My journey of getting into FAANG

In November last year, I started to take a Data structures and algorithms course because I wanted to switch my job. I had never done LC even back in college. I'm a Machine Learning engineer but I wanted to work at a bigger company solving complex problems with Machine Learning. I was reached out by a recruiter from Amazon and Facebook around this time for scheduling interviews with them. I scheduled my Amazon interview for end of January and Facebook's interview for a week after that. I started off by doing LC as I was new to it and took my time by solving each problem with a lot of detail. Amazon was an online assessment, despite studying for over 2 months, I completely bombed it and received a rejection email shortly afterwards. Meta's interview was a bit better as it was a phone screen, I solved one LC medium and failed to do 1 LC hard. I was rejected in the next few days. At this point I was pretty sad. I cried on my table but I vowed to not give up. I thought that perhaps I cannot get into FAANG but I can still get into other great companies. So. I kept applying to other jobs. For the next few weeks, I interviewed with a few other companies. I completed loops with Factset (interview went great but they rejected me), Groupon (bombed system design, rejected), HPE (bombed system design, rejected), LinkedIn (rejected on phone screen because I couldn't build an optimal solution), Expedia (rejected on phone screen because I told HM that I liked doing more research based ML projects and HM probably wanted someone doing ML infra engineering), Microsoft (absolutely worst interview experience. On the day of the final interview, I received an email telling me I was rejected but it was shocking to me because I hadn't even completed the loop yet, interviewer explained that it was an error in their "system" but it was too late, the damage was already done. I did decent on this interview, probably messed up ML system design, but my morale was high because I could see an improvement in my interviewing skills. I received no response at all from recruiter for rejection, had to check portal myself, overall not a great experience). I was also reached out by another recruiter at Amazon telling me to schedule interviews with them. Around the same time, I was reached out by a Facebook recruiter telling me that they wanted me to do a follow-up on the previous interview that I was rejected on (feedback for it was kinda mixed). So I knew that this was my chance, I had been given another opportunity that most people would never get and I made it a mission to pass any interviews going forward. I also completed a loop with Workday during this time, interviews went great and I was expecting an offer but I was ghosted and haven't heard back from them regarding the results till this day. I managed to pass both phone screens for Meta and Amazon. I knew that my studying was helping. I scheduled full loops with both of them. I studied after work doing system design from Youtube and ML System design from Educative's course. When I got tired with them, I would just do LC since it was much easier to do and I was getting better at them. I completed loops with Meta first and then Amazon. Meta's interviews went great (recruiter told me I had passed all of them, however since the last interview was scheduled for next week, I had to wait to hear from them, it was killing me, but all I could do was wait). At the same time, I interviewed with Amazon and managed to do great in those as well. Next week, I heard back from Meta's recruiter and she told me that I had cleared the interview! The same day, I hear back from Amazon that I had passed their interview as well! My joy knew no bounds. These results were proof that my preparation had paid off. I wanted to do a fist pump but all I could do was smile and look upward and thank God that I've been extremely lucky in all of this. I'm an average engineer but had lucked out with two great companies. Amazon downleveled me to L4 but Meta was offering me an E4 position, so I decided to go with Meta. I also heard from Uber, Microsoft and Google to schedule interviews with them but I denied all of them because I had already accepted Meta's offer and felt it was the right thing to do for my career to not get blacklisted in the future. So, I'm joining Meta in Seattle this July, I've managed to triple my TC and I'll be working on some exciting ML projects! My takeaway and advice to all of those interviewing and struggling out there, please don't give up, you have the skill to crack any interview. If I can do it, anyone can do it. Keep grinding the LC, study hard and sing your prayers. Be kind to your family and friends and stay humbled. You have a great career ahead of you. Good luck to those interviewing and thank you for those that read this post! God bless you all! YOE: 2 Blind tax: Current TC: 100k TC on joining: 336k