Comment by jdreaver | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jdreaver | Hacker News Reader

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This is inconsistent with my experience in my most recent round of interviews.

I interviewed at a few places at a senior/staff level, and most of my interviews were behavioral, architectural, or discussions about past work. The few leetcode-style or coding questions I had were easily prepared for from my ~40 hours of interview-specific coding prep.

There is zero chance I would have gotten those interviews or passed them without excelling at my job. My resume would have looked terrible if I didn't go above and beyond at my last role, and I would have given weak answers to some of the questions I was asked if I didn't have real experience with the subject matter or a relevant situation.

I think I understand why you have the perspective you have. Indeed, many modern software interviews can feel far removed from the actual job, and we all know that even well-executed interviews sometimes result in decisions barely better than a coin flip. However, unless you really enjoy leetcode, I can't think of anything more depressing than studying for interviews all day. Also, it is hard to prepare for interviews at higher levels (senior/staff) without actual experience produced by doing a good job.

I completely agree with his, as someone who has recently completed several interviews for senior level. I used to think everything depended on Leetcode questions, but I was surprised to find out how much of the focus was on design, past experience and leadership.

Leetcode is "easy" to crack with some (considerable) amount of hard work and they know that. But you can't make up past experience in behavioral interviews as you get found out very quickly.

Yes, but in my experience you need both. If you are not willing to put in some time at leetcode it might not go well. Of course you can still get lucky, but better to be prepared.

Oh, you definitely need both. But there is a misconception that Leetcode skills alone is enough, but for more senior roles you get judged on more than that.

Leetcode skills are something you need to do in your free time. That's why it is the most talked about.

Well, in my experience working is also sadly something I have to do in my "free time".

Me too. I interviewed at a few places in March for senior roles and there wasn't any algo gotchas. Some coding, I think mostly to make sure I could code. But a lot more emphasis on architecture and team skills.

So maybe there's the gap between senior roles and mid/jr/new.

But my question then is, how are senior folks training/picking folks to replace them? It must not be happening in the interviews, maybe on the job?

I've noticed the more experienced I get the less technical the questions are. My last interview was just a general chat about type systems, the good and bad of Haskell, why I have been using common lisp recently in my spare time, etc... No coding questions, no leetcode, no code walkthroughs -- I really enjoyed it.

> my ~40 hours of interview-specific coding prep.

Where did you find time to do 40 hours of prep, and how many weeks did it take?

40 hours seems low to me if one wants to enter FAANG. Even if you’re familiar with the process and have prepped before. I’d expect 100 hours minimum for most candidates. Only exception would be those who interview regularly, do competitive programming regularly, and those who have to do algorithmic work regularly.

Most people I know spend nights and weekends prepping for at least a month to a quarter.

I'm obviously biased because I don't consider FAANG to be a goal at all, either as a stepping stone or end game. There are much better things in life than a lot of money.

> There are much better things in life than a lot of money

Sure - but if you want to live in silicon valley, you will have to join FAANG or have startup riches (much more difficult) to have a "normal" life that you'd have elsewhere. You're not going to own a house in good school district with startup income.

If you live in BFE then whatever - maybe the 100%+ raise in income wouldn't affect your lifestyle. For most of us in SV, it has a very substantial increase in quality of life.

I did it over 4 weeks. I have two kids, so I spent about 1-2 hours per day. I usually did some reading or a couple leetcode problems in the morning before starting work, and a couple in the evening. Honestly, once you do about 20-30 problems, they start to feel the same. I found that if I treated each problem like an interview and slowly walked through a solution (versus just diving into code and mashing Compile over and over until I get it), the problem ends up being easier.

OK, so taking the usual programmer's working hours then add 10 hours a week to that. That's some opportunity cost there, just to be able to jump through a hoop that has little to no bearing on a real world programming career past the intern/junior developer level.

oddly (if you see my sibling comment) I just got a job where they didn't ask me any technical questions. They just asked me about my coding philosophy. I guess they just looked at my github? Dunno.

Congrats on the new position. Some people can spot talent.

I'm only four jobs into my career, and the two that didn't ask me any technical questions ended up being either boring or a quagmire of non-technical leaders attempting to manage technical processes. Hopefully yours turns out better.

I think we need a leetarch

https://leetcode.com/discuss/interview-question/system-desig...

I think we need to read more.

Is this faang / levels.fyi pay range?

Absolutely. I work at Stripe now. In fact, I wish I only interviewed at Stripe (hindsight is 20/20), because I would have done zero leetcode prep. It is well known that Stripe interviews are much more practical than FAANG interviews. The leetcode prep was definitely necessary for some of the FAANG interviews I did.

Wow that’s fascinating and insightful! Stripe sounds like such an awesome company. Congratulations on getting an offer from them, psyched for you!!!

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