I have solved 300+ Leetcode questions and I read a book on system design plus an online course. I will have an interview with Facebook in about a month and maybe some other companies. After having a few interviews, I realized that luck plays a very important role (probably the most important) and the effect of over-preparation is marginal. This made me a little bit disappointed, to be honest. I just wanted to share this with you and get some advice. If you got a job offer from a well-known company, what was your experience? Do you think over-preparation would pay off?
As much as I love Blind for its “LeetCode or die” mentality, the reality is that LeetCode won’t get you the job. It’s luck
Maybe it's leetcode AND a bit of luck, but definitely not sheer luck with no LC. There's a reason why companies do 5-8 rounds of interview with 7-12 engineers.
What do you guys mean when you say luck? I’ve never interviewed at a Big-N before, do you mean getting a question you’ve seen or just not getting a stupid question from a research paper.
As a new grad you have no reason not to prepare hard. Getting a fang offer as a new grad is life changing
I really want it to happen, but I am also worried about my future.
What about Amazon or Microsoft?
LC wouldn’t get you the job but it gets you very close to land a job. Without LC, the probability of getting an offer from FANG is significantly lower. It is not about LC but about coding and currently there is no better way of evaluating the candidates on this skill. I have no idea how can you pass FANG interviews with just luck. Having said this, over preparation doesn’t pay off but preparation pays off. What does preparation means: coding with confidence, showing you can figure it out, having reasonable speed in solving easy to medium problems and .... I also admit that good preparation increases your luck since there is a higher probability that you have seen the question or solved a similar one before.
I think with over preparation you should be at least be able to crack a few if not all .. luck is just probability.. factors we still don’t know or know but don’t know how to measure them - like number of asshole interviewers at any given organization.
Looking at LC as if it is only beneficial for interview prep is short sighted. Even though LC type questions generally aren’t that applicable to day to day implementation in most SWE roles it’s still great exposure to beginning to recognize algorithm patterns and provides good insight into how various data structures can be leveraged beneficially. Keep learning, even if you don’t land faang it will still have been worthwhile. As for over preparing landing faang right out of college is probably the most certain way to guarantee yourself top tier TC for years to come (as long as you don’t get PIP’d out) and will open many doors when it comes time for you to make changes; you’d be dumb to not go for it if you believe you have what it takes to succeed there.
What if you didn’t start out of college at fang
Then it’s a little bit less so important; depending on what you have on your resume and your ability to speak authoritatively May open just as many doors as Faang will and therefore faang may be an unnecessary addition to your resume. That said, for most people faang on the resume is better than not
I think over preparation can pay off. Throw in lot of mock interview time, system design prep and there is a good chance you will be asked a question you have already solved in same environment. It’s a huge advantage and can even compensate for some bad luck
How do you mock interview? What were your preparations for Facebook?
It's not the # of leetcode that's important, it's understanding the underlying techniques well. When given an open ended problem, you should be able to combine these techniques to create an efficient solution to the problem. Not that different from other engineers at an abstract level. Fang is life changing. I went to a average college, and my only other offer was 70k in Denver. Now I'm 1.5 yoe 230k TC and should get promoted this year. And I love my job. Don't underestimate your chances, work hard and you'll get at the very least one job at any of the big public companies/startups.
I think I understand the techniques. I mostly solve hard/mediums and I enjoy them. However, the interview is unpredictable. I may stuck on a problem, as it has happened before. I had to reject a 170tc offer and now I'm stressed out I guess
LeetCode plus mock interviews = profit. Luck also plays a part, but LeetCode and Mocks both reduce variance, and increase the mean.
Where do you mock?
Pramp, interviewing.io
You should know the fairness doesn’t exist in the world. Working hard doesn’t mean you must get better result than the people who don’t work hard as you. The probability is not even bigger if you do 300 LC but others just do 100 LC.
Agreed, that's realistic mindset when comparing with others and saying that "senior guy does not work as much as I do, but makes a lot".. we gotto get out of those jealousy driven mind set to be successful in our efforts since every person has niche talent in one thing or the other..
TC or GTFO 😂
new grad