Leetcode is infinitely better than the previous metric used by Big Tech
There’s extensive seminars about the topic given by Google execs on YouTube somewhere. Before, they just took the best students from elite universities. We all know how skewed in the favor of the wealthy the admissions process into elite universities can be. Least with Leetcode, we normal folk have a shot. There’s a limited number of algorithms and variations of those algorithms. It really doesn’t take forever to learn them. Then it’s just a matter of practice. But this is a new grad perspective. I agree that it’s wack to ask Cherry Pickup to an 35-year-old L6 TC (new company- Amazon): 190k YOE: 3 months
Practical Coding and SD interviews > Leetcode > picking someone at random > not hiring anyone and going under >> school GPA
At least the Univ name doesn't matter anymore.
I get dozens of recruiters reaching out to me on linked in every week, so it’s either because I work at IBM or went to a top 10 cs university
@SteroidMan it's prob IBM
No. It's just that they exhausted the candidate pool and so need to hire from a broader category of candidates. The best way to hire is still: 1. Direct referrals (the "real" circle in any domain is way smaller than you think it is) 2. Pedigree (there are a handful of companies people float around) 3. Doing the extra work and trying to filter out good enough candidates from the larger pool. If there were enough people in (1) and (2) they would not need (3).
This is so on point.
Oh I agree. I’m not suggesting that companies are doing it for our benefit. Big Tech is the only high paying industry with relatively low barrier to entry in terms of pedigree, but that’s only because of a lack of enough talent
Leetcode creates competition at the lowest rung of the ladder. The capitalists love it. Management and higher have back doors.
@Palo Alto Networks, mind referring?
Like you said, however, LeetCode can be learned by anyone with enough time to study. What’s never talked about is the number of LeetCode proficient people and math whizzes who lack software development or social skills. It’s simply not a good judge of capability because it can let people who just studied LeetCode in to top jobs who have no clue how to design a class or think about system design. Likewise, a lot of candidates who excel at system design/software developments but simply don’t have the time to do leetcode suffer. Pair programming/walking through an app is a good measure of competency.
System design interview is better. After solving many LC, it’s kind of luck