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> What’s your suggested alternative? In my experience, any alternative to leetcode provides a better signal-to-noise ratio. You are better off asking trivia qu

> What’s your suggested alternative? In my experience, any alternative to leetcode provides a better signal-to-noise ratio. You are better off asking trivia questions. Additionally, this is the common narrative among leetcode advocates - "If no leetcode, then what?" As a hiring manager, you think harder and do better, that's what. > Please remember that while some of us would do well and prefer some live pair programming or debugging sessions, it stresses the hell out of some folks and penalizes them unfairly. So does leetcode. And a candidate that is truly a good fit for the role would be more at ease with the interview than if they saw a leetcode question they haven't seen before. > Take home tests penalizes people with families and other responsibilities... So does studying for leetcode for hours. > ...and probably has a racial bias as well in countries where different races have different societal loads. Share some sources before making a claim this ridiculous. > In the end, even if these coding challenges might not reflect the actual work you do, they might still be predictive of success in the job, as much as any other method can be when we look for unbiased markers. In my 6-ish years of experience, this is false. I have actually tested this theory in practice, and through my anecdotal experience, leetcode is a poor signal for job performance. I can usually usually accurately screen a candidate for success in about 45 mins. And, unlike leetcode, you can't pretend like you haven't seen the question before, bc I can push the candidate to their limit, which is where you will find hire / no-hire signals. I love talking about this stuff, but I find that my peers engineering peers do not give a shit and would prefer to stay in leetcode hell.

whimsicalism 5y ago
> You are better off asking trivia questions Bet you most people would disagree with just trivia. > So does studying for leetcode for hours. You honestly do not have to do this to pass the LC interview. I didn't. Certainly not as much as a takehome test.
- game_the0ry 5y ago
  > You honestly do not have to do this to pass the LC interview. I didn't. You were able to prep for 2-4 hours and still pass LC interviews? I find this hard to believe given that I, and peers I know, took much longer to prep.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    Having just passed Google's algorithmic interviews, and established a leetcode account specifically to prepare for that, I have a good record of how much leetcode I did: 3 easy problems, 4 medium problems, and 3 hard problems. It would make sense to count 2 additional hard problems that I worked on (with pencil and paper) but didn't submit a working solution for. This is more than four hours of work, but it's much less work than people suggested was necessary. (For example, my recruiter strongly believed that candidates needed a minimum of 5 weeks to prepare for an interview.) I wasn't really able to make myself do more leetcode, because whenever I started working on it, what I really wanted to do was to write up proofs that the algorithms were correct, not to submit a solution to one and move on to the next one. (OK, it passed all the test cases, but what if that's just a coincidence?) But writing up a formal proof can easily chew up most of your day, and it does nothing for you in terms of practicing getting the code out. So I found the whole process fairly demoralizing.
    - game_the0ry 5y ago
      > (For example, my recruiter strongly believed that candidates needed a minimum of 5 weeks to prepare for an interview.) Your recruiter believes this for a reason and they have probably seen many candidates go through the process. Not saying you're a liar, but if you got into G with that little prep, I have some follow up questions: * Where did you level when you got your offer? L3 vs L4 vs L5 makes a big difference. * How many LC questions were you given per round? I would expect 2 is the norm. * Did you have optimal solutions or were you nudged to a solution by the interviewer? * Did you pass any other FAANG / leetcode interviews? * What's you educational background? Do you have computer science / STEM degree from MIT or similar? * Did you crush the system design interview? * How do you feel behavioral interviews went?
      - whimsicalism 5y ago
        I can answer for myself as GP, didn't interview with G but got into a similar company. > L3 vs L4 Slightly above L3 would be the equivalent ($200-$260 salary band) > * How many LC questions were you given per round? I would expect 2 is the norm. 6 interviews, 5 were technical -> 3 were algorithmic style, 2 were domain specific. Usually they had 2 questions, but really the first question was very easy and often related to the second one. > * Did you have optimal solutions or were you nudged to a solution by the interviewer? No clue, there was one I was struggling on because string parsing is annoying in C++. Not much nudging. I believe my solutions were generally pretty efficient. > Did you pass any other FAANG / leetcode interviews? Yes, the only other one I was in. I found actually getting interviews (as entry-level) to be much harder than passing the interviews once you got them. > What's you educational background? Do you have computer science / STEM degree from MIT or similar? Yes to the second and I did take a DS&A class in sophomore year of college. > Did you crush the system design interview? Probably was my weakest. > How do you feel behavioral interviews went? Well, I am good at talking.

whimsicalism 5y ago

> You are better off asking trivia questions Bet you most people would disagree with just trivia. > So does studying for leetcode for hours. You honestly do not have to do this to pass the LC interview. I didn't. Certainly not as much as a takehome test.

game_the0ry 5y ago
> You honestly do not have to do this to pass the LC interview. I didn't. You were able to prep for 2-4 hours and still pass LC interviews? I find this hard to believe given that I, and peers I know, took much longer to prep.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  Having just passed Google's algorithmic interviews, and established a leetcode account specifically to prepare for that, I have a good record of how much leetcode I did: 3 easy problems, 4 medium problems, and 3 hard problems. It would make sense to count 2 additional hard problems that I worked on (with pencil and paper) but didn't submit a working solution for. This is more than four hours of work, but it's much less work than people suggested was necessary. (For example, my recruiter strongly believed that candidates needed a minimum of 5 weeks to prepare for an interview.) I wasn't really able to make myself do more leetcode, because whenever I started working on it, what I really wanted to do was to write up proofs that the algorithms were correct, not to submit a solution to one and move on to the next one. (OK, it passed all the test cases, but what if that's just a coincidence?) But writing up a formal proof can easily chew up most of your day, and it does nothing for you in terms of practicing getting the code out. So I found the whole process fairly demoralizing.
  - game_the0ry 5y ago
    > (For example, my recruiter strongly believed that candidates needed a minimum of 5 weeks to prepare for an interview.) Your recruiter believes this for a reason and they have probably seen many candidates go through the process. Not saying you're a liar, but if you got into G with that little prep, I have some follow up questions: * Where did you level when you got your offer? L3 vs L4 vs L5 makes a big difference. * How many LC questions were you given per round? I would expect 2 is the norm. * Did you have optimal solutions or were you nudged to a solution by the interviewer? * Did you pass any other FAANG / leetcode interviews? * What's you educational background? Do you have computer science / STEM degree from MIT or similar? * Did you crush the system design interview? * How do you feel behavioral interviews went?
    - whimsicalism 5y ago
      I can answer for myself as GP, didn't interview with G but got into a similar company. > L3 vs L4 Slightly above L3 would be the equivalent ($200-$260 salary band) > * How many LC questions were you given per round? I would expect 2 is the norm. 6 interviews, 5 were technical -> 3 were algorithmic style, 2 were domain specific. Usually they had 2 questions, but really the first question was very easy and often related to the second one. > * Did you have optimal solutions or were you nudged to a solution by the interviewer? No clue, there was one I was struggling on because string parsing is annoying in C++. Not much nudging. I believe my solutions were generally pretty efficient. > Did you pass any other FAANG / leetcode interviews? Yes, the only other one I was in. I found actually getting interviews (as entry-level) to be much harder than passing the interviews once you got them. > What's you educational background? Do you have computer science / STEM degree from MIT or similar? Yes to the second and I did take a DS&A class in sophomore year of college. > Did you crush the system design interview? Probably was my weakest. > How do you feel behavioral interviews went? Well, I am good at talking.