How to Crack System Design Interviews - Part 1: Introduction to the course

This course will help you understand system design interviews, prepare for them, and learn what to keep in mind during the process. Here's what we'll cover:

- **Understanding the Interview:** We'll review the structure of a system design interview and how it evaluates your skills, focusing on preparation, communication, and problem-solving.
- **Importance of Communication:** We'll discuss how to effectively communicate your ideas, understand requirements, and collaborate with the interviewer.
- **Technical and Problem-Solving Skills:** We'll explore how to leverage your experience and knowledge to answer questions effectively, drawing on real-world examples and theoretical understanding.
- **Preparation Strategies:** We'll cover various methods for preparing for system design interviews, including mock interviews, independent learning, and structured courses.
- **Step-by-Step Guidance:** We'll break down the interview process into manageable steps, offering clear and concise instructions to help you succeed.

Do mock interviews from one of the services on the [perks page](https://www.jointaro.com/perks/) (e.g. [Exponent](https://www.tryexponent.com/?ref=taro)) or [Taro's networking tool](https://www.jointaro.com/networking/?selectedServices=Mock+Interviews).

[Gaurav Sen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gkcs/) has conducted 1000s of system design interviews while working at Uber and building his [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@gkcs) to 500K+ subscribers. His platform [InterviewReady](https://interviewready.io/?_aff=JOINTARO) combines video explainers, live Zoom classes, and an automated System Design Judge.

System Design Series: Taro Playlists [Part 2] - Sharing The Context

Core points from the video:

- Weak organizations will have product and engineering be incredibly siloed. It is far more effective when product managers and engineers work very closely together. Meta in particular has seen a lot of success by having this harmonious culture.
  - This means that software engineers should also understand why they are building something and not purely be responsible for implementation.
  - Software engineers should have an opinion on the product and work with their PMs to optimize vision and direction.
- A master spec should also have the context behind the "why" of a product and not only contain technical details.
  - The product details will often live in a separate document called a PRD (Product Requirements Document). In this scenario, you should link it in your technical spec and maybe have a paragraph summary of its contents as well.
- Capture any existing context that will affect how you build your system. This will often means that there's components that are already around in your company's ecosystem that you need to build on top of - This scenario is extremely common when building projects in Big Tech.
- Attach visual aides if you can (images, videos, gifs): It makes it far easier for project stakeholders to grok the information.
- **Context behind Taro playlists:**
  - One of the most requested feature within Taro
  - Think of it as being similar to YouTube playlists
  - We have already shipped a read-only version of playlists

For the full system design doc, you can get it by [becoming a Taro Premium member](https://www.jointaro.com/membership).

[Case Study] Becoming A Tech Lead Again In Just 1 Month After Joining Robinhood From Meta

- The expectations for an L5+ (senior+ at a FAANG or similar company) engineer are high. You won't get 12 months or even 6 months to fully onboard: You need to start having huge impact and showing your depth within 1-2 months.
- After starting, Alex told his managers that he was happy to offload any responsibilities they had so they could focus on higher-level issues and expand their scope. As a tech lead, you need to view your manager as a partner, not just a boss. "Treat me as a resource."
- The project that Alex was first put on was to make settings more server-driven within Robinhood
- The most impactful thing to do was to add color to the project:
  - Stabilize and then drive the workstream meetings
  - Create a thorough tech spec
  - Align XFN to figure out how to treat each settings section properly, especially in places where there were inconsistencies
- How Alex added his depth:
  - Wrote a 5+ page Android spec for his portion
  - Manually audited all of settings and compiled a detailed spreadsheet of inconsistencies to fully capture impact
  - Thorough data analysis spec, doing complicated SQL queries himself
  - Mentored an L4 engineer in the process, giving them L5 scope
- Recap (how you can incorporate the learnings here into your work):
  - Earn trust quickly: Be "aggressively" nice. Find out how you can add value to others and be very sincere and upfront about it.
  - Fill in the gaps: View your projects holistically and figure out what's missing to move the project forward. This will often times be "less flashy" non-coding work.
  - Bring people together: Don't be paralyzed by your lack of knowledge. Especially if you're new to a company, you will be clueless in a lot of scenarios. If you're in a cutting edge company like Meta/Robinhood, there will be a smart person(s) somewhere out there with the answer: You just need to bring them together in a healthy way.
  - Go deep: There's far more to a senior engineer than their ability to code. If you're a new L5+ engineer, even the tenured L3/L4s at the company will code circles around you in the beginning. If you're an L5+ engineer, figure out what behaviors and fundamentals you have that more junior engineers don't and show those as much as you can. This generally involves shipping software in a much more holistic way.

Related resources:
- [Presentation slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1j5Lj_IGrtCRUpobj0f8k9egrBAej9apzikGp_V_iTCk/edit?usp=sharing)

This Is How You Become A Layoff-Proof Software Engineer

Some software engineers are better equipped against layoffs than others. They are less likely to get laid off, and if they do get laid off, they bounce back faster than everyone else. This video covers how those engineers do that.

Here are the core points:

- **Focus on building up fundamental skills** - Divorce yourself from specific technologies and product spaces. Always be thinking: *"Can I take my abilities to a completely different team/company and succeed?*"
- **Soft skills are very underrated** - Communication, leadership, and project management are skills that are useful anywhere. They are also skills that are almost always required to reach senior engineering levels, especially at Big Tech companies like FAANG.
- **Learn how to do real system design** - This is how you ascend to the higher level, away from the direct code, allowing you to add more value to engineering organizations. To learn how to do real system design (not the trivia you need to know for interviews), watch our course here: [\[Course\] System Design Masterclass: Shipping Real Features To Production](https://www.jointaro.com/course/frontend-system-design-masterclass-building-playlists/)

Related resources:

- ["What are software engineering fundamentals?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/3VNPK7wol76s89EkgFeW/what-are-software-engineering-fundamentals/)
- ["How to develop soft skills like leadership, stakeholder management, etc.?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/Ivo1RsizAMGoGKXmqg6N/how-to-develop-soft-skills-like-leadership-stakeholder-management-etc/)

[Masterclass] How To Succeed At A New Team Or Company As A Software Engineer

There are **ton** of great points in this presentation, so to prevent this summary from being a 10 page essay, we're only including our Top 5 points:
1. **Asking for help != weakness** - In fact, it's quite the opposite: Trying to figure out everything on your own and not asking questions is what makes you weak. Being comfortable with your cluelessness and putting yourself out there aggressively to get all the help you need is what makes you strong. Learn more about this dynamic here: ["How do I balance being more independent and asking questions?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/cLsgiARaD5kVmV1BvdUi/how-do-i-balance-being-more-independent-and-asking-questions/)
2. **Get maximum value from questions** - Ask high-quality questions and ask follow-up questions to really understand the answers your teammates give you and the systems they followed to arrive at those answers. Your goal is to learn skills in a sustainable way that makes you more independent as opposed to needing hand-holding all the time. To better understand hand-holding (and how to evolve from it), check out our in-depth explainer here: ["What does it mean to not require handholding anymore?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/5vEWajcZlSi7nlohTGtJ/what-does-it-mean-to-not-require-handholding-anymore/)
3. **Don't get trapped reading the code and documentation** - The only real way to learn a codebase is to just hop in, start changing code and seeing what happens. Software is all about learning via doing. Watch this video to learn more: [How To Learn A New Codebase Fast](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/DX27hiXPJ4G7Czk2mwLL/how-to-learn-a-new-codebase-fast/)
4. **Thanking people is a skill** - When you're onboarding especially, it is crucial for you to show your gratitude effectively: Don't just do the basic, boring "Thanks for the help!" DM over Slack/Teams after you have been helped. Send the helper a heartfelt note, tell them in person, or let their manager know about their great deed. You can learn more about "deep thanks" here: [Effective Communication Guide [Part 3.1] - The Power Of Thanks](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/noWZaoGWlrYQxX2Vhigd/effective-communication-guide-part-31-the-power-of-thanks/).
5. **Be empowered to help others, even when you're new** - Anyone can help others, even the newbie. In fact, newbies are equipped to add unique value by having a fresh pair of eyes, particularly around improving the onboarding process for others. If you're onboarding, make it one of your priorities to earn respect as that will make the entire onboarding process smoother for you.

For more premier resources on onboarding:
- [[Case Study] Becoming A Tech Lead Again In Just 1 Month After Joining Robinhood From Meta](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/X8vpfJooDpsX915ouC00/case-study-becoming-a-tech-lead-again-in-just-1-month-after-joining-robinhood-from-meta/)
- ["How do you overcome the fear of asking stupid questions / bothering people when you need help?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/vNE8kgpx2zdI1wACg9jA/how-do-you-overcome-the-fear-of-asking-stupid-questions-bothering-people-when-you-need-help/)
- ["How can I become more independent and better at unblocking myself with tricky technical issues?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/QhqQQGrDgFjZbqohpKe0/how-can-i-become-more-independent-and-better-at-unblocking-myself-with-tricky-technical-issues/)
- [Presentation Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MTs7GIklpVnYrA_JRlgcpKu1reeTLto1kYEsa6M8UqI/edit?usp=sharing)

DSA Crash Course [Part 4] - Is Prime Approach

In this lesson, Alvin explores the strategy to solving the following interview problem:

> Write a function, *is_prime*, that takes in a number as an argument. The function should return a boolean indicating whether or not the given number is prime.
>
> A prime number is a number that is only divisible by two distinct numbers: 1 and itself.
>
> For example, 7 is a prime because it is only divisible by 1 and 7. For example, 6 is not a prime because it is divisible by 1, 2, 3, and 6.
>
> You can assume that the input number is a positive integer.

```
is_prime(2) # -> True
```

```
is_prime(3) # -> True
```

```
is_prime(4) # -> False
```

```
is_prime(5) # -> True
```

```
is_prime(6) # -> False
```

```
is_prime(7) # -> True
```

```
is_prime(8) # -> False
```

```
is_prime(2017) # -> True
```

```
is_prime(2048) # -> False
```

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [Alvin's](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [Structy](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [this link to get 20% off](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

Why Becoming A Good Engineering Manager Is So Hard

Becoming an engineering manager (EM) is a major career shift that’s both difficult to achieve and hard to excel at. This video outlines why the role is rare, what background is typically required, and how drastically different it is from being a software engineer.

- **EMs are in short supply**: The pool of strong engineering managers is even smaller than that of strong engineers, making it hard for companies to hire great EMs.
- **Strong engineering background is essential**: Most capable EMs started out as senior or staff-level engineers, often operating as tech leads before transitioning into management.
- **High entry barriers**: Given the requirement for both technical excellence and people skills, very few engineers are qualified to move into the EM role.
- **Only 20% skill transfer**: On average, just a fifth of the skills from a software engineering background apply directly to engineering management—making the job feel brand new.
- **Steep learning curve**: Many new EMs are surprised at how little their past experience as engineers prepares them for the demands of management, which requires a vastly different skill set.

Related resources:

- [\[Taro Top 10\] Software Engineer To Engineering Manager (IC -&gt; M Track)](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/oz0mnJvHHgM8NfVF7rgp/)
- [\[Case Study\] Mentoring Junior SWEs \[E3\] to Senior \[E5\] In Just 2.5 Years At Meta](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/EX9563YnxcJb62cCmetg/case-study-mentoring-junior-swes-e3-to-senior-e5-in-just-25-years-at-meta/)

Asking Effective Questions That Get Great Answers Quickly

What are some things you can do to improve your question?

True or false: Ideally, your question takes less time to answer than it took for you to ask the question.

What is the core operating principle behind asking and answering questions?

True or false: In order to be polite, you should preface your question with a simple greeting like "Hello". After the potential answerer responds, then you can ask your question.

Why do you need to attach a lot of context and be as specific as possible asking questions in tech?

- **Core principle**: Questions are an exchange of time. You put some time to write your question and the answerers take some time to respond. Your goal is to make the amount of time necessary to answer your question smaller than the amount of time you spent asking it.
- Have empathy for the people answering the question. Thank them pre-emptively!
- Avoid leading "hi". Just ask them your question directly!
- Google your question and go through the initial results prior to asking your question. Inline that context in your question.
- Attach as much relevant context as possible. You want to prevent back-and-forth where answerers need to ask you questions to clarify your initial question.

Related resources:
- [Bad Question vs. Good Question Example](https://link.jointaro.com/fiY293kj2ewPwMqB8)
- ["How do you overcome the fear of asking stupid questions / bothering people when you need help?"](https://link.jointaro.com/37FJnTAX1BN2e5wt6)

Engineer Your Ideal Tech Career [Part 11] - Michael Novati: Becoming A High-Level IC

Next, [Michael Novati](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelnovati) chats about his impressive career advancement and passion for high-level IC work. Michael progressed from a new grad engineer to Staff engineer at Facebook within 3 years, and then Senior Staff after.

He reflects on the key steps he took to progress quickly, common misconceptions people have about being a high-level IC, and the types of people who may love this work longer-term.

Looking for mentorship from tech’s top engineers + personalized job hunt assistance and interview prep? [Formation.dev](http://Formation.dev) can provide you unlimited career coaching, technical mentorship, personalized practice, and mock interviews. Join us here: <https://formation.dev/partners/taro>

Worksheet: [Formation - Coding Your Career](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/tech-career-growth.appspot.com/o/courses%2Fslides%2FFormation%20Career%20Direction%20Worksheet.pdf?alt=media&token=f6344b78-529a-411e-a449-7a34a8d55fc8)

2 Ways To 100x Your Productivity That Nobody Does

What are the 2 underutilized but straightforward ways of becoming far more productive?

True or false: Often times you should sacrifice sleep and exercise in order to get more hours, thereby becoming more productive.

Why is it absolutely necessary to get in good sleep and regular exercise no matter what?

- The 2 core pillars of productivity are a consistent, good night's sleep and regular exercise (3-5 times a week).
- "I don't have time for that" is not a real excuse. There are thing you *make* time for. Nobody says they stopped brushing their teeth to become more productive: That is an example of something everyone makes time for. Sleep and exercise are the same way.
- The math doesn't check out for sacrificing these. It doesn't matter if you have more hours in a day from doing this if your rate of getting things done is very low. And it will be low if you are constantly sleep deprived and not physically fit.

15 SWE Years In 1.5 Hours [Part 1] - Rahul's Story

The best way to grow is to make mistakes, and [Rahul Pandey](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpandey1234/) is proud to say that he's made a lot of them (and learned a ton along the way). That's why this course exists - Rahul is here to teach you everything he's learned throughout his \~15 years of struggle, so you don't make the same mistakes he did.

In this lesson, Rahul covers:

- His prestigious background
- Why patience is key to actually learning and growing as a software engineer
- The core components behind a successful engineering career

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 2] - What Makes A Project Valuable

Most engineers optimize for the wrong thing when they build personal software projects, which is 99% of engineer portfolio projects don't matter at all. This lesson teaches you:

- The only metric that matters when it comes to the quality and impressiveness of your side project
- Why getting actual users supercharges the learning and growth you get from building a side project, far more than choosing the best "modern" tech stack ever could
- Common traps engineers fall into that make their side project meaningless, especially when it comes to recruiting

Ace Your Tech Interview As A Software Engineer [Part 4] - The #1 Trait For Interview Success

Software engineers overwhelmingly blame the wrong thing when it comes to why they aren't landing job offers, particularly their own lack of skill. This lesson teaches you:

- What the actual #1 trait among successful job searchers is
- How to build up your personal grit
- Why most software engineers have the wrong perspective post-interview and are unable to fully learn from their failures
- The success metric you should be weighing yourself against as you progress through the job search, viewing everything as more of a spectrum instead of a binary state

To go deeper into developing your grit and boosting your productivity, watch this video: [2 Ways To 100x Your Productivity That Nobody Does](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/RXEca9zfyZG0pl015att/2-ways-to-100x-your-productivity-that-nobody-does/?playlistId=JNCZ1vbRF3NwsOQCqblt)

Become A Debugging Master [Part 2] - Why You Should Love Bugs

Bugs are often seen as a nuisance, but in reality, they offer one of the highest-impact ways to grow and succeed as an engineer. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Junior engineers often avoid bugs to chase “cool” feature work, but experienced engineers recognize bugs as critical for making meaningful product impact
- Owning and fixing bugs can accelerate your career growth, even to senior levels like Staff or Senior Staff Engineer, by demonstrating deep technical skill
- Debugging teaches you to dive across teams, codebases, and systems—skills that are rare, valuable, and highly rewarded
- Fixing bugs ensures real, lasting impact compared to feature work, where many experiments and launches often quietly fail
- Mature engineers view the endless supply of bugs as opportunities to create visible, undeniable value by removing problems that directly affect users

Related resources:

- Code quality course: [Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [Girish Patangay: The billion versions of Facebook you’ve never seen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXGgc79sGwY)

Introduction

Machine learning interviews are brutal—and most engineers prep for them the wrong way. This course flips that on its head. Here’s what's covered in this lesson:

- Your instructor Yayun Jin walks you through her background as an ML lead who’s been on both sides of the interview table. She goes through her journey breaking into the ML world, working across startups and big tech, and interviewing 100+ ML candidates.
- You’ll learn why most prep strategies fail: They're too scattered, too theoretical, and completely disconnected from how interviews actually work.
- We’ll walk you through the course game plan so you know exactly what to expect:
  - 🧭 Learn how to prep for ML interviews with structure instead of chaos

  - 🔍 Understand key differences between ML roles (ML engineer, infra, AI engineer) so you don’t waste time on irrelevant material

  - 🧱 See what great performance looks like in each interview type: coding, modeling, system design, and behavioral

  - 🚀 Get actionable prep tactics tailored for both current ML pros and SWE-to-ML switchers

  - 🎯 Understand how expectations shift based on seniority—so you’re not prepping like a junior when you’re going for a senior role

If you want to learn even more from Yayun:

- Book 1 on 1 career guidance with her here: <https://calendly.com/your-friend-yayun/1on1>
- Follow her on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/yayunjin/>

Grow From Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 1] - How This Course Works

If you work hard enough and play your cards right, you will eventually become a senior engineer. However, the same isn't true for staff, and this is why most engineers will never make it to the equivalent of a Staff Engineer at a top tech company like FAANG. Here are the core parts of the lesson:

- Your instructor [Rahul Pandey](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-chiou/) walks you through his extensive 10+ year Silicon Valley background with rapid career advancement, ending up as a high-performing Staff Engineer making +$800k at Meta.
- You'll understand what it means to be a senior engineer vs. a staff engineer in the market, including the interview space.
- We walk you through the course objectives. By the end of the course, you will understand:
  - 💡 Truly understand the **difference** between a senior engineer and a staff engineer (more than a career matrix)

  - 🧠 Create **clear mental models** to develop L6 behavior

  - 📃 Identify your **fundamental gaps** to staff

  - 🗺️ **Chart a path** to Staff Engineer

  - 🧐 Go through Staff Engineer **archetypes** to find your fit

[Masterclass] How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - Data Structures And Algorithms

Data structures and algorithms (often abbreviated as "DSA") is an infamous staple of the software engineer interview experience. Data structures and algorithms problems are the most well-known for being part of the FAANG interview process, especially for Google.

Here are our Top 5 favorite points from this masterclass (in no particular order):

- **DSA prep is insanely high ROI** - In fact, the return on investment for time spent on DSA studying makes it one of the highest yield activities any human can do period. If you haven't worked at FAANG / Big Tech before, switching into it is likely to increase your pay by 50%+. If you're in the US, this will often mean a raise of $50k+. So the next time you're feeling burnt out from DSA studying, keep this very bright light at the end of the tunnel in mind.
- **Leetcode and Glassdoor are all you need** - DSA studying is a solved problem. You can use other, newer tools if you want, but the old-school ones still work just fine. Glassdoor in particular is naturally very effective given the "Big" nature of "Big Tech". Go through the recent data points from Glassdoor if you're interviewing for Big Tech and make sure you have a good grip on recurring recent problems.
- **Learning DSA is all about pattern recognition** - For 80%+ of DSA problems, there will be some 1-2 liner "trick" that represents the whole solution. For example, the "trick" to 2 sum is "Look for the difference and use a set/dictionary". It is not scalable to memorize solutions as code - Look for patterns and remember solutions as that high-level insight.
- **Communicate, communicate, communicate** - Since FAANG companies are so huge, there are naturally going to be far more stakeholders on every project, making alignment far more important. Because of this, Big Tech companies will often closely judge your communication skills during the interview. Don't just code in silence - Even if you get the right answer, you may still fail for not maintaining a dialogue with your interviewer.
- **Don't forget about space** - Most people are aware of big O run-time complexity, but candidates often forget about space complexity. Make sure to talk about both when you analyze your solution. As a side note, remember that a recursive solution will *not* be O(1) space.

Related resources:

- [\[Course\] Master The Data Structures And Algorithms Interview](https://www.jointaro.com/course/master-the-data-structures-and-algorithms-interview/)
- [How Alex Got Into Meta With 0 Prior LeetCode Experience](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/ZYiTbN21FsqFxFdpwt5a/how-alex-got-into-meta-with-0-prior-leetcode-experience/)
- ["How do I balance my time between studying DSA and fleshing out my portfolio?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/fhV2SCn56aYF4gfPVLmV/how-do-i-balance-my-time-between-studying-dsa-and-fleshing-out-my-portfolio/)
- ["Should I quit to prep for interviews?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/Cno3oaZkvUu7BPLhHB7g/should-i-quit-to-prep-for-interviews/)
- [Presentation Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13uLUHDvZifjp2aVClGsW29nfuVpQYvrkGLP8cej0R_k/edit#slide=id.p)

Master The DSA Interview [Part 2] - The Key To Truly Learning DSA

One of the biggest mistakes software engineers make is memorizing content instead of actually understanding the concepts. This lesson teaches you:

- How to learn data structures and algorithms properly instead of merely doing rote memorizations
- What it looks like to truly master a data structures and algorithms problem, shown with an in-depth example
- Common patterns to remember with data structures and algorithms

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 3] - The Key To A Great Project Idea

Most engineer resume projects are half-baked school projects or wrappers around basic tutorials, lacking the necessary continuity to be impressive and get users. This lesson teaches you:

- The #1 cause of death with engineer side projects
- The key that every good side project idea needs to even have a chance of being successful
- What it means for a side project idea to satisfy that key, explained with a concrete example showing the inspiration behind Alex's Random Name Picker app, which has over 1.1 million users

DSA Crash Course [Part 6] - Big-O Basics Lecture

In this lecture, Alvin goes over the basics of Big-O notation and how to use it to describe the complexity of algorithms.

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [Alvin's](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [Structy](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [this link to get 20% off](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

Tech Career Growth Videos

Our instructional videos provide software engineers with insights needed for career growth. Masterclasses go incredibly in-depth on a specific tech topic while case studies are real examples from established engineering leaders.