What are Google's expectations?
I'm going for yet another attempt to Google's onsite. Last time I was very very close. I've solved about 350 LC from all levels, most of which I solved myself. Yet something that stands out is the difference in difficulty between Google's questions and the rest. Some of the hardest "redest" questions come from Google. These are questions which I'd expect to see at a top coder competition (high div), and which cater to people who come with competitive programming background. I consider myself a smart person, and a very good software engineer, yet when I see these questions I feel lost and my self confidence decreases. My previous experiences at Google were not as bad, and I felt that the questions were tough but not crazy (as these LC hard problems). Is Google only looking for these "competitive programmers" these days? Is it even worth going to interview when I know that no matter how much I practice, there are certain questions that I wont be able to answer in 45 - 60 minutes? Please no trolls. Thank you.
Honestly it's a lot luck based. Some people ask really easy problems. Me, not so much.
What are you trying to achieve by it?
@google Could you share a sample question (which has probably leaked on leetcode) And do you actually look for optimized solution or "approach"?
I ask fairly difficult questions at FB. I am looking for signals. Easy questions doesn't give me good signals.
There are difficult problems (LFU cache) and there are Google hard (some minmax DP problrm that requires a complex state). Which one is yours?
Interesting that you came to the exact opposite conclusion of the guys at triplebyte, who have conducted over 1000 interviews. They found easier questions gave a stronger signal, in terms of how quickly the candidate was able to solve it.
Make sure you know your shit and leave the rest to the luck. I mean that’s probably the truth.
Problem isn't in the question but in fact that there is so many cunnts that solved all questions on leetcode and will implement it faster that some who does not do leetcode.
Give me super tough problem and lots of time and I will solve it while leetmonkeys wont.
Problem is the time. 45 min basically means if you don't figure out the key insight in the first 10 min you're fked. You really just have 10 min. The rest goes in implementation and discussion.
I found the questions that I was asked in my recent G interview all pretty straightforward, almost shockingly so. I’m not complaining—but Leetcode definitely led me to overestimate the difficulty of the types of questions I would face. I’m sure luck played a hefty role (and no, I didn’t get questions I’d seen before), but cracking the G interview at L4 was a lot easier than I’d expected.
Ditto; same here. Hadn't seen any of the questions I was asked. But they didn't seem particularly hard. And after solving them - focus was on scaling the solution
Fair interview happens in fairytales
Hello friend, I feel like you might be targeting the wrong thing. I feel that your coding skills should be adequate. Try to work on the soft skills part of the interview, which is equally important. Get some help and advice from real people out there.
When was the last time you took a look at LC? Or interviewed at Google? I ask because based on your answer it seems that you are not aware of what is going on.
Your response doesn’t tell me anything concrete. Suffice it to say that I have had a google offer before.
@^ This is what a fair interview should be like. I cannot keep doing leetcode hard problems whole time. I have to learn new things as well but sadly I am only stuck with leetcode right now.
I regularly interview candidates and tend to ask open-ended questions. I couldn't care less about your ability to solve some dumb Leetcode puzzle but here's the thing: Candidates will usually perform worse when asked to answer those questions. Everyone wants them until they realize they aren't as smart as they think and they fail them even harder than the usual Leetcode questions.