Clickbait. This isn't a FTE with TC, it's an internship. Unlike Apple, most MANGs cut internships to functionally zero. You're never going to get a corporate coding job without multiple rounds of technical interview because common sense.
Getting a job at Apple without going to college or doing LeetCode
31–40 of 399 posts
Re: Getting a job at Apple without going to college or doing LeetCode
#32This is just "one" experience, certainly not the norm. Even as an experienced engineer of 15 yrs I'd to solve leetcode (LC) style problems on the whiteboard a few yrs go. For better or worse (depending on whose perspective you see), LC allows companies to judge you based on a common framework of solving algorithmic problems using computer science fundamentals (data structures and algorithms) in a language of your cho…
I think it makes sense to use LC or something like it. Is there a better way to judge the 100 random developers who've applied to your position? - They may not have formal education, you can't judge on that. - They may not have active GitHub projects, you can't judge on that. - They may not be active on social media or have any kind of fame, you can't judge on that. - They may not have built anything they can show of…
Especially for Senior Developers I think systems design questions are more interesting. They usually don't just have one right answer and you need to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches. They require knowledgeable interviewers of course.
Then again, I'm not working in a huge corp, so I don't know if this scales.
Re: Getting a job at Apple without going to college or doing LeetCode
#33The problem is that "leetcode" is a definitely a thing that exists in "FAANG" interviews. The biggest stumbling block with leetcode is that you shouldn't be programming like that in real life. "make a linked list" no, just use a library like everyone else. "Implement addition in python but with string inputs", "no you can't use the built in x" All of that "clever" shit should be filtered out at PR/MR/diff review time…
It also doesn't resemble "real" work with regards to gathering requirements, clarifying ambiguity, weighing up trade-offs, making sure code is clear, etc. It tends to be a rote regurgitation exercise.
Re: Getting a job at Apple without going to college or doing LeetCode
#34I realise this is a different scenario to op, but be wary of Apple recruiters claiming a LeetCode-lite or homework assignment driven process. My own experience interviewing for a hardware division role in Tokyo was that it's a complete lie.
Re: Getting a job at Apple without going to college or doing LeetCode
#35Do Apple attract the best software engineers? If I were a talented hardware engineer, chip designer, hardware designer - I'd want to work at Apple because Apple attracts the best people in these fields. I imagine that Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon get the lion share of the best software engineers. No one has ever said Apple services, like the iCloud and Apple Music backend, or Siri, are quality piece of software en…
The fact that you don’t think about them probably tells a story.
Siri is the worst piece of software I'm forced to interact with daily. iOS is also near the top.
GP didn't seem to be saying they didn't think about that software. They were saying they didn't have a good reputation, which is true.
Apple is actually astonishingly bad at software considering the amount of money they have to do it properly. Even Google eventually got Android to a place where it's very resilient and rarely buggy, but iOS has bugs for me almost daily where I have to reboot to fix it.
Re: Getting a job at Apple without going to college or doing LeetCode
#36> I haven’t been to Google, so I’m not sure, but you might actually need LeetCode to get a job there You do
Partially why I cooled the jets of SRE/SRM HR teams around 2016. The Googlyness was becoming less Googly classic formula and more political, corporate, and insane.
Re: Getting a job at Apple without going to college or doing LeetCode
#37Side question: Is it still true that if you work at Apple, you can't be doing side projects etc? I've heard some stories rules from Big tech companies specially Apple that they restrict heavily what can and can't be done even in your free time.
Are most Applers even allowed to speak in forums like this one? Did OP follow the rules?
I've always found strange that we don't hear more about Apple in the comments here (tech, working conditions...), compared to other big companies. Are they so scared about Apple that they don't dare posting on an anonymous forum?
Re: Getting a job at Apple without going to college or doing LeetCode
#38The problem is that "leetcode" is a definitely a thing that exists in "FAANG" interviews. The biggest stumbling block with leetcode is that you shouldn't be programming like that in real life. "make a linked list" no, just use a library like everyone else. "Implement addition in python but with string inputs", "no you can't use the built in x" All of that "clever" shit should be filtered out at PR/MR/diff review time…
My understanding is that they use it to filter candidates a bit. FAANG positions get loads of applicants, so they have to find efficient ways of thinning the herd a bit. The correlation between people who are willing to grind leetcode and who turn out to be good engineers is high enough that it's worth it for them to keep as a tool to sort the massive pile of applicants they get.
Of course, hiring someone purely on how good they are at leetcode would be... dumb.
Re: Getting a job at Apple without going to college or doing LeetCode
#39The problem is that "leetcode" is a definitely a thing that exists in "FAANG" interviews. The biggest stumbling block with leetcode is that you shouldn't be programming like that in real life. "make a linked list" no, just use a library like everyone else. "Implement addition in python but with string inputs", "no you can't use the built in x" All of that "clever" shit should be filtered out at PR/MR/diff review time…
It also doesn't resemble "real" work with regards to gathering requirements, clarifying ambiguity, weighing up trade-offs, making sure code is clear, etc. It tends to be a rote regurgitation exercise.
> It tends to be a rote regurgitation exercise.
where there are much greater selective pressures in India and China to excel at this than there are in the US, raising this irrelevant bar to absurd territory if you value your time
Re: Getting a job at Apple without going to college or doing LeetCode
#40> and you need LeetCode for backend.
Interesting. I have never done a single leetcode question. 70% of my job is writing backend code in Golang and Python with the odd bit of C and shell scripting every now and then.
What am I doing wrong?