Interviewed at G/FB both 1 year ago and was no-offered. My expertise is in compilers and one of the compiler interview sessions "I thought" I aced I was given negative feedback by interviewer at G, to my surprise. This interviewer was old at 60+ yrs age, came into interview confused looking, seemed tired and jaded (when asked how he likes his work, his reply was was like "it becomes a chore"). I obviously knew the question well and thought did well in his session and showed positive excitement, so clearly he either held some resentment or took some unfounded ego-issue during it, unbeknownst to me. That feedback torpedoed me according to recruiter, who didn't share much else. Already LC questions done 400+, so not sure how to go about prepping the second go, because it seems like going from old-fashioned companies like Intel/Synopsys, there is culture gap with the nature of way these G/FB type companies operate in interviews. It seems their interviewers are trying to find reasons to keep people out (which makes sense as they get so many applicants). on the other hand intellectually it feels like an exercise in "intuiting" the direction (esp for sys-design ones) the passive interviewer is imagining in his head and not communicating, not truly an exercise in smartness or skill. i get part of it's people skills, but part of it's bs too as the interviewers that are most passive are also poor ones in people-skills not suitable to judging others. but i get that's what this game is for good or bad. As this is Blind there may always be some trolls, but still, serious answers only, no trolling please. My question is: - those who went from companies like intel/synopsys/qualcomm to G/FB, how did you prep? - how many tries/takes it took you? did you sometimes do all the sessions fine and still didn't get the offer?
A single failed session can't stop you from passing HC, now a strong no hire... that would do it. I would recommend doing some paid mock interviews. What you consider a strong session could actually be neutral or bad. You need to get better signal on your performance. 3-6 Months is normal. You need to be able to smash out LC mediums in 20 minutes.
OP there's a huge amount of luck involved in the interview process. Of course you can mitigate how much of a role just random dumb luck can play in your interviews by preparing well . But you cannot completely eliminate it. You can arrive at the solution to the problem sitting in your car at the company parking lot after the interview. You could run into a dick head interviewer like you did. I went form Intel to FAANG in the first try and my prep looked just like yours. Leetcode. I crushed a couple of coding rounds because my brain pattern matched the problems immediately. Crushed another because it was a variation of a known problem. I completely bombed one round because it was a super unique problem. But it turns out the interviewer did not expect a solution and genuinely wanted to judge my approach. All my interviewers were awesome and WANTED me to succeed. They asked me questions to tease answers out of me so they could give me more "points". One of my interviewers was a last minute replacement for the scheduled one. So sometimes it's just down to dumb fucking luck.
If you're good, it's their loss too. They justify it saying that, with so many applicants, they could afford to lose you, but I have also heard from very senior friends that they are tired of interviewing candidates who don't make the cut. Agree with Intel's comment above too.
The interview process I think is solid for fresh grads wanting to do web system shit or whatever, but their interview process makes zero sense for experienced compiler people (or anyone experienced in a narrow field). It is their loss, you're right! FAANG interviews are not worth the TC, especially since the TC is coming down in FAANG and going up in other non-FAANG companies.
First, its pure luck if you don't hit by anti loop. Especially for G. I haven't yet made it to any FAANGs but my experience has varied a lot: Facebook: My bad in approaching a problem incorrectly. But if you choose the specific team you want to interview you may be in luck. Not much antiloop chance here. Amazon: Ranges from my bad to seemingly new clueless interviewer to getting into offer state. I believe it was all just defined by the day, not my expertise/talent. G: Just bloody solve the question. No matter what your background. A fish is judged by its capability to climb the tree in G interviews.
what's your yoe? how long at intel? you're speaking from a survivor bias and once done it's always looked through the rose-tinted glasses. like i've already said in op about the length of the experience and work in that area. Not that I thought this thread would reveal anything new, it's Blind lots of judgmental posters here.
What do you do in compilers? E.g. have you coded SSA or other optimizations, built one from scratch? Lots of people say compiles bc it's such a generic term applied broadly but real compiler theory and understanding very few have. a lot of these compiler people barely know the dragon book. If one really thinks it's mainly about smartness, then they're probably not smart.
OP try going to Apple or Nvidia first.
FAANG interviews are complete nonsense, don't worry about it, it's just luck. He was probably some old school bitter jerk, how obscure was the stuff he asked you?
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Confirmation bias I guess?^ If it helps I know people from Amazon who get rejected at g/fb all the time 🙂