I have completed close to 1300 leetcode problems. It started with just being simple interview prep. But after each interview rejection/failure it become second nature to spend 30-60 minutes a day on leetcode. Fast forward several months later, I landed a job at google as an L4 SDE with just 3 YOE. For many this would be a success story. But a couple issues I've seen after spending 1 year at google. For one I'm severely underperforming. One of my TL's for the project I'm working on explicitly has told me the expectations are higher for L4. After nearly dropping the ball on one of my former projects, my TL thinks im deadweight/incompetent. My manager is clueless to my situation and gave me an SI rating in march. I've never felt so useless in my career before. Is this normal? How can I improve my SDE skills? I know for a fact that a L3 that joined a couple months after me is performing beyond my level with lesser experience. The anxiety has gotten so bad, its effecting my health and I'm thinking of quitting. **Edit: This blew up like a baloon. Thanks for the advice. I will try to improve. TC: 265k 4YOE
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It took me about a year and a half to really start to perform decently when i joined Amazon from a small company. Working at a large tech company can be drastically different from other places. It might just be taking you a bit longer to adjust. What is wrong with your performance specifically? You should be able to get that information
You are underperforming is generic. Tell us what areas are you underperforming. Is it productively, communication? You need to pin down and set goals to improve. Forget about leetcode. This is a different game and you need to work on it to get better.
I'm performing good for L-1. I'm not performing up to expectations for my level L. My TL mainly hinted lack of ownership and I don't know how to improve on it... Mainly cause I was doing L-1 stuff in my previous SDE jobs.
Building confidence to your manager if a task is given to you then no need to follow up in between or worrying about it if you are able to complete it or not. If you have a problem or dependency with some other team be proactive and follow up without involving manager as much as you can. If there is a problem let you manager know soon than wait until he follows up. Taking bigger task than previous task and apply the rules mentioned. In short not bothering your manager and make him happy.
I know folks who cracked Amazon, Apple interviews got pip'ed and fired. Functional knowledge and Reverse Engineering are required to become a successful Engineer in the real world.
Agreed. But why is it that I was performing fine in some small company and this is only an issue in FAANG? My functional knowledge and reverse engineering was fine for my previous SDE jobs, although I was paid much less.
Did your superior tell you where you are underperforming? If they give you a bad rating they should tell you where your problems are. Try to find a mentor and work through all these problems. It could be someone outside the team too or otherwise leetcode and go to another place. Maybe you are not just fit under this team and why stay on a place that doesn't fit you. If you do find a L3 doing a better job than you, then it's time to leave, unless the L3 is doing better than most people in your team like a genius then that's another story.
I was in a similar place at my previous company. It severely effected my mental health and self confidence. Switched jobs within 6 months and took a pay cut of 100k. My current role seems appropriate for my current skill set and Infact, I’m so comfortable at my current level that I don’t need to work more than 20-30 hours a week to meet expectations. The pay cut was definitely worth it. Mental health improved significantly. I’m sure most of us will retire as multimillionaires anyway, I don’t see a point in making my life a hell and not enjoying my 20s to accumulate wealth sooner. You may see a ton of encouraging advices here suggesting that you will overcome the situation in a few months, but you should decide for yourself if it’s realistic for you to push yourself under immense pressure to perform beyond your abilities
For context, my tc was 350k @2.5 yoe. I definitely did not deserve it.
How old are you and what are your plans to become a millionaire out of 250k TC?
If you really want to be successful, go to your TL and ask for their help improving. Ask them to be your mentor. Ask for specific examples. Then talk to your manager about it. Ask where he/she think you can improve. No matter where you work, get anxious and worrying doesn’t make it better. The most successful engineers on my team are the ones who constantly want to be better.
He thinks I'm deadweight. I asked how to improve and he told me the equivalent of "git gud". One thing I'm noticing is how arrogant some co-workers that work at FAANG can be. He doesn't like the fact that I was hired at an L4 and thinks I should be an L3. The silver lining is that my manager thinks I'm doing fine, so I'm in an akward situation where my co-workers know I just do the bare minimum, and my manager wants to keep me on the team due to headcount concerns. I am underperforming, but I'm still a net positive, thus my manager hasn't taken SCI or PIP action, at least not yet.
your manager would get backfill headcount if you leave on PIP, fyi. maybe he doesn't know it lol
lol, that's expected google l4 tests only lc - you aren't preparing for codeforces or something right ? 🤣
That is rich coming from Amazon which has the most piss-easy interviews of all the faang companies
Yes, amazon has atleast system design round and few leadership principle validations right ? Afaik google has only team matching round at end of all lc rounds.
It seems like you're attributing some of your current struggles to LeetCode, but let's not forget that it was your dedication and effort in solving LeetCode problems that landed you the SDE 4 position at Google. LeetCode is an instrumental tool that helps us to hone our problem-solving skills and prepare for technical interviews. Implying otherwise might discourage aspiring software engineers from leveraging such a useful resource. Challenges you're facing now at work might be related to aspects not covered by LeetCode, like teamwork, communication, or understanding business needs. Remember, transitioning into a new role or level often comes with a learning curve. Hang in there!
Good copy pasta, lul. Those are the basic things for sde1.
Leetcode doesn't mean good engineers at all. It just means either you have prepared or you are smart. It doesn't dictate whether the candidate will do well on the job at all... But at least it can filter out lots of dummies and lazy people if that's what your goal is.
You did 1300 problems in how many months?
Over ~18 months
Doing some quick math, 1300 problems in 540 days is around 2.4 problems per day. How did you manage to achieve that with only 30-60 minutes per day? When I was grinding LC, it was easy to spend over an hour per question, and multiple hours for a hard question.
Study the code base with as much gusto as you studied LC, and practice using the libs your codebase uses just like you practiced LC. LC gets you in the door but sharpening your actual craft keeps you there.
It’s almost impossible to do that at a Google size codebase where even the simplest things inherit from 10 layers of abstraction
What can I say...sometimes you end up on million lines of code spaghetti projects like many of the applications I've seen at JPMC. You can still get through it, start at the top and use your IDE's telescope to quickly navigate through the call hierarchy
What's SI rating?
Its the CME version of GRAD.
What’s CME and GRAD