Data Structures And Algorithms Q&A and Videos

I have a recruiter screening with Meta next week for a full-stack software engineer role. What can I expect in the recruiter screening?

This is my first interview after a very long time, I need to brush up my skills. what is latest acceptable time frame to schedule the technical interviews without being considered late?

I am proficient in JavaScript, moderate in Java and Beginner in Python. If I have around 2-3 months  to prepare what would you suggest I go for?

What are the factors to consider when selecting the language?
In built data structures and proficiency or are there other factors to consider?

I was recently approached by a recruiter to interview for Bytedance, Singapore.

My DSA skills are rusty, not having interviewed in over a year. The primary language I use at work is Golang, but I do not think its good for DSA interview rounds as it has limited in built data structures. Earlier I have given interviews in Java but I have not touched it in a year.

Given I have 3 weeks to prepare for the DSA Coding rounds, should I consider learning Python as I have "heard" that its the preferred language and faster to use in coding interviews?

Given I have to ramp up on my leetcode and learn python, I feel this might be setting myself up for failure. Would like suggestions on how to think about this.

I just got an interview for a backend role with Big Tech. I'm pretty excited. They informed me that the interview will not be a standard Leetcode DSA Interview. Here is what they said:

We’re excited you’ll be interviewing at Stripe! This interview will evaluate your ability to solve a programming exercise in a readable way, as well as your knowledge in automated testing. We don’t use Leetcode or trivia, or ask trick questions. This exercise is an example of the kind of coding we do regularly in our daily life at Stripe. In fact, every part of our interview process is designed to give you streamlined examples of the kinds of real-world problems we solve day-to-day.

• We recommend practicing timed coding problems. Focus on writing code quickly, ensuring correctness, and explaining your thought process out loud as you work.

• While our interview problems are different from exercises on , , and , some Stripes have found these sites helpful for practicing timed coding challenges.

My question is, other than Leetcode, is there any way I can prep for this? I'm looking for a better way than Leetcode since I won't be asked a Leetcode question.

Thanks!

Hey,

I had bought a course from interview kickstart that expires on 20 days (post extension) and they are not able to extend it further.

I have 11 interviews left with them, which is really amazing given the talented interviewers they have.

I am applying for L6 (maybe L5) at Roblox, Google, Netflix and Uber.

Given the constraints, how do I best utilize the interviews:

• Is it better utilized for systems design or DSA?
• For folks who successfully clear DSA at FAANG+, how did you practice "talking" through the problems? What other resources did you use for mock interviews?

I was thinking of using ChatGPT for talking my mock interviews, is that a good idea? And using 10 / 11 for systems design and 1 for behavioral.

I'm currently a frontend engineer at mastercard with 3 years of experience. I've been thinking about my next career move and do want to increase my compensation significantly within the next year. Outside a promotion, I can start leetcoding (I'm very out of touch atm) and try to land a higher paying job. But the other option is to learn blockchain and try to break into that field as it is more niche, maybe more high paying, and competition would be less too. But a quick glance at blockchain jobs on linkedIn wasn't very convincing as most jobs were asking for staff level devs. What do you guys think is the best avenue? Learn a niche technology or go the traditional route of leetcoding but has also has a plethora of competition especially in the current economy?

Appreciate your input!

I recently found myself in a fortunate yet challenging situation due to a layoff. I have been granted a two-months period plus optional month(s) in lieu of severance, to secure my next job as I need a visa sponsorship. I aim to land a senior mobile developer role here in the UK, in any non-big tech company (tier 3/4). Considering the urgency of securing a visa, I am open to exploring any roles with sponsorship.

To make the most of this time, here is how I am spending my time so far, I would appreciate any input and suggestions to make the most out of this situation.

1. Dedicate 2 hours daily to solving easy LeetCode problems - some tier 3/4 companies do ask some easy/medium questions

2. Spend 2 hours daily applying for jobs on LinkedIn, Dm'ng connections, seeking referrals etc

3. 2/3 hours Develop a side mobile app project to practice and familiarize with recent patterns - most likely needed to succeed in take-home tests.

4. Behaviour and system design - study and practice only when I have those rounds scheduled.

I wonder if there are any other aspects I should optimize for during this period. Are there any specific areas or resources you recommend focusing on to maximize my chances of success?

I have recently been laid-off, I was working as a Frontend developer for almost two years. I have prepared my resume and started applying for roles but I have not been in touch with the interview scene in a while. Should I just grind Leetcode?

Hello,

I got laid off this January, and I am trying to find guidance on finding my next job. I have almost 4 years of experience (2 FAANGs). So far I had 7 first round interviews, made it to final round on 2 (failed 5), and got one offer, which is a really big pay cut (govt job) and I have to relocate far, so I am not really wanting to take that offer.

I am applying for front-end roles so my prep varies between leetcode (50%), JavaScript and front-end tech questions (30%) and System Design (20%). I was very shaky on algorithms and front end, I wish I studied more before interviewing (I kinda freaked out and jumped too soon to the job hunt with spoiled skills).

Almost every new job opening is a pay cut, even for senior positions (I wasn’t senior). Is the market really that bad now? I’ve seen posts on Reddit and other places of people getting a job quickly after getting laid off, and not only that, it is a pay increase, which makes me feel like I am doing something wrong, since I’ve been job hunting for 4 months now. Sometimes I get demoralized after so many rejections but I keep trying every day to get better skill wise, I feel like I got laid off because I was an underperformer. Even though I was never put on disciplinary action, it did take me a lot of effort to understand and accomplish my tasks, unlike other of my coworkers, so I keep reflecting if I could have done something different.

Anyone in the same position than me or has experienced this before could give some advice? Or any comments are appreciated, thanks.

I am good at LeetCode style problem solving and can also manage system design, but I never get interview calls when I apply through the company portals. Also recruiters barely accept LinkedIn requests and even those who accept them do not respond when reached out to for an open position.

Hi,

As a mid-level software engineer, I've been serving a prominent semiconductor industry as a contractor for almost two years. I was initially promised a permanent position, but I was recently informed by my Team Lead that they wouldn't be able to convert my contract into a full-time role.

Given the recent upheavals in our Software Department, this doesn't come as a complete surprise. Anticipating this situation, I have been honing my Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) skills since the start of the year. Now, I'm in the process of exploring full-time opportunities in fields like Embedded Software Development and Robotics Software Development.

However, as an immigrant without a green card, I'm facing certain visa restrictions, which I understand could complicate the job search process. At this point, I am feeling slightly overwhelmed and could use some assistance in navigating this transition. I greatly appreciate any advice you can provide.

What's the right way to balance interviewing for FAANG roles when you have a full-time job? I've heard of people carving out their morning for an interview or interview prep, so dedicating 2-3 hours. Is this reasonable? What's a minimum amount of time I should spend on interview prep or interview every day?

This question assumes I don't have trouble getting interviews and have a few lined up. The prep I have in mind is the classic DSA/Leetcode, systems design, behavioural, mock interviews, etc.

I’m a Data Engineer at a slow-moving finance company who’s looking for my next job in Big Tech. I just had a recruiter from Stripe reach out about scheduling an interview, which happened because I had a buddy who works at stripe refer me to the role. The position is for backend engineer.

The recruiter says the call will be 20 minutes and I should come prepared with “the most technically complex project” I’ve worked on, and talk about my role, duration, number of engineers, and stakeholders.

I’m nervous about this because my current role is something of a hybrid between data engineer and data analyst and I do a fair bit of data-analyst type work. It’s not that I don’t have projects I can talk about, it’s just that I’m insecure about them and I feel like they are unimpressive to a ‘real’ software engineer and this becomes apparent under sustained scrutiny. So maybe I can get by the 20 minute intro call, but there will surely be an hour-long session later where they want to go into excruciating detail. I do have some experience with backend as well, but it’s already almost 3 years ago now.

My question is this: how can I go about improving my situation? I’m applying for entry-level roles (IC1) and was under the naïve assumption that I just had to get very good at DSA/Leetcode. Obviously, this is not the case.

In order to better handle these project walkthroughs going forward, I see a number of potential approaches, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive:

1. Get better at discussing projects in my current toolkit. Ditch the imposter syndrome and spend more time thinking about what I already have.
2. Invest more in my current job to create better projects with ‘scope’ that are more impressive in interview rounds. Right now, I’m not very committed to my work and coast, doing whatever is assigned to me but in a minimalist way. My current manager has told me how he wants me to be more active in getting things done and taking on a larger role, but as a Tier-3 company, there is no expectation or requirement for me to do so (i.e. very low chance of me being let go), and furthermore, I tell myself I will be leaving soon, so why take on more responsibility? This might ironically contribute to it being harder for me to move since I don’t do the kinds of things that make it easier to interview.
3. Do side-projects outside of work that I can discuss. But here I run into the issue that I’m not working with anyone (unless it’s open source) and this is probably not the best approach unless my side-project is really good with users. I’ve heard Alex and Rahul say this a number of times.

Happy to hear anyone’s thoughts about how I can improve my situation. I probably have the wrong attitude towards my current role, as I’ve been wanting to leave it for over a year. I’ve thought about quitting a lot so I can have more time for interviewing, side-projects, networking, learning, and prep, but everyone says that’s a bad idea (especially in the current climate), so it’s easier to just muddle on in my current role.

Thoughts are welcome!

Hello community ✋I am going to start interview preparation for SDE-3 roles. Need your suggestions on what should I prepare and how much should I prepare? How much should I focus on DSA, system design, machine coding etc?

I have experience interviewing for SDE-2 roles but attempting for SDE-3 role first time so need valuable inputs from experienced people here.

I'm a software engineer with 1 year experience and no degree. I recently got an interview with a Big Tech company for a Full-Stack position. I have the phone screen to do first but I've started studying Leetcode so I'm prepared if it goes forward. I'm honestly not sure what to expect as I haven't done many interviews let alone at Big Tech. What should I expect/what areas should I be focusing on to better improve my chances of passing?

Just curious about opinions here. My main language is JavaScript, and I know people probably assume I am a front-end developer / full-stack (reasonable biases). In reality, I've been primarily backend for several years now. Throughout my experience at Microsoft and Twitch, I've used a fair amount of Node.JS / vanilla JS, then a bit more TypeScript for the CDK constructs we all know at Twitch (our team was primarily responsible for building and debugging Amazon Builder Tools things). I've done the majority of my interviews in JavaScript and it has been mostly OK, since I've used it for so long, but just wondering if it matters.

I used to do my interviews in C++, but then I got burned during a Google interview when my interviewer talked about the inefficiencies of emplace_back vs push_back (I had no idea). After that point, I just decided to do JS because I was reasonably proficient at it, and it is actually faster to write than C++ in a lot of cases (less boilerplate).

The top LeetCode answers / YouTube explanations and such are usually in Java or Python, so sometimes it's also hard to find a good JS answer. I'm leaning towards Python, because it is more like JS and with less boiler-plate like Java, but I'm worried about something throwing out some random trivia about Python that I have no idea about, because honestly I haven't used it much in my career thus far.

I am a self-taught frontend developer with almost 2 years' experience working for an outsourcing company.

During an interview recently, the interviewer said that I had good communication skills and should focus on technical topics.

My stack consists of JavaScript/Typescript, React, and I know a little bit about Python and Django. Typescript is mostly what I use.

Here's my questions:

• Is there a specific approach you recommend I take to this technical part?
• Do I need to learn more data structures and algorithms since I do not have a Computer Science degree?
• In order to build a strong foundation, should I consider applying to a FAANG company?

Your comments will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you so much!

I'm pretty good at leetcode (was able to pass some 3 to 5 rounds of interviews), I got good at by practicing and continuous learning. Now I want to be good at software engineering in general like debugging, building components, understanding complex things/systems, etc. I see one of the suggestions is to improve on fundamentals of software engineering, how do I do that? and What action items can I follow consistently? Any concrete suggested steps will be great instead of just some general bullet points. Thank you all.

Hi Everyone,

Hope you're doing well! I'm reaching out to you today because I'm currently trying to wrap my head around recursion, but I'm struggling to grasp the concept fully. I've tried learning it before, but it just never clicked for me. Now, after taking a few weeks to refresh my mind, I'm diving back in and hoping to find some top-notch resources that will help me succeed.

Recursion is a prerequisite for many data structures and algorithms, including trees, dynamic programming, graphs, sorting, searching, and traversal algorithms. Understanding recursion is essential for working with these structures and implementing efficient algorithms that operate in them.

Please offer some guidance or advice on how to approach this problem. I would be incredibly grateful for any help you can provide.

I work at a startup hiring senior software engineers. I have less than 1 year experience but I was asked to take technical interviews. I explained that they have wide skill set and I might not be the best person to interview them. They told me it's not a problem and that I can ask them questions related to what I already know.

So I interviewed a PayPal software engineer today and he has 6 years of experience. I've asked JS/TS specific questions like "here's a sample code, tell me what's wrong with it?" and I noticed that the candidate couldn't answer these questions. He started to get defensive and said that I shouldn't be asking these type of intricate questions given that it's easy to resolve the problematic code by relying on code editors' intelligence or simply googling the bug. In the end, we gave him a DSA question which he solved in 15 min.

I want to hear opinions of engineers here because I was expecting a senior engineer to know the "gotchas" of languages they have experience with and not just be good at DSA. I know it's important to have confidence in interviews, but is it okay to straight-up tell the interviewer to not ask language specific questions? Is asking language specific questions not the right way to evaluate someone's knowledge?

Both in the context of a data structure and algorithm problem and in the context of a software problem or any problem really it is important to weigh the pros and cons and have arguments to back your decision making.

Having the knowledge to come up with several solutions is challenging - how do you get good at this? Is experience the only answer? Do you have any techniques you put in place to help with this?