31–40 of 270 posts
How is the technical interview process valuable _for companies_ at this point when it seems to be evaluating how well you can prepare for their specific leetcode interview, and how well you practice the incantation of the system design problem (make sure you follow the template and the pattern!) - do they really think they're selecting the best candidates, and not the most practiced interviewers?
Thanks to the author for taking the time to write this up. I think it is a fairly realistic description of what the process is like for an engineer who has spent several years working in Silicon Valley at a well-known company. The key takeaways, coming from someone with a similar background: * Rely heavily on your personal network to both identify worthwhile opportunities and for referrals which, in the Before Times,…
author here - glad to see this post on HN, and glad you liked it! re: your last question - I interviewed for both SWE and EM positions, depending on what was available at any given company. At companies that had both roles open, I talked to folks to understand what they expected out of EMs vs engineers, as it varied a lot - and then I picked whatever was more appealing to me. In aggregate I went for 70% SWE / 30% EM…
I'm curious about the rough models which exist.
This is just depressing. How is the technical interview process valuable _for companies_ at this point when it seems to be evaluating how well you can prepare for their specific leetcode interview, and how well you practice the incantation of the system design problem (make sure you follow the template and the pattern!) - do they really think they're selecting the best candidates, and not the most practiced interview…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They had a _full_ pipeline, interviewing every day for three weeks straight. I honestly think I'd be physically incapable of doing this. I'm on the HSP side and even a single set of interviews is enough to drive me into an insomnia/anxiety cycle for weeks. I can't even imagine what this would be like for me. Albeit I admit it's the best way to get the job you want. Maybe I'm in the wrong industry...
This is incredibly common. I hate running interviews - we do the leetcode whiteboard pressure cooker crap - it's a policy I have no say in unfortunately. I've had candidates with strong backgrounds go to pieces right in front of me - it's awful to watch and I hate that I had anything to do with making someone experience that. More people than you might imagine take Xanax to get through interviews.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They had a _full_ pipeline, interviewing every day for three weeks straight. I honestly think I'd be physically incapable of doing this. I'm on the HSP side and even a single set of interviews is enough to drive me into an insomnia/anxiety cycle for weeks. I can't even imagine what this would be like for me. Albeit I admit it's the best way to get the job you want. Maybe I'm in the wrong industry...
This is incredibly common. I hate running interviews - we do the leetcode whiteboard pressure cooker crap - it's a policy I have no say in unfortunately. I've had candidates with strong backgrounds go to pieces right in front of me - it's awful to watch and I hate that I had anything to do with making someone experience that. More people than you might imagine take Xanax to get through interviews.
On my last job search I found that overloading myself with interviews was very stressful. It's one of the reason I will no longer continue with any process that has take home assignments - at one point I had 4 different assignments with overlapping due dates. Far too much stress (and I was ghosted on all of them). It's also not fun to be waiting to hear from the places you're really interested in while you've multipl…
In my last job hunt, I flat out declined further interview if I was requested to do a take home assignment.
Cheat where possible using OpenGPT.
Cheat where possible using OpenGPT.
We must prove to companies that leetcode is not the way.
Cheat where possible using OpenGPT. Cheat where possible using OpenGPT. Cheat where possible using OpenGPT. We must prove to companies that leetcode is not the way.
Meanwhile, humans have not really struggled with this problem. We tell you what a bloom filter is, you just have to write the code to spec. (This is different than some interviews where you need to know the answer to the trivia question; know what a bloom filter is and how to implement one, or you fail. ChatGPT was not capable of either.)
Overall my take on the current state of AI-produced computer programs is that the programmer is forced to take on the role of code reviewer and detail checker, which I think is a more difficult problem than just typing in code in a green-field environment. The thing that's difficult about reviewing code is that things can diverge away from your mental model so quickly, that you don't know which details you should be checking up on. When you're writing it from scratch, you don't lead yourself astray in the same way.
In a few years this could be completely different, of course.
For example - there's a big pushback that any hiring manager worried about a candidate who don't have required skills they could learn in 6-12 months is "quibbling". Is this a generally held belief? In the startup space in particular, most folks I interview frequently have consistent most if not all of their prior companies. Expecting a 12 month ramp-up time on a particular piece of technology needed to do the job would be an immediate no-hire from me. If I personally joined a company and couldn't meaningfully contribute for the first year, I would consider that a complete failure and expect to be let go. Do other people feel differently? Perhaps this expectation is more applicable to larger companies than startups?
Cheat where possible using OpenGPT. Cheat where possible using OpenGPT. Cheat where possible using OpenGPT. We must prove to companies that leetcode is not the way.
Of course most competent companies will ask a minor follow-up which will stump candidates who are relying on such tools.