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> I wouldn't worry about being fucked on the LeetCode stuff as your 10 years of employment should move you past that bar. As someone in that position, it unfor

> I wouldn't worry about being fucked on the LeetCode stuff as your 10 years of employment should move you past that bar. As someone in that position, it unfortunately has not. That being said, I refuse to spend any of my time on preparing on LC. I recently lost out on an opportunity at Facebook over this. Someone from a specific team had reached out to me, was extremely excited about my background, assured me LC would not be a large signal due to my experience and that other rounds would matter more and referred me. Because of their strong interest I was given a do-over after a sub-par first LC. After the second LC I was told they wouldn't move forward (so much for other rounds mattering more?) - To me it's a sad comedy. I'm sure a fresh grad who couldn't code a "Hello World" without autocomplete would have outperformed me on LC by virtue of remembering algos I have long forgotten and having the time to "chew and pour" as we say in my country of origin. Now a team loses out on someone who was (by their estimation, not mine) a great match because of some shibboleth that would have never come up in day to day work? Obviously I went in willing to potentially accept an offer, but to be honest... had I continued after the second LC interview my plan was to turn them down and cite LC as the reason. Someone who didn't make it complaining is just sour grapes, but maybe having someone they deemed "worthy" turn down their money to point out how ass-backward the practice is would have meant something.

aristofun 5y ago
All fair, faang is not really interested in developers like you. They want newcomers who can chew everything. Their interview process perfectly fits.
itronitron 5y ago
Yeah, it's definitely a sad comedy, especially when the LC questions they are testing on are usually the exact things that developers should be using an established library for instead of implementing themselves. I also think that all hiring depends on internal politics, to which the candidate usually has no insight. Luckily my wife and I have learned to laugh about it.
lfowles 5y ago
Don't worry, worse interviewing practices definitely exist :) I've been asked to dictate code over the phone "as you would type it out" for a very well respected place. I've grumbled pretty hard about leetcode dependence in interviewing, but it does seem to form a common language for interviewers to gauge problem solving skills against (similar to how people rail against design patterns -- they're going to exist whether or not we have a vocabulary for them).
nkingsy 5y ago
As an established professional applying to Big tech, I kind of enjoyed LC prep. It’s a rare opportunity to see other people solve the same problem as you, and I found I discovered quite a few interesting tricks, and was generally in awe of some people’s grasp of DP (I’m quite sure any DP whiteboard problem would stop me in my tracks). The big learning for me was exactly the kinds of problems I knew I could solve versus those I knew I could not. I got two of the latter in my interviews, and immediately refocused on getting as much help as I could, which worked, and which I now would see as a positive signal as an interviewer. I’m always happy to hear “this is a problem of type X. I know I need to do Y and honestly I’ll probably need some help but let’s see what we can do”.
- lfowles 5y ago
  I enjoy it as well, but it does feel a bit like I'm being "nerd sniped"! Trying to justify grinding leetcode after an otherwise full day is hard.
rablackburn 5y ago
I just had the same experience, I basically sailed through to the final interview: four 45min sessions, the first of which was algorithms and data structures. I actually completed the task fine, but it definitely took me fumbling around a little to get there. I made a point of explaining my thought process and the questions I was asking as I went, but the problem just wasn’t one you come across much in real-world work. (And you know, algos as the first session in the morning before your brain is fully warmed up is brutal) Importantly, the other sessions (two covering tech they actually use day to day, and a cultural fit one) went great. In the end they passed on me, and when they asked “do you know why?” I correctly guessed it was the lacklustre algo performance. They invited me to “do some study and try again in 12 months”. Interestingly, the fact that they weighed it so heavily turned me off working there anyway. I was also surprised they didn’t ask me for any feedback on the interview process. It was a very interesting experience, but I’ve learned that if I want to apply to anything similar in the future I’ll definitely need to grind more leetcode in preparation. But I’m enjoying taking a break and working on side projects now anyway, and am thinking I won’t be back in an office for awhile :)

aristofun 5y ago

All fair, faang is not really interested in developers like you. They want newcomers who can chew everything. Their interview process perfectly fits.

itronitron 5y ago

Yeah, it's definitely a sad comedy, especially when the LC questions they are testing on are usually the exact things that developers should be using an established library for instead of implementing themselves. I also think that all hiring depends on internal politics, to which the candidate usually has no insight. Luckily my wife and I have learned to laugh about it.

lfowles 5y ago

Don't worry, worse interviewing practices definitely exist :) I've been asked to dictate code over the phone "as you would type it out" for a very well respected place. I've grumbled pretty hard about leetcode dependence in interviewing, but it does seem to form a common language for interviewers to gauge problem solving skills against (similar to how people rail against design patterns -- they're going to exist whether or not we have a vocabulary for them).

nkingsy 5y ago

As an established professional applying to Big tech, I kind of enjoyed LC prep. It’s a rare opportunity to see other people solve the same problem as you, and I found I discovered quite a few interesting tricks, and was generally in awe of some people’s grasp of DP (I’m quite sure any DP whiteboard problem would stop me in my tracks). The big learning for me was exactly the kinds of problems I knew I could solve versus those I knew I could not. I got two of the latter in my interviews, and immediately refocused on getting as much help as I could, which worked, and which I now would see as a positive signal as an interviewer. I’m always happy to hear “this is a problem of type X. I know I need to do Y and honestly I’ll probably need some help but let’s see what we can do”.

lfowles 5y ago
I enjoy it as well, but it does feel a bit like I'm being "nerd sniped"! Trying to justify grinding leetcode after an otherwise full day is hard.

rablackburn 5y ago

I just had the same experience, I basically sailed through to the final interview: four 45min sessions, the first of which was algorithms and data structures. I actually completed the task fine, but it definitely took me fumbling around a little to get there. I made a point of explaining my thought process and the questions I was asking as I went, but the problem just wasn’t one you come across much in real-world work. (And you know, algos as the first session in the morning before your brain is fully warmed up is brutal) Importantly, the other sessions (two covering tech they actually use day to day, and a cultural fit one) went great. In the end they passed on me, and when they asked “do you know why?” I correctly guessed it was the lacklustre algo performance. They invited me to “do some study and try again in 12 months”. Interestingly, the fact that they weighed it so heavily turned me off working there anyway. I was also surprised they didn’t ask me for any feedback on the interview process. It was a very interesting experience, but I’ve learned that if I want to apply to anything similar in the future I’ll definitely need to grind more leetcode in preparation. But I’m enjoying taking a break and working on side projects now anyway, and am thinking I won’t be back in an office for awhile :)