Apple just kicked my ass royally and gave me a reality check on what I have been doing all this while just leetcoding. I was asked multi threading, framework and core Language concepts in my interview. Rather than the plain old leet code questions. I am happy that apple kicked my ass and motivated me to study outside leetcode and look at interviews as a package rather than just fuck your brain to find answer in 30mins. Tc:- 250k Edit:- so there seems to be a lot of pre judgement happening in the comment section that I don’t know the basics as well, I do know the basics and did some very minor work in the beginning of my career and never touched multi threading after that. Yes I did work on areas of the application that doesn’t touch multi threading and never got a chance to make changes in multi threading area, so lost grip of it. Some people are like oooh you work for fb aaaah you need to know it by default, Fuck you who thinks I should know it by default. That argument is similar to when you know how to code and what a 2d array/ recursion is why can’t you write a dp solution Edit2:- forgot to address this, to all the senior engineers who thinks I need to learn and be comfortable with multi threading and concurrency, yes I do feel the same, and have started working on that as well.
By the way I don’t use multi threading and other frameworks on a daily basis, or haven’t used them in my experience at all.
I’ve never used leet code in a job either
I am not complaining I just realized how much there is I don’t know.
Agree. Apple interviews are the hardest. Leetcode would be just one of many rounds and the rest will really test how good you are as an engineer. It's worth it I would say. After landing here I have realized that translates into technically sound engineers working on really cool things and prioritizing quality over anything else.
Hardest yeah sure
Easiest for me but I think it can be different for each as the decision is based on the team. Coding questions and technical ones were easiest out of 20+ I interviewed but communication and demonstration of soft skills were the differentiation. Almost all others didn’t care about these areas but Apple did and I am glad I joined Apple over others. Engineers here have the best communication skills, better team work, willingness to help others. I am happy there is a company with different interview process and focus. I hope we continue this strategy. It is a good process to filter out jerks and uncooperative engineers.
Name checks out
I wonder, would you change your name again for a different post?
I wonder if you’re a rat 🐀
D: How'd you know? Are you dead/ alive?
That’s refreshing to hear. It’s annoying hearing about people who leetcode all day but couldn’t architect their way out of a paper bag. But damn that method they wrote is really nice looking!
Apple yes they are an operating system company, but how often anyone uses multi threading and inbuilt frameworks. Fb doesn’t, atleast I haven’t so far. Architecture is a different ball game doesn’t correlate with a specific framework. End of the day you need to solve a problem, small or big
I’ve used multi threading plenty of times 🤷🏻
Very happy to hear they aren't asking Leetcode. They didn't ask me LC either! All their questions were domain relevant, something I'm good at.
AMP? I got asked similar questions
I am not judging the questions themselves but for the fact that Apple didn’t filter based on leetcode should be a good news for many engineers. If every single company uses the same method, they will end up hiring certain type of engineers only. So much for diversity lol. But leetcode is the reality today. I am glad OP liked that it was different. We should still have a few companies hiring based on leetcode but there should be other set of companies which hire differently (eg use leetcode for new grad filtering only by asking easy level questions).
I totally agree with you, but the thing is even the leetcode pattern is broke, They don’t care about your thought process anymore, just shove some basic questions in your mind and then puke it out in the interview. Example dp and pure math problems. Coming to framework based if that kind of interviews start taking place, we are gone for good. Because there are 100 different frameworks with all kind of advantages and dis advantages, So no common ground. I think they need to find a good grey area between these two.
Agreed today’s leetcode interview is pointless. It just tests how well you prepared which requires a lot of dedicated time (that means you should slack or get laid off at your job to prepare for it). So leetcode actually could hire slackers or professional interviewers who are only interested in hopping for another one avoiding the responsibility at the current job. Leetcode should be only used as a filter to weed out someone who can’t code at all. But the engineers dilemma is they think they asked a question with proper difficulty. I have seen so many of my colleagues who fail all of the interviews based on leetcode but they also ask same difficulty level to the candidates when they become an interviewer. It’s like engineers can’t think of when they are on another one’s shoes. I mean, they failed themselves but still ask the same difficulty level? Even smart and intelligent engineers do this. I don’t think this will change any time. If it does, it will turn into something more ridiculous such as take home assignments. Onsite passing rate used to be a bit over 30% at Microsoft 10 years ago. Nowadays it is less than 15% everywhere. I think we’re wasting everyone’s time in this way. We basically created artificial barriers. Leetcode was the perfect tool for that. I’m pretty sure most of staff level Googlers who joined 10 years ago will fail their own interview without intensive preparation. I think engineers are very smart at one thing but dumbest in this. However, one thing I am not certain about is if this artifical barrier contributed higher salary by creating the illusion it is hard to find a good engineer. If so, well maybe I should advocate for leetcode until I switch to another job lol
Mine were 2 LC (medium and hard) and 2 language/collections/framework kinds. I don’t think this style is any better or worse than all LC or all real problems, it has its own issues like how do you prepare - the scope just doubled! In my experience - Apple interviews are a bigger draw of luck compared to 100% LC style interviews. Anyone thinking they are better - is mistaken. Both styles have major flaws. Worst being - as an experienced engineer - I do not have time to grind/prepare, so how do I pass all this shit!!!
It’s relative. You just need to perform better than others.
Can u share what were collections/framework questions ?
Good, now please take me with you I need perks
I didn’t get you, what do you mean by that?
He/she mean that Apple has no perks (like free snacks, let alone meals) so they want to join a company with perks like FB.