To the successful leetcode strugglers
For those who made it to FAANG or a FAANG tier companies and really, i mean really struggled with leetcode type questions— what was your plan of action to get better? The better you break it down to me the better because it’s just something i struggle with and Id love to hear from others who really struggled with it as well but found a plan of action/study that worked for them. Also please share your experience when you found out you got that position— can’t wait to be able to say the same :)
Natural talent, that's what most of the people in these companies have. Not saying you can't make it. But statistically it's harder to learn as you age and get older and your life has more responsibilities. While there are a decent number of LC grinders in these companies, most of the people Ive worked with or known in these companies are just naturally very smart, and naturally have an easy time focusing and being productive with their time.
Lol Amazon
It’s not rocket science! Hard work will get you there. Keep grindin OP
I agree with Amazon. It is not being elitist. If everybody could be good in academics, why do we have dropouts? Or people graduating with 2.0 gpa? Focus, grit, above average iq is all necessary ingredients
Because there are a bunch of people that put in zero effort.. effort is what is important
I also know a few people that are super smart and had terrible grades because they didn’t give a fuck
Just grind it out, did over 400 by the time my interviews were finished
What was the easy/medium/hard split?
I’m at Amazon which isn’t exactly the highest tier but this is what helped me You need to come to the realization that the only way you’re ever going to get better at this shit is by practicing a LOT LC interviews are not going away and you have two options 1) grit your teeth and grind through it 2) throw your hands in the air and avoid LC and forego millions in compensation over your lifetime 99% of people aren’t naturally good at this shit. Everyone has to practice, you may just have to practice a little harder
made me run through a wall, that’s the kind of motivation and spirit i needed— thank you! 😤
3) There's some other companies out there that don't do LC, but they're not easy either: https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards Good ones on that list include Square, Stripe, Airtable, PagerDuty, Pivotal, OneSignal, Outlook. Facebook listed for some reason.
Research the company. FB mostly use LC tagged questions, Google makes you understand the concepts and DP really well, Apple may not even ask LC, Amazon only requires you to exist etc.
What does Apple ask if it isn’t LC? Conceptual stuff? Also have you heard anything about MSFT?
Any mix of LC, system design, trivia, and behavioral questions. It’s team dependent. Microsoft keeps ghosting me lol but I hear it’s pretty team dependent with more focus on LC
Keep practicing !
You need to keep pulling the arm of the slot machine so to speak. And practice in the meanwhile.
If you work hard/smart , luck will follow
all problems have a pattern, there are 20 patterns at most. learn the patterns and learn how to identify the pattern and you'll be able to solve most problems. understand the data structure fundamentals. do a ton of practice. read Building data intensive applications. do not give up. unless you grind for a year and still fail, at that point maybe it's time to lower your goals
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