L4 at Google here. As my cliff is coming, I'd like to jump somewhere and maybe come back later. I want to go to the higher position, either analogue of L5 at other FAANGMULA or L6 at smaller companies. Coding interviews don't bother me as I'm good with solving leetcode and with code quality. However system design is where I lack experience. I would like to build a good understanding and ready to give to it ~6 months, ~1 hour/day. What would be a good way to do it? I know the "Grokking system design". However it is pretty shallow and, I believe, will not allow me to build a good understanding. Thanks in advance for your advices #engineering #systemdesign
Stay in Google. Best advice ever.
Don't leave Google. The grass is not greener. Work on promo. Enjoy the rest and vest.
In our team to have promo you really have to work your ass off. I would say that in old terms to get L5, you need to perform at L5 EE. I see what our L5 are doing. It's much simpler than what is required for promo
You don’t know what you have in terms of code quality. After one week somewhere without readability you’ll wish you were back under Jeff Dean’s wing. Switch teams internally and then promo if your chain is right in promos.
the following might be helpful
it’s literally 20 books or so though. So, the following is the order that I recommend for people that are completely new. (You can probably skip the first step.)
Thanks! I'm wondering though how to not forget by the last book, what was in the first. With Leetcode it's easy, you just practice. With system design though it's hard to practice individually, because by design those systems are big
I'll simply ask - what's the most complex thing you've built or experimented (for poc at work) or collaborated with other team at work ? Half of the problem is req gathering- so yeah, that will help greatly. Start with ddia book, read eng blogs regularly, understand and discuss with others. You will grow over time.
Unfortunately it's nothing special, no high-load, or such stuff. Before Google it was usual enterprise development. At Google I'm FE, so also not much of a complicated work
Reading engg blogs are hard and vague. They are mostly PR right?
Good collection of White Papers: https://interviewready.io/blog/white-papers-worth-reading-for-software-engineers
Should we read white papers. Will they be useful in the job once inside ??
Depending on the team you are applying for.
Can't hurt. I learn something every time I read one.
L4 in a megacorp with no system design experience wants to be an L6 at a small company. Lol.
try intervu.co
buy an ad
Try to actually practice writing down your system design solutions on codemia.io
funny newgrad who is trying to optimize income as it was in 2020, but they have no idea about the current market
13 years as an SWE, so not a newgrad :)
L4 after 13 years…