Interview experiences at non FAANG companies?
With FAANG companies, I am aware that getting very good at LeetCode and Hacker Rank type problems as well as system design problems is the way to go. If I were to try for non FAANG, but still large, stable companies such as Snap, Atlassian, SalesForce, Stripe, Box, etc., would one recommend still crunching LeetCode problems or is there a better path to take? If they all require thorough LeetCode type knowledge, why would I choose these companies over FAANG?
Bar is sky high these days. Everyone and their cousin is leetcoding. There’s a new disturbing trend of being able to plan, write, compile, test and run LC hards in 45 minute interviews for all edge cases. Prep hard, accept that you’ll get rejections at some point and detach your sense of self worth from from the process. If you don’t, it’s a one way ticket to burnoutville, especially if you start racking up a few rejections. Only way to escape the LC arms (and rat) race is to actively work on your career and get to high level IC / Manager track for different interview structures. Or of course get out of the west coast tech bubble. My experience is that interviews at top unicorns / late stage startups are not to be taken lightly.
Everyone wants to hire the best, 10x engineers who are rockstar at LC, system design and behavioral questions.