4 ms·

Thank you for writing such a detailed response. I appreciate it as someone who had interviews with Google 2 times (first one pass phone but failed onsite, the s

Thank you for writing such a detailed response. I appreciate it as someone who had interviews with Google 2 times (first one pass phone but failed onsite, the second one failed on phone but that was primarily because I wasn't in a good condition mentally during that time so that was on me). I've heard and witnessed a couple people that I know who actually got into roles at Google (also FB, Amazon) but were not technically strong (yes they interviewed as SWE). I did ask what kinds of questions they got and it seemed that they did not get hard questions. This range from L3 to L5 and I was quite shocked. This makes me believe that FAANG seeks something else as well rather than pure DS&A skills. I don't know what those are, but can you give me pointers? (I failed one Google onsite, one Google phone, one Amazon onsite, and now currently will face a FB phone interview)

cflewis 7y ago
Unfortunately sometimes it's just the luck of the draw on who you got as your interviewer. Remember that it is expected for false negatives so it is totally normal to just apply again in a year. The thing you can do to help yourself is to study; there are only so many problems you can be asked. Most candidates don't. That gets you a lot of the way there. I used "Cracking the Coding Interview". You are doing the right thing in interviewing as much as possible; interviewing is a skill that you get better with with practice. _Always_ ask your recruiter afterwards where your weak points were. Again, people make the mistake of thinking that their coding skills are entirely correlated with how they interview; this is 100% false. People can interview better but be technically weaker all-round and get an offer, or they can interview poorly and be the best technical candidate in the world and be rejected. I hope this is helpful, I realize all of this stuff is demoralizing. As I said in my post, I strongly believe I wouldn't have passed a full Google interview round. Sometimes you just need luck on your side, but the more you interview, the better the odds things fall into place.
- christiansakai 7y ago
  Thank you for the answer. I've been studying a lot, Leetcoding like crazy but lucky cases like that just demoralizes me. Anyway, I guess what I can keep trying is to roll the dice. Thank you for the answer, it motivated me.

cflewis 7y ago

Unfortunately sometimes it's just the luck of the draw on who you got as your interviewer. Remember that it is expected for false negatives so it is totally normal to just apply again in a year. The thing you can do to help yourself is to study; there are only so many problems you can be asked. Most candidates don't. That gets you a lot of the way there. I used "Cracking the Coding Interview". You are doing the right thing in interviewing as much as possible; interviewing is a skill that you get better with with practice. _Always_ ask your recruiter afterwards where your weak points were. Again, people make the mistake of thinking that their coding skills are entirely correlated with how they interview; this is 100% false. People can interview better but be technically weaker all-round and get an offer, or they can interview poorly and be the best technical candidate in the world and be rejected. I hope this is helpful, I realize all of this stuff is demoralizing. As I said in my post, I strongly believe I wouldn't have passed a full Google interview round. Sometimes you just need luck on your side, but the more you interview, the better the odds things fall into place.

christiansakai 7y ago
Thank you for the answer. I've been studying a lot, Leetcoding like crazy but lucky cases like that just demoralizes me. Anyway, I guess what I can keep trying is to roll the dice. Thank you for the answer, it motivated me.