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AFAIKT Google's recruitment for SWE and SRE (system engineer ladder) are separate. If you did not pass the SWE interview, ask the recruiter if you can do an SRE
by yegle 4y ago
AFAIKT Google's recruitment for SWE and SRE (system engineer ladder) are separate. If you did not pass the SWE interview, ask the recruiter if you can do an SRE interview. Hope this helps!
Source: I went the process of failing the SWE interview but got an offer as an SRE.
- ignoramous 4y agoIt isn't to mean that SRE is any easier...
- thematrixturtle 4y agoThere are two separate tracks for SRE, SRE-SWE (same bar as SRE) and SRE-SE (Systems Engineering). While SE has a lower coding bar, it's arguably the harder of the two since they make up for it with Linux internals etc.
- aeyes 4y agoAny good resources to see how they interview for SRE-SE? For SWE you can find a lot of material on Leetcode and similar sites (and of course books) but "Linux internals" has a near infinite depth.
- yegle 4y agoNALSD question is a required part of the interview. https://sre.google/workbook/non-abstract-design/ https://sre.google/workbook/non-abstract-design/ I did a quick search and it looks like there are youtube videos explaining it so that might be helpful. Other than that I was asked to implement a 'tail' command using my familiar language, and explain why deleting a file from disk doesn't free up the space.
- mandeepj 4y ago> explain why deleting a file from disk doesn't free up the space. Because System deletes only the “pointer” to the file and not the actual file. For the exact same reason, cut+paste is faster than copy+paste
- moreice 4y agoIt does delete the file, as long as no other processes are accessing it and there are no other hard links to it.
- mandeepj 4y agoPlease check this one (I know you can edit Recycle Bin settings on Windows to directly deleted the file, instead of sending it in there) - https://www.lacie.com/support/kb/available-disk-space-does-not-increase-after-deleting-files-006369en/#:~:text=Available%20disk%20spaces%20does%20not,located%20in%20each%20hard%20drive https://www.lacie.com/support/kb/available-disk-space-does-n....
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dilyevsky 4y agohttps://overthewire.org/wargames/bandit/ https://overthewire.org/wargames/bandit/ I did a bunch of those panels in my time. Imo if you read 2-3 books on unix/linux/networking and can complete this wargame in a couple evenings you’ll stand out quite a bit.
- antoncohen 4y agoIn my experience the recruiters are great about helping you prep. They have a PDF called "Google Interview Prep Guide Site Reliability Engineer" that talks about SRE-SE vs. SRE-SWE vs. SWE, and links to books and topics to study. Kirk McKusick's "FreeBSD Kernel Internals" course[1] was recommended to me, and it was excellent. But not cheap at $1495. [1] https://www.mckusick.com/courses/introdescrip.html https://www.mckusick.com/courses/introdescrip.html
- yegle 4y agoNo it's not easier, sorry if my reply gave that impression. An SRE-SE requires a different skill set compared to SRE-SWE or SWE and the interview questions are different. If you have both skill sets, you effectively have two opportunities here :-)
- waynesonfire 4y agoIt precisely means that.
- okdood64 4y agoSE is arguably much harder. Instead of just optimizing for coding, you need to be good at linux troubleshooting, low level kernel stuff and networking. There’s a reason most new hires come in as SWE, particularly new grads with not much real world experience. That said, if you already possess this knowledge it could be easier as it takes a bit of the randomness out of getting a LeetCode question that you can’t figure out.
- evercast 4y agoIt is not harder, it is different. They just ask more system topics, while focusing less on coding. There is, however, a catch. If you get hired as a SRE-SWE, you can easily switch to a regular SWE. If you get hired as a SRE-SE, you may have to reinterview to change your job ladder. SE is okay, but you clearly have more possibilities as a SWE.
- ikiris 4y agoYou only have to take some of the coding ones though iirc
- dom96 4y agoWhy is there such a distinction? What's the difference in the day to day of a SRE-SWE vs. an SRE-SE?
- smueller1234 4y agoEntirely the same job, same pay. We just want to be open to folks with DIFFERENT yet valuable experience.
- yegle 4y agoSRE-SWE and SRE-SE on the same team will have exactly the same expectation given the same level. Depending on the project you work on, you might have a code-heavy project that requires you to work closely with the SWE team, or an operability-heavy project that doesn't have much coding.
- 4y ago
- ThePadawan 4y agoI feel like I need to add my own 2 cents to this point: Definitely ask your recruiter and have them confirm which track you're interviewing for. They just have numbers to hit. They will try to drop you into whichever track they need to. If a recruiter ever "seemingly misspoke" and moved you from SWE to SWE-SRE, ask for confirmation and/or insist on interviewing the track you are actually interested in.