I've been in the industry for 15 years, last 10 years in bay area alone. I am a on job tech lead with very strong technical skills w.r.t architecture nd distributed systems. I am looking for a move. I had 8-9 phone screens with coding. Conceptual part goes excellent, in coding i implement too, but things r not good in optimization of algo. Result, didn't get second round. For some I got 2nd round interviews. In those Architecture, Design, scaling, trouble shooting in distributed, etc. by sr. guys. But, when it comes to 2-5 years experienced interviewers they have online findsum, number match, breadth search all online exercises. I know i didn't nail. I implement those nd for optimization some times I do, some times I don't. I can't remember them so come up with the solution at the spot. Result No offer, never happened in my career so getting frustrated nd pressured. What am i missing? Is the bar too high for principal eng? Do I need coaching? Missing? Thanks,
You need leetcode unfortunately
Seems like you know the issue - that you aren’t nailing the harder coding interviews. So, leetcode. You also didn’t say anything about behavioral questions, but everyone can always use more practice there - so do that too!
"harder" coding interviews FTFY
Try interview Kickstart. Made for this problem
Interviewing is a stupid game you play that is completely irrelevant to your job if I'm being honest. Some of the best leetcoders I've worked with were some of the worst engineers ever that would not play well in a team, sucked at coding itself, or would code golf the shit out of everything. It's a case of not you, but them. The advice here sadly is on point, but it's a dumb grind until you've seen everything and get lucky.
Do CTCI, do 200 Leetcode problems, do a mock interview with one of the services where they give you feedback (for both sys design and coding), then start again.
Maybe you only tried the top companies, but your coding skills and expectations don’t match their levels. Btw I also should comment on “strong architecture and distributed systems skills”. I feel these are not important. It is easy to architect, but very hard to make it work smoothly. I also know strong coders who cannot make things work smoothly, or just write weird code.
But who says if I can't optimize "finding if sum is present in an array in 15mins with o(n)" im not a good engineer? When people go for such questions do they remember the optimized algo or they come up in 20mins?
Leetcode is not "coding skills" and you are delusional if you think those things are equivalent.
You are getting old dude, wake up to reality.
Uber's a disaster waiting to happen, wake up to reality.
Not a cool response.
Fucking Uber asshole
Why you gotta bring Uber into it? Lol you fucking Oracle wannabe
Leetcode and look younger with plastic surgery
Being 35years old nd six-packs abs behind a layer of fat is old :-)
Yup at databricks we got rid of most over 30 people
You need coaching