Interviewing Q&A and Videos

Should I put "incoming masters @ university" on my LinkedIn if I haven't started yet, but am applying to internship positions that are seeking this profile? I'm in a complicated situation where I'm also unsure if I'm going to end my undergrad exactly this summer, or if I should be extending it. Some internships I'm applying for I just say I'm graduating undergrad in 2025. I have one last summer internship at a company that I'm very interested in returning (interned there 8 months last year and the team has budget) but I also want a backup plan in case I don't get a return offer - I'm afraid that if I put incoming masters, they might not give me a full time return offer. The plan is for me to continue with the masters as a backup plan if the job falls through and nothing else pops up

I have a new grad final with Meta and I had a mock interview on interviewing.io. I did pretty badly on the interview as it took too long for me to arrive at the solution and write down the code. The interviewer suggested that I try purchasing a dedicated coaching package for 5 lessons, which is perfect since my Meta interview is in 3 weeks (I take 2 lessons/week). Issue is that it's quite a heavy price tag at around 2.8K. I'm wondering if anyone else has used the service?

I just found out that I was rejected from one of my dream FAANG companies :( The recruiter told me: > Thanks so much for taking the time to interview with our team - they really enjoyed meeting with you. Unfortunately at this time, we will not be moving forward with an offer. The team really enjoyed your positive demeanor, thought you had great communication skills, and a well thought out process throughout the technical interviews. I am not able to share specific feedback as per company policy, but I am of course happy to jump on a call if you have any questions. What can/should I ask her in this call to maximize my learning to be a better candidate?

I am a 15 year experienced software professional holding H1B. In my last 3 companies, I was a Senior Software Engineer. In my penultimate company, I was due for Staff promotion. Fast Forwarding, I was impacted by layoffs in Jan this year. I had 3 months to find a job in this market. I was applying and passing on my resume through all my network. Most of my applications got rejected quoting they picked another candidate. Some of my applications materialized into interviews , but I ended up not clearing (was in bad form and stress and also didn't get ample time to prepare thoroughly). Finally, I got my application picked at a company through a referral, but they only considered me for SWE2. I explained them my experience and requested to consider me for SSE level, they said the panel will be open to it. But in the end, they ended up offering me SWE2. I took the offer as I had no choice. I was running out of time and did'nt want to risk rejecting this offer and waiting for a better offer. I took up the offer and joined, but I don't feel happy. I wish I had more time to really choose what I wanted. I would like your thoughts on how "wise" is it to be SWE2 with 15 years experience. Would my age become a factor for further career progressions as they would prefer younger people? I am confused if I should stick to this, be patient, work smart and work my way up inside, or would it make more sense to keep interviewing and find something that I feel happy about. Look forward to helpful replies or referrals for SSE :)

Hi, I'm from India. I have been unemployed since February 2024 following a layoff from my last job as a Full-Stack Developer (4+ years of experience). After that experience, I decided it was time to move away from startups and their unbalanced lifestyle. My goal is now to secure a role at a FAANG company (only in the U.S.) and nowhere else. I have savings that will last me about six months to support this transition. Initially, I planned to focus on Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA), an area where I had very limited knowledge. After reading a few posts on LinkedIn (mainly from influencers), I mistakenly believed that three months of preparation would be sufficient for technical interviews. I now realize I was wrong. It's been 10 months, and while my DSA skills have improved to an "OK" level, I still don't feel confident. My System Design skills are also at an OK level. I've been applying to FAANG and other companies, but I keep facing rejections. I suspect this may be due to the employment gap or the lack of big-name companies on my resume. What I'm doing to bridge the gap: Working on side projects that demonstrate my skills in System Design, Databases, Programming Languages, Distributed Systems, and Microservices. Building a mini-startup that I can showcase on my resume, allowing me to highlight my Full-Stack development knowledge. My goal: I'm aiming for at least an L4 role at Netflix or a Full-Stack position at Google or Apple. With this employment gap, is it bold or foolish to still aim for FAANG? I’d love to hear any suggestions that could help me get shortlisted.

Hi All, So I had an on-site this Friday with a company, and the recruiter returned saying that feedback was positive, but they didn't make an offer. So I asked for individual interviewers' feedback, and the recruiter read it out, and it was all rounds, yes. But still, they didn't make an offer. She said I was the first candidate who got through positively, and they have others scheduled this week and the first week of January. So they would like to see them through. And decide by Jan 6. She asked me for timelines and if I had another offer with an exploding timeline. I don't, but I may not have one in a few days. And she scheduled a call again within a few days to check if have an update. What would you do in this case? It seems she will make me an offer if I have another offer or they don't find a better candidate. I haven't had this situation before.

Meeting with the hiring manager tomorrow and I’m pretty nervous. Any last minute advice? Context: It was for a full time role with NYT. The rounds are recruiter screening, meeting with the hiring manager, technical interview, system design talking about building an example system and what systems you've worked with in the past, then final meeting with recruiter and team.

After speaking with the recruiter for the first screen, is it good practice to send a quick follow-up email to the recruiter saying "It was great speaking with you today. Looking forward to next steps!". Does this convey enthusiasm and focus or being a over-eager and insecure?

I am a senior software engineer working primarily in Python. I consider myself a pretty good coder, being able to solve problems and deliver software on time at the necessary SLA. I understand and have worked with the major Python web frameworks such as FastAPI, Flask, and Django. But I see a lot of things lacking in myself. I am not able to handle algorithms very well, nor am I able to efficiently use design patterns. I see that all of these skills are part of FAANG interviews and much sought after. I also understand that there is Leetcode, HackerRank, CodeSignal and interviewing.io that help better ability. What is the best way one can upskill self given the many options?

I recently got an offer for a senior SWE backend role. A little about my background: Sr backend SWE, 8 yrs of experience Offer: Big city in the Midwest 190k base 152k RSU (38k a yr) 12k bonus flat (they don't do performance bonuses) 3 days a week hybrid unlimited pto Total: 240k TC I was told the base goes up to 225k pre-offer so I'm thinking of asking how we can bridge the gap or land somewhere in between. Planning on using the no-performance bonus as a talking point to get more base pay. Overall my interview performances were definitely strong from my perspective. Company and role-wise everything lines up for what I'm looking for in my career. The initial offer exceeds my expectations but I definitely want to maximize my comp. Any recommendations or tips?

I've looked at the leadership principles. But it's a bit overwhelming the number of questions that can be asked. I dont want to be caught like a deer in headlights when I'm asked a question. But it also doesnt seem practical to prepare every question. I'd love to know people's preparation strategy. Are you preparing 5-10 stories and then tagging them to different principles? if so what kinds of stories should I be preparing? i.e. what are the broad topics of each story? Or Maybe are you preparing 1 different story for each leadership value? Also If I'm asked "Who was your most difficult customer?" how would I answer this if I'm just a junior and have never dealt with customers first hand? or similar where I'm just like i've never been in this situation

Hey everyone, As I've just passed E4 infra, has anyone recently finished team match? How long did it take for you? It's been a week and I haven't received too much news. I'm open to Seattle, Bellevue and SF Bay Area.

My manager made it clear that my org is not offering return FT offers, but that he would put "incline return" for an internship position if I stayed another year in school (or somehow delayed graduation until 2025). I could just take random classes or another major to extend my time in school. I also could do a 1-year Masters program which I have already been admitted into. But I am an older student and would rather not stay another year in school. I also feel like I am learning very little in school (I go to a small state school). Compared to the ridiculous amount I learned this summer in the industry, I feel like staying in school for another year would be a huge waste of money and time. I could potentially work Fall/Spring internships for the next year (so basically a gap year) to artifically delay graduation by a year as well. Becuase I go to a small state school, getting interviews from Big Tech is extremely hard. We send about 1-3 kids to each FAANG+ company each year and I was only able to get 2 FAANG+ interviews even with refferals to every top company, a 4.0 GPA and relevent experience. Even getting actual SWE engineering jobs is really hard with most CS grads getting jobs labeled "SWE" but that involve very little coding. Because of that, my worry is this might be my only chance to break into Big Tech for a long time (if ever). So is it worth delaying my graduation for a shot at big tech? Or should I just graduate and start my career, even if its at a non-tech company (with potentially very little actual engineering work)?

I have worked as a software consultant for 4 years at companies like Amazon, Hitachi, etc.

Last year I was invited to an event at a Big Tech office and saw a few talks. After the talks I ended up chatting briefly to one of the Big Tech speakers about certain aspects of their talk that resonated with me. A few weeks after the event I had a meeting with one of the recruiters (you could submit your interest to have one reach out to you) and you could seek official mentoring from one of the employees. I asked if it'd be possible for that person above to be my mentor and they said they'd arrange it if possible. I got an email officially introducing me but they'd be busy for X amount of time. After X amount of I time I reached out to them, no answer. It's been many months and have tried to reach out to them sporadically between that time but have never gotten a response both via email & LinkedIn. I'm not too bothered now but do still question why?

I have an interview coming up that isn't DSA / System design focused, but rather a project deep dive or work experience deep dive. If the interview is 45-60min long, how should I best describe my work experience in that given time. Also, if using STAR method to answer work experience / project related questions how many situations per bullet point on resume should be discussed?

After getting an offer, what's a reasonable amount of time that I have to decide whether to accept or reject? What's the upper limit on this reasonableness? And how many different (current) members on the team is it reasonable to ask to speak with?

I am currently involved in the interview process for a Senior Software Engineer (SWE) position at a bank. As I prepare for the upcoming behavioral interview, I've reviewed common questions provided by Alex's blog and completed the behavioral interview track on AlgoExpert, which has equipped me with a set of comprehensive responses. Despite these preparations, I am seeking further advice to optimize my readiness. Given that my background as a Software Engineer has been primarily within a small company, moving into a banking environment presents a new and unique challenge. Are there any specific tips or guidance you could provide to help me navigate this process more effectively?

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?

After 10 years as a full stack SWE and eng manager, I pivoted into AI while working at Shopify, and was recently laid off as Head of AI at a collapsing pharma startup. Title is nice, but I only really have two years experience in ML. While it is high quality experience (training and shipping models and LLM apps at web scale)-- I'm feeling a bit scared. I don't have a ton of savings and two kids so I need something soon. I'm deeply passionate about language models, for the first time in my career working with a particular technology has felt like a real calling-- staying up nights and weekends just to learn and build. My first research paper ever was published at NeurIPS last year. However, I'm feeling fairly unconvincing as an ML engineer after the layoff. Probably the perfect role would be something in between web and ML. So now we're at the question: Given that I'm pretty desperate to land anything (3 mos runway before pulling out of investments, wife really against this) I'm wondering how to approach my search: Go all out for AI Engineer Roles (passion forward) Go for senior / staff web dev roles (safer, maybe, given 10+ yrs exp) Go for 1 or 2 plus eng manager roles Go for all of it at once Some confounders: I have referrals at Google and Microsoft, but don't want to burn them on ML roles if I'm obviously unqualified having only 2 years ML. I know I can absolutely add value wherever I land, but these feel like precious gold to me, and I don't want to get tossed out of the running for playing it silly. I can likely get some at Meta as well, but again, I don't want to play myself going for stuff that's just inappropriate. This has never been an issue in the past, I've been able to land stretch roles or at least get the interview but stakes are different now and my confidence is lower. I am a good eng manager, and would do it again, but I have a feeling it's an altogether different search. Is there a way to increase the surface area of possible roles by applying to manager jobs too-- without splitting my energy? Anyway, its helpful just to think out loud, would appreciate any advice here. Current plan is to create 3 resumes, start blasting applications and networking to get the interview funnel spun up before the leetcode grind. Thanks.