion; see our interview guide here: https://www.notion.so/Guide-to-Engineering-Interviews-63876c... . Looking at a smattering of leetcode mediums, I don't understand how someone being able to return "the elements of a 2d matrix in spiral order" ( https://leetcode.com/problems/spiral-matrix/ ) or use Kadane's algortith to solve "k-concatenation max sum" ( htt…

I say this as a happy Notion customer who spends a lot of time evangelising it within my own company: Notion is one of the most unpleasantly slow apps I have to use in my daily work, it has been the same way for years, and I can't help but think that a deeper appreciation of computer science fundamentals _might_ possibly help find better ways to fix that.

Hey, no gatekeeping! Leetcode bad!

Re: Avoiding Leetcode Anxiety

#47

Post by 2pEXgD0fZ5cF »

thom wrote: post #40
jitl wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We ask questions similar to the work you'd actually do at Notion; see our interview guide here: https://www.notion.so/Guide-to-Engineering-Interviews-63876c... . Looking at a smattering of leetcode mediums, I don't understand how someone being able to return "the elements of a 2d matrix in spiral order" ( https://leetcode.com/problems/spiral-matrix/ ) or use Kadane's algortith to solve "k-concatenation max sum" ( htt…

I say this as a happy Notion customer who spends a lot of time evangelising it within my own company: Notion is one of the most unpleasantly slow apps I have to use in my daily work, it has been the same way for years, and I can't help but think that a deeper appreciation of computer science fundamentals _might_ possibly help find better ways to fix that.

When I look at the performance of many pieces of software produced by FAANG companies and other big players known for basically bringing us the "leetcode interview meta" I really doubt the strongest connection can be made in that regard.

Re: Avoiding Leetcode Anxiety

#48

Post by EvilEy3 »

01100011 wrote: post #43
ipnon wrote: post #2

After crashing and burning the startup rodeo, I gave up. I live off my savings, dabble in crypto for some income, and work on my own software to sell. I've never been happier. Silicon Valley didn't seem to want me anyway.

Nothing wrong with that. SiValley is fucking toxic and I'd leave in a second if I could afford to(mid-life divorce... long story). Leave SiValley for the folks that need to be there(for ego, for money, to satisfy the lofty goals instilled by their society/family/etc). You'll lead a much more fulfilling life in a normal town with your friends and family around you.

Whatever lets you sleep at night.

Re: Avoiding Leetcode Anxiety

#49

Post by EvilEy3 »

cebert wrote: post #10

I wonder ten years from now how common LeetCode like interviews are. These types of interviews favor those who have the luxury of ample time to prep for difficult interviews and aren’t representative of most daily working environments. This process fails to consider candidates that would be good fits. When I help with interviews, I place much more values on communication skills, teamwork, mentorship, and a general pa…

> This process fails to consider candidates that would be good fits.

Not to dismiss your opinion, but where are the proofs?

Re: Avoiding Leetcode Anxiety

#50

Post by jitl »

lentil_soup wrote: post #32
jitl wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We ask questions similar to the work you'd actually do at Notion; see our interview guide here: https://www.notion.so/Guide-to-Engineering-Interviews-63876c... . Looking at a smattering of leetcode mediums, I don't understand how someone being able to return "the elements of a 2d matrix in spiral order" ( https://leetcode.com/problems/spiral-matrix/ ) or use Kadane's algortith to solve "k-concatenation max sum" ( htt…

I read the guide to engineering interviews you posted, but I am curious about the difference between your "Technical Screen" and leetcode type questions. Having to solve a problem while someone is watching and having to talk while you do it sounds similar to the FAANG style. Maybe I'm missing something?

From our guide:

> Please prepare a skeleton web application, using any web server framework you like, preferably a lightweight one, e.g. express (node), flask (python), sinatra (ruby).

> Have a tool to send payloads to your server and inspect responses, for example cURL or Postman. No front-end client is required other than cURL or Postman to send test requests. This will be a backend only exercise.

This is a far cry from leetcode stuff - these are real world tools and concepts many developers use every day. Yes, it is an interview with time pressure, talking, and problem solving. But, the tools and problem are much closer to web development than they are to a CS51 graph proof.

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