I have coded in C (around 11 years) and that’s my strongest language. I have picked up JAVA recently (1-2 months) and started solving leet code problems in JAVA. Coding in C in interviews is very time consuming (length of code, lack of standard API for collections, string based questions, etc) compared to coding in JAVA. Would it be ok if I say I am beginner in JAVA and code in interviews though I don’t have a mastery in JAVA and write shorter code faster or is it better to stick to the strongest language (C in my case) and take the hit in time to code more lines of code? Please advice especially for interviews at Facebook, google, LinkedIn, amazon.
These internet companies don’t usually use C. You can interview with it but the interviewer might not be an expert in it unless it is some low level software team
Right! Sometimes the recruiter ask you beforehand what language you will be coding in so that they get the right interviewer who has expertise in that particular language.
It’s not actually new. Google FLAG
Did you pick up Java specifically for coding interviews? If so, Python would be a much better choice of language, since you seem to be concerned about verbosity. Java and Objective-C are the most verbose mainstream languages (AFAIK).
Yes for interviews and in general I like Java more than python even for large scale projects, it’s good to know java
I'd strongly recommend whiteboarding in your strongest language. You don't want to ponder over language semantics when these algorithms questions take up all your thinking power. Most of these questions can be solved with basic data structures anyway.
Agree with the language semantics part.. but many of the leetcode style questions require stack, queue, hash table, tree set, priority queue, array list, string api’s none of which are available natively in C..it’s just painful to assume API’s in C and initialize, free, etc.. to write correct code using these in C in such a short time
This is precisely the reason I picked up C++ for leetcoding. I write in C at work. C++ is a godsend with those STLs. Besides at FANG companies, I assume i would be expected to know atleast any one OOP language and C++ is something that I have known over the years ( as opposed to Java) , just never peofessionally worked in.
Use Python. You can pick it up easily. Thank me later.
Have already invested my time in JAVA for past few months and i think the ship has sailed for this round of interviews .. will pick up python soon :)
Don't use C. I was previously a kernel programmer (focused on this in my undergrad, published papers etc.), so I considered myself pretty damn good at C. I initially tried interviewing with it, and it went terribly. Decided to interview with Python instead even though I barely used it, interviews were a cake walk.
You can pick up Python pretty easily since you're already good at C. I found that they don't ask nearly as hard language questions when you use Python v Java. I consistently got asked hard oop questions in Java but not in Python
So... 4 of us so far for Python. When are your interviews?
I am thinking couple of months from now .. haven’t scheduled anything yet .. talking to recruiters .. solved 140 easy, 250 medium, 77 hard total 467 .. and about 50 of them in java and rest all in C in leetcode.. though python is easier to write than java .. I have already invested some time in java and now switching to 3rd language will just delay my interviews ..
I think the important question is whether you are looking for a role focused on C programming. There are plenty of these at Google. Typically low-level/embedded SWE. If you are targeting these positions and are clear with your recruiter, I doubt you'll be asked questions on topics like dynamic programming and graphs. Do pick up C++ STL though. It can be a big help with string manipulation and some data structures.
Yes, I am not interested in low-level/embedded SWE roles.. I feel I should have picked up one of these java/c++/python much earlier as you guys have suggested
Tech Industry
9h
2157
Asians - what are your thoughts on asian female white male ?
World Conflicts
Yesterday
550
American police seem to work only when Israel is challenged
Tech Industry
Yesterday
3849
Crossed a line with my boss
Tech Industry
Yesterday
7451
Binance founder is going to PRISON
Tech Industry
Yesterday
2928
I am starting to think Chinese interviewers currently fail non-Chinese candidates on purpose.
Don’t say anything about your coding language weakness. Pick up the pen and code in Java. If you are not ready to do that don’t go yet.
Sure. For the purpose of leet code style questions, yes I will go for the interviews when I can write neat bug free code in JAVA. My fear is what if I get cornered in JAVA about some API or if I make some stupid mistake which I don’t think I will make in C, but then again coding in C just kills the time and I feel you are at a very big disadvantage compared to people who code the same question in JAVA
No. Don’t overthink it. You will not be asked API level questions. You just code in Java and assume you don’t know any C.