YOE - 15 as Java, includes 8 as Android. TL;DR - Not a story or experience, seeking genuine advice and take-aways. Hitting a mid-life career-crisis. Just begun LCing, have to jump onto CTCI soon. What I have seen thus far on LC, and some previous interviews with the Big-Brand Tech (FAAANGMU), some practice problems aren't even relevant to my kind of experience and seniority. LC - 238. (Medium) Product of Array except Self, without division in O(n). LC - 5. (Medium) Longest Palindromic Substring. Although, some other problems were very relevant and aligned. I enjoy solving the type of problems and challenges like these. LC - 973. (Medium) K Closest points to Origin. LC - 121. (Easy) Best Time to Buy and Sell Stocks. LC - 150. (Medium) Reverse Polish Notation. (prev Phone Interview, got Onsite invite). LC - 716. (Hard) Max Stack (Onsite, went straight to Double LinkedList and TreeMap, cracked the hell out of it, but lost in a different In-person interview round about Code-Quality and Maintenance). LC - 146. (Hard) LRUCache. LC - 54. (Medium) Spiral Matrix. (prev Phone Interview, got me my current job). 1) Should I be concerned, that I have likes and dislikes when it comes to these challenges, and I am starting to believe based on prev Interview Experiences that I don't really have to expect the kind of LC problems and challenges, that I particularly dislike? Can LC introduce categories based on number of YOE if that is relevant? 2) How important is it to provide a perfectly compiling, space and time optimized run-time solution on a Word-doc or White-board at FAAANGMU for any of these problems, both Phone and In-Person interviews? 3) I regard myself as Intermediate Skill-level in Kotlin, RxJava and Android Jetpack, that I have to master in the meanwhile. 4) Most In-Person Interviews have asked me to write code on a macbook for an incomplete Android Project feature, without internet or API docs or stackoverflow. Mostly an older version of the IDE and build-tools such as Gradle, auto-complete feature turned-off etc. Or a much complicated challenge such as Expandable Collapsible RecyclerView implementation. Why is "Rapid-Prototyping" important for Senior roles? In practicality, once a RecyclerView is done and functional, we don't revisit it again from scratch, at least for another 2 years. How to practice because Uber said they do develop a RecyclerView from scratch once-a-week? 5) How much relaxed, or how much tightly gripped should I be with my preparation and presentation? Are some tiny blunders usually forgiven or is it cut-throat rejection? There is more with Behavioral, System Designs, Leadership etc, that I would love to get some pointers and insights for prep-material.
it's just like the SAT's. Do you really grok SAT to get thru college? No. If you get the perfect score, does it mean you are the most brilliant? No
SATs have a acceptance bar. We put effort to get past that bar, and that is all. How about tech and eng-careers with good TCs? Knowledge of a bar would certainly help setting a path to put adequate effort and time.
Says no trolls, when he is the biggest troll in the room...
What makes you think I am trolling?
Try rooftopslushie.com if you want to get genuine advice.
I don't particularly trust intangible goods and services that come with exchange for digital or paper monies. The quality and value are more often than not disproportionate.
There’s a lot to unpack here, but in a nutshell, interviews aren’t reflective of on-the-job skill set. Keep Leetcoding and doing design problems. As for Android stuff, can’t help you there.
Holy fuck, dude...chill. You are overanalyzing this way too much. Also, tl;dr please.
Exactly, should I be over-analyzing at all to begin with, because I haven't had much success!!!