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Comment by sirpunch | Hacker News Reader

Do you know about the 1point3acrea forum for LeetCode-based interview preparation. I was told by a friend to check it out as they have an extensive set of tips, tricks and general suggestions. Their forums and posts seem to be mostly in Mandarin and Google translate doesn't take you far. So I was hoping to get some Chinese tech person's opinion on 1p3a.

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Sorry, couldn't help you there. The website is titled "北美最有影响力的华人社区 (The most influential Chinese (online) community in South America)", which is little less than half-earth away from me, so..

However, if an interview is really LeetCode-based, I'd say it's a fair game for the interviewee to do some preparation. In my opinion, the best kind of interview is based on real production needs, the interview question (regardless whether or not it's came from LeetCode) should reflect that.

If you don't possess advanced understanding of Chinese, then don't even think about trying to read it. I came to Canada in my teens and I often have trouble understanding. The forum rules dictate that you write cryptically. But it is incredibly useful if you understand it imo, especially the interview experiences. That's why they can charge like 80usd per month for VIP access..

Can you shed a bit more light on what kind of thing is discussed?

Is it similar to Blind in that it's a lot of people talking about how to pragmatically game the interview process?

It's a little more on the nose. I just checked the subforum for a random quant firm and it goes something like:

* Just interviewed at {firm}, here are the questions:

1. Question One: here are the math and stats subquestions.

2. Question Two: here is the Leetcode question they asked.

3. Question Three: here is another question and my solution.

4. ...

Followed by other users posting stuff like "Thank you Landlord {OP}" or "Giving rice {forum clout points} to this Landlord {OP}." Guests without accounts are tourists. I'd say it's like the Leetcode discussion forums except they're leaking actual company interview questions.

There was a Twitter thread making the rounds a while back in which someone claimed insiders (existing employees, especially if they're able to develop a significant social circle in them) in big tech companies do the same thing: when they job hunt, they'll hit their low-priority prospects first, have others with inverted priorities do the opposite, then all parties concerned with have very recent test question lists from their, say, top 2 preferred employers, by the time they interview there.

This insiders-have-a-large-advantage factor may be at least part of why the practices survive. People without a friend & colleague network frequently interviewing at those places have a strong disadvantage... unless they hire people to scout for them, which the Twitter poster also claimed is a thing that happens.

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