6 ms·

how much of this curriculum is necessary for a FAANG job? I’d love to go through all of them, but I’m constrained with work as well, so I’ll have to prioritize

how much of this curriculum is necessary for a FAANG job? I’d love to go through all of them, but I’m constrained with work as well, so I’ll have to prioritize.

hckr_news 6y ago
Honestly, start with web or mobile development and start working on projects. Start with the fundamentals and go from there. CS theory is great but it’s not gonna pay the bills.
- M5x7wI3CmbEem10 6y ago
  FAANG interviews do cover DS, algorithms, math, and OS, though.
voz_ 6y ago
Pretty necessary, I cant imagine working at a FAANG without at least having read and understood "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" cover to cover.
- hckr_news 6y ago
  Really cover to cover? Don't think that's necessary unless you have deep interest in the subject. There are folks who can barely walk and chew gum at the same time, working at FAANGs.
- M5x7wI3CmbEem10 6y ago
  just to get through the new grad interview, I mean.
throwawaygh 6y ago
More than all of it, but also none of it. You can always just hack the interview process if your primary goal is a job at a particular Big Co. In that case, learning all of the material is probably an extraordinarily inefficient path toward your goal. But "any dumbass can hack can hack mega-corp hiring processes" is sort of obvious. If your goal is to do the real thing, as opposed to knowing how to hack the American Corporate Tech Giant mechanism for determining whether you know the real thing, then the answer is "teaching yourself the content knowledge in this list sort of misses the forest for the tress". I think a lot of low-cost/open source/self-directed programs sort of miss one of the points of education. The reason for learning all that stuff in CS courses is more than just the content knowledge. It's also the intellectual history of the field, the problem solving approaches, how people in this field communicate, etc. If you think of fields like Econ or Law or Medicine, it's easier to see. There's some raw content knowledge (the rules of evidence, human anatomy), but also there's the huge amount of stuff around that content knowledge. Like, yes you need to know the rules of evidence and the names of every bone. But... there's also a bunch of other stuff you're supposed to be picking up as a result of going through the process of learning that material. The self-study approach somehow misses a lot of the "stuff you're supposed to learn as an effect of learning the material", especially in CS.
- M5x7wI3CmbEem10 6y ago
  I just want to feed my family... I’ll worry about enlightenment later.
  - throwawaygh 6y ago
    Having an actually solid foundation when you're being paid 300K to be expert isn't "enlightenment". It's "appropriately qualified". Hacking the hiring process has a good effort vs reward ratio, but it's also high risk. The risk is that obvious gaps in the candidate's background surface after starting the position. Which usually doesn't turn out well: best case career stagnates and worst case the candidate ends up on the bottom of a stack rank when things get lean. It's a risk that can be taken in a calculated way. Sometimes things turn out well. Sometimes not.
    - quicklime 6y ago
      I really agree with this. I didn't take the distributed systems course when I was at university, but later I still managed to work at a few FAANGs. Flicking through the material in the MIT 6.824 course, I really wish I learnt this before I needed it, rather than scrambling to learn it piecemeal as things came up. I would've been promoted faster, and things would've been less stressful. It is possible to learn this on the job. But with hindsight, my advice would be to just take the easy way out and learn it beforehand.
      - M5x7wI3CmbEem10 6y ago
        any of the other material you didn’t quite need for the interview itself?
    - M5x7wI3CmbEem10 6y ago
      Then would you provide any actionable advice? I understand your concern about not gaining implicit knowledge while surrounded by peers, but I’ve gained “the ability to think” through my other course of study, and your concerns don’t seem to be attached to a solution. Rather, it seems like a desperate attempt to gatekeep over an increasingly egalitarian field. And sorry, but there isn’t much communication to be learned among CS undergrads. The knowledge I lack on the job will be taught as I’m exposed to my shortcomings, as is the case with most jobs. In addition, my school’s CS department was lacking, so most of it was poorly taught, and I relied on self-teaching regardless. Once I get through hiring season, I’ll worry about covering the remaining material before I begin work.
vincentmarle 6y ago
The FAANG interview process is pretty standardized, if you're pressed on time I suggest you learn and master just 2 things: data structures and system design.
- twblalock 6y ago
  > The FAANG interview process is pretty standardized Not really. It is standardized at some FAANG companies but not others.
- M5x7wI3CmbEem10 6y ago
  is system design necessary for new grads?

how much of this curriculum is necessary for a FAANG job? I’d love to go through all of them, but I’m constrained with work as well, so I’ll have to prioritize.

hckr_news 6y ago

Honestly, start with web or mobile development and start working on projects. Start with the fundamentals and go from there. CS theory is great but it’s not gonna pay the bills.

M5x7wI3CmbEem10 6y ago
FAANG interviews do cover DS, algorithms, math, and OS, though.

voz_ 6y ago

Pretty necessary, I cant imagine working at a FAANG without at least having read and understood "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" cover to cover.

hckr_news 6y ago
Really cover to cover? Don't think that's necessary unless you have deep interest in the subject. There are folks who can barely walk and chew gum at the same time, working at FAANGs.
M5x7wI3CmbEem10 6y ago
just to get through the new grad interview, I mean.

throwawaygh 6y ago

More than all of it, but also none of it. You can always just hack the interview process if your primary goal is a job at a particular Big Co. In that case, learning all of the material is probably an extraordinarily inefficient path toward your goal. But "any dumbass can hack can hack mega-corp hiring processes" is sort of obvious. If your goal is to do the real thing, as opposed to knowing how to hack the American Corporate Tech Giant mechanism for determining whether you know the real thing, then the answer is "teaching yourself the content knowledge in this list sort of misses the forest for the tress". I think a lot of low-cost/open source/self-directed programs sort of miss one of the points of education. The reason for learning all that stuff in CS courses is more than just the content knowledge. It's also the intellectual history of the field, the problem solving approaches, how people in this field communicate, etc. If you think of fields like Econ or Law or Medicine, it's easier to see. There's some raw content knowledge (the rules of evidence, human anatomy), but also there's the huge amount of stuff around that content knowledge. Like, yes you need to know the rules of evidence and the names of every bone. But... there's also a bunch of other stuff you're supposed to be picking up as a result of going through the process of learning that material. The self-study approach somehow misses a lot of the "stuff you're supposed to learn as an effect of learning the material", especially in CS.

M5x7wI3CmbEem10 6y ago
I just want to feed my family... I’ll worry about enlightenment later.
- throwawaygh 6y ago
  Having an actually solid foundation when you're being paid 300K to be expert isn't "enlightenment". It's "appropriately qualified". Hacking the hiring process has a good effort vs reward ratio, but it's also high risk. The risk is that obvious gaps in the candidate's background surface after starting the position. Which usually doesn't turn out well: best case career stagnates and worst case the candidate ends up on the bottom of a stack rank when things get lean. It's a risk that can be taken in a calculated way. Sometimes things turn out well. Sometimes not.
  - quicklime 6y ago
    I really agree with this. I didn't take the distributed systems course when I was at university, but later I still managed to work at a few FAANGs. Flicking through the material in the MIT 6.824 course, I really wish I learnt this before I needed it, rather than scrambling to learn it piecemeal as things came up. I would've been promoted faster, and things would've been less stressful. It is possible to learn this on the job. But with hindsight, my advice would be to just take the easy way out and learn it beforehand.
    - M5x7wI3CmbEem10 6y ago
      any of the other material you didn’t quite need for the interview itself?
  - M5x7wI3CmbEem10 6y ago
    Then would you provide any actionable advice? I understand your concern about not gaining implicit knowledge while surrounded by peers, but I’ve gained “the ability to think” through my other course of study, and your concerns don’t seem to be attached to a solution. Rather, it seems like a desperate attempt to gatekeep over an increasingly egalitarian field. And sorry, but there isn’t much communication to be learned among CS undergrads. The knowledge I lack on the job will be taught as I’m exposed to my shortcomings, as is the case with most jobs. In addition, my school’s CS department was lacking, so most of it was poorly taught, and I relied on self-teaching regardless. Once I get through hiring season, I’ll worry about covering the remaining material before I begin work.

vincentmarle 6y ago

The FAANG interview process is pretty standardized, if you're pressed on time I suggest you learn and master just 2 things: data structures and system design.

twblalock 6y ago
> The FAANG interview process is pretty standardized Not really. It is standardized at some FAANG companies but not others.
M5x7wI3CmbEem10 6y ago
is system design necessary for new grads?