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“I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

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Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#721

Post by ehonsey33 »

okareaman wrote: post #376
yodsanklai wrote: post #359

I've just landed a job at a FAANG company. Some random subjective comments based on my experience: - it was hard work - there was no way I could have passed these interviews without all the work. - my past experience and education barely helped me for the interview - it's not enough to be able to solve the problems, you need to be able to solve them on the spot, without much thinking, in an interview context - I pass…

> - it's not enough to be able to solve the problems, you need to be able to solve them on the spot, without much thinking, in an interview context Sounds like they're looking for assembly line programmers - crank out the code, pass it off, then on to the next piece of code without pause. This would be a nightmare for me. The high salaries and prestige of these companies definitely would not be worth it. I'm not neur…

Agreed.

>The tests are therefore all about excluding candidates rather than identifying brilliant young mavericks with potential.

The author assumes that companies want mavericks. Maybe the FAANGs and other high tech firms still search for a few innovators, but wouldn’t they look at other networks besides the typical interview process to identify these candidates?

We are living in an age of developer commoditization, and for many large tech companies the army of assembly line programmers can churn through enough peripheral work at the right price.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#722

Post by ldng »

QuesnayJr wrote: post #583
ldng wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, now that you've started working. Have you actually applied any of it ? To make an analogy, I'm always perplexed at how you're asked to build an EPR on the spot and then all you do is general electricity mundane work. I've seen a lot of EPR builder beeing incapable of simple wiring ...

What's an EPR? I did a search, and none of the meanings I found seem to fit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPR_(nuclear_reactor)

NB: First result of an "EPR electricity" search.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#723

Post by ldng »

megablast wrote: post #663
ldng wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, now that you've started working. Have you actually applied any of it ? To make an analogy, I'm always perplexed at how you're asked to build an EPR on the spot and then all you do is general electricity mundane work. I've seen a lot of EPR builder beeing incapable of simple wiring ...

Why do people use weird acronyms that no one uses.

Why people can't do a simple search ? First result of an "EPR electricity" search : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPR_(nuclear_reactor)

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#724

Post by shaftway »

okareaman wrote: post #594
shaftway wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the interviewer pool at Google. Other FAANGs might be different. I've had candidates ask me why we do this, and my answer is that once you're in the company, transferring to another job on the same ladder is fairly trivial and requires no technical re-interviews. I go on to describe how I've been around for 10 years and am on my 5th team. None of those transfers required any sort of technical re-check. Teams t…

I don't doubt that you're required to maintain your own code after you've checked it in for others to use ("pass it off") but have you always designed your own solution or have you had to implement designs by higher ups for some not insignificant percentage of the time?

I've never been given a design doc to implement (though I prefer to code, so sometimes I wish I had). I've always been expected to do the research and figure out the design for myself. Sometimes I ask people to fill in parts of a design doc that I know they'll be implementing. This ensures they are aware of the design, it's correct, I haven't missed some critical details, and they have essentially written the design for their own work.

Occasionally I've had a design review where a higher-up has said "this is why we aren't going to do it that way". I've always been given a reasonable reason (not always one I agree with, but reasonable). I've always been the one to re-write the design in these cases.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#725

Post by worker767424 »

ketanhwr wrote: post #231
worker767424 wrote: post #195

I'm not sure sure the author is coming from. I have a similar amount of experience, but wouldn't say I had to "relearn coding" when I did my last round of interviews. I've landed enough jobs without crazy amounts of studying, but knowing what was coming, I did ~100 Leetcode questions over a month. I also read an algorithm book knowing it's one of my weak points. I got a FAANG offer from my first interview, and even g…

so you're just saying that if the system sucks, then instead of talking about it and trying to raise awareness about how bad it is so that we can possibly come up with a solution, your solution is just to "suck it up"?

As others have said in the thread, the alternatives also suck. I guess I just resigned myself to "suck it up" being the best choice.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#726

Post by _9omd »

unk1102 wrote: post #679
_9omd wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and I went against the standard advice to not look at the solution until you solve it yourself. I think for the first 50-100 problems it's best to not think too hard about it before looking at the solution, gaining a full understanding, and writing an implementation or three (building that muscle memory so to speak). At this point, you'll have many more tools in your kit (graph traversal, search, dynamic program…

Thanks solid advice I can related as I did follow the same after wasting lot of time on LC problems I cant solve. I have started getting good at LC. Since you landed job at FAANG, I would really appreciate if you can share tips on specific question says finding max path in a matrix it is graph problem but how can you master it so code flows in 30 minutes or less. Did you actually solve same problems multiple times?

If you want the code to flow easy, it's all about putting in the hours and working at the right level of difficultly. Not too hard, so that you're not making any progress, and not too easy such that it's not stimulating your mind. Think of it like hitting the gym, it's just you're building mental muscle (and stamina) instead of physical.

And yes, many problems I solved 3 or more times. If you go to the discussion section, you'll see a number of different popular solutions by users. Try to understand and implement a few of them to get a greater understanding of the problem. Once you feel like you know the problem well, delete all your code, see if you can re-implement it in under 10 minutes, then try again for 5. Keep putting in those reps, you'll get faster.

Think about how fast you can write out a simple for loop. You probably don't even think about it, the code just "flows" out. That's because you've done it hundreds or thousands of times, your subconscious takes over. You can get to that point with more complex things like breadth first search, depth first search, dynamic programming, path finding, etc. you just need to get the reps in. It's a lot of work, but if you put in the time (try for a couple hours a day) you will see the results. And, once you start getting better, leetcode can become addictive like a game, which makes practice much easier.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#727

Post by WOTERMEON »

runawaybottle wrote: post #666
WOTERMEON wrote: post #656

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same in UK Went over interview process this year. A complete joke with no name startups asking the most absurd things for middle level positions

What’s absolutely hilarious about it is if I did sit down and study Leetcode every day, why the fuck would I settle for your startup?

Cause I've so many shots at FAANG every 6 months

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#728

Post by robviren »

chapium wrote: post #468
robviren wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because the business people got interested and are increasingly taking leadership roles. As an engineer who has shifted over to the product management side I can safely say business people suck fun out of stuff for a living. Margins, cost savings, metrics to manage, each and every slow step of creating a new, less fun, normal erodes a culture built on making "Something cool" or "Just for fun". Worse yet is when…

Whats driving business types to think leetcode is a good test? This should be an easy conversation with HR. I think software engineers want this arbitrary barrier.

Honestly this is probably because other businesses started doing it. When businesses have no clue they look to the market for the "standard" way of doing things. We don't make mechanical engineers design mechanical solutions for fun.It is just a consequence of the early culture of "hackers" and people who do that stuff for fun and for work. Hopefully dies over time, but it is unlikely given that now seems like the standard thing to do. Businesses are not rational thinking creatures. They just do what feels like lower risk if they can.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#729

Post by kmonsen »

arvinsim wrote: post #232
ra7 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, you definitely need both. But there is a misconception that Leetcode skills alone is enough, but for more senior roles you get judged on more than that.

Leetcode skills are something you need to do in your free time. That's why it is the most talked about.

Well, in my experience working is also sadly something I have to do in my "free time".

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#730

Post by mav3rick »

2sk21 wrote: post #642
mav3rick wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your endgame ?

I just "won" my endgame :-) I recently retired after working 29 years in software development. I was always very well paid but a notch below the FAANG-level. I always focused relentlessly on achieving financial independence by saving and investing as much as I could using Boglehead techniques. I can now do whatever I want.

Did you start at 21 ? If yes, do you regret not enjoying your 20s and keeping it for your 50s when you're older.
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