The Reality of Tech Interviews in 2025
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com
- I had much more success with getting interviews at big companies versus small companies. I barely got any responses from startups.
- Behavioral questions are indeed very important for senior level. It's easy to ignore prepping this. Be sure to focus on exactly what your impact was. I had success practicing my answers with Gemini which was nice because I had a chance to verbally say my answers and get feedback.
- Bar is up. I didn't get all coding questions correct in 2022 but passed all my rounds. In 2025 I somehow pulled 99% of Kahn's algorithm out of my butt, but it wasn't enough!
- Remote is especially tough. Almost all my offers were in California or Seattle.
Good luck out there...
Personally, I refuse to do the Leetcode interviews, on either side of the desk. (When I'm on the receiving end of that nonsense, I can't afford the months to prepare for the hazing ritual. And, if the employer is doing things like they're Google circa 2010, how full are they of people who are thinking and working in a way that's self-sabotaging in every other time and place.)
I haven't learned too much from my studying, but as a non-cs background engineer it did help in a few ways, plus I think the structured practice of problem solving is helpful for any coding interview, whether practical or algorithm based.
I'll just do what I can to promote better hiring practices going forward.