1) get tested with irrelevant general-purpose problem-solving questions before knowing what the role and team are,
2) get presented the opportunity and assess fitness before doing relevant technical challenges.
As a candidate you only want to spend time on 2), not 1).
As a company 1) is convenient because it ensures people are somewhat decent before you bother your hardworking engineers.
It's the reality of how large organizations keep their teams stable with employee turnover and also slightly grow them. Yes, teams will work to fill their roles directly too but often the team will show up for work on a Monday morning to find that they have a new member of their team who they've never met but is an 'extra bonus' or the headcount has been filled anyway.
If you are likely to be interviewing for Eng I/II you should not be surprised if parent's option 1) is the route you are presented with - I think it's wrong to say "you only want to spend time on 2)" as it's unrealistic for early career folks and they risk missing out on exceptional opportunities to get a foot in the door.
Can confirm. Just had this exact Monday morning.
Those would be most likely to take a tailored approach to hiring even for juniors.
Though of course you should do a bit of large ones as well to see what it's like and put it on your CV.
For the folks out there, the easiest way to join FAANG is as a new grad. Whether you want to do it or not is your decision to make.
By this, I would assume you mean the year of prep that goes into being able to pass the interview process at those companies.
Everyone is a replaceable commodity at a company of any size. I’ve never heard of any company going out of business because one key person left.
Companies don’t die that quickly. It may not be one person but it might be a handful of high performers who leave over time due to a toxic culture. And even then it may take literally years for a VC cash infused zombie company to actually cease operations. One of the problems of having so much cash is bad decisions don’t reveal themselves until much later.