On-site interview - Backend Engineer - System Design?
Intro: Graduated from school in December 2018 >> started working at a stealth startup in the Bay Area (Risk Analytics and Backend) as a SWE to go through a rapid learning phase >> currently recruiting to join a more mature and growing company/FAANGULTAD Current TC: 93k YOE: 0.5, lol Question: Went on an on-site (for L1 SWE) very recently and was only tested on database design there - struggled with arriving at the efficient design answer (denormalized relation), but definitely was able to showcase my knowledge of problem decomp/data object modeling/ERD/database trade offs. There was a previous phone interview that lasted 1.5 hours with challenging algo/OOP/language-specific questions that I did well on. Also, was able to strike good technical conversations (filled with brain teasers, probability questions, and more conversations on the company’s vision/dev process etc.) with VP and other Engineers. Only negative point was my sub-par performance in the design round. What do you think my chances are for getting an offer?
Startups usually have some rockstar engineers. I wouldn’t worry about TC right now. You can really learn a lot more valuable skills at a startup than a large company. I haven’t learn much of anything at Amazon the last year except how to BS and politic your way to the top. Everything of value I’ve learned was from a startup with less than 100 engineers.
I thought you’re supposed to learn how to scale things on a planet scale at Amazon... no?
Ok...so what do y’all think would be my possibility for getting an offer at this company? We have digressed lol
Anything is possible. Just continue leetcoding and grokking system design
How do you survive with 93k in the bay area?
Lol it’s my first job + I’m living with family - it works for now, but I’m aware I have to scale up/am worth more in the market