Interview Prep these days is a huge mountain to climb with invisible peak

Amazon
ql3skl

Go to company page Amazon

ql3skl
Nov 14, 2019 17 Comments

I have been a passive interviewee. I randomly prepare 5-6 interview questions before an interview and depend on presence of mind/luck to go to next stage. I obviously haven't got any offers but did make it to two onsites.

Recently I decided to do this the right way once for all. I was looking at interview prep sites, Leetcode discussions and looking at people's experiences and questions they were asked. It seems interviewing is becoming harder day by day. I'm pretty sure if I prepare for 3-4 months I will be eventually able to clear at least a few interviews. But it seems like a big mountain to climb the peak of which is not visible.

On the other hand, I can invest these 3-4 months learning some new skill and focussing on getting promoted at my job. More TC would be great but what's the point if I'm only good at interviewing but bad at sought after skills?

I had got into Amazon through internship back in 2015 (Leetcode wasn't a thing back then, interviews didn't need preparation).

TC 200k
4 YOE

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TOP 17 Comments
  • Google
    ΗFT

    Go to company page Google

    ΗFT
    The plateau for FAANG will be visible in less than 1,000 problems. I can assure you of it.
    Nov 14, 2019 10
    • New / Eng
      SubZero$

      New Eng

      SubZero$
      Out of a 1000 problems how many should be hard and medium ?
      Nov 14, 2019
    • Google
      ΗFT

      Go to company page Google

      ΗFT
      To reiterate, my point was that before getting to 1k, you will already see diminishing marginal returns. I think too many LC "hard" problems focus on specific algorithms rather than general ad-hoc problem solving, so around 30-40% of those would be decent. Medium difficulty is far more typical (although there will be more pressure during live interviews, when much more is at stake).
      Nov 14, 2019
  • Agreed. With everything. I just don't have any idea of how they could do it better, either. Perhaps it's just that: motivated people will prepare, and they merely want motivated people...
    I would assume lots of people wouldn't be able to clear the programming interview even with preparation, so maybe there's a little bit of that too.
    I do wish they looked for real skills too though... I would love to do something useful with that time to show instead (my own mock app or something: I spent the last 4 months building this instead of practicing data structures I will rarely use, if ever in real life)
    Nov 14, 2019 3
  • I agree. Specially with Facebook, Google it's like you need to do leetcode else there is less chance you will make it through. I have seen people prepare for 4-5 months before they cracked interviews.
    Nov 14, 2019 0
  • Dell
    sweetboy

    Go to company page Dell

    sweetboy
    Its more than a mountain climb i think now
    Nov 14, 2019 0