What on earth is happening exactly in Indian tech scene? It's getting to the point of purest luck. 1. Machine Coding Round - I read everywhere that I don't need to focus on the "algorithms" in MC round and that you can discuss optimizations in discussion. So, I used a simple brute force approach to find taxi in cab booking. Negative feedback - I didn't write optimized code Previously, I interviewed at Flipkart and in MC feedback, they literally mocked me - there's a service he used, "repositories" he calls it - this was basically my DB layer. Earned a rejection so I removed it this time. Now earned opposite neg feedback. Negative feedback - Didn't abstract away DB layer (wtf?). 2. PS/DS Round (1 LC Hard / 2 LC Meds) - a. https://leetcode.com/problems/maximum-number-of-events-that-can-be-attended-ii/ b. Topological sorting based question. c. https://leetcode.com/problems/gas-station/ Negative Feedback - Couldn't run code for all test cases (this for a.) For c, I received- he had to debug the code for a while (are we expecting first run all pass now?) 3. Design Round - Design a callback system (pretty easy). It took me 10 minutes and 4 examples to have him understand the simple question that should we expect and store Response data from the target callback hit? Guy for the 10 minutes kept repeating you get 200 response code or 400 response code; unable to understand I was talking about response body not headers. Ultimately, said no body and I could proceed. Negative Feedback - I could not understand the question properly (wait, what?) but was able to build the system afterwards (obviously) 4. Hiring Manager - I was supposed to build a nested comment system on a FB post on FB scale. On scale, I was concerned with the performance of updates at peak activity, he was concerned with lifetime performance of updates. A 5-7 minute discussion ensued. Negative Feedback - I cannot handle disagreements properly (we had disagreements?) and I am not a Java engineer, so chuck it (didn't you see my CV beforehand? lol) Result- Got chucked. Improvements - Identifying tradeoffs while defining the tech designs. - Eyeing on optimized solutions for better runtime & space efficiency. - Focusing on test driven development (this did not even come up in any discussion, the word "test" is not mentioned in the detailed readout the recruiter gave me, I asked him where did this feedback come from since I don't even remember discussing testing anywhere?). I have earned several rejections - I have earned diametrically opposite reasons in MC (flipkart vs PhonePe). I have earned diametrically opposite reasons in HLD (flipkart vs Zendrive). Interviewing Flipkart was probably the worst mistake. Everytime I've tried to implement there suggestions, I have gotten a rejection. I have gotten rejected for taking 10 minutes to strip down requirements from a full HLD to just the "core" system (correctness of final solution didn't matter). I have gotten rejected at 6th freaking round for not giving enough "details" in behavioral stories. Point is - what the hell is happening? Am I that incompetent or is their near-infinite supply of coders in India now? YOE-6.5 TC: 55L #tech Edit: There was this stupid amazon kid that made a spicy comment exemplifying what's wrong with indian tech. He wrote some inane stuff showing he barely read the post. Looks like he deleted it. Reminded me of boomer mentality.
After the leetcode revolution and codecamp , there are unlimited supply of people. Supply >>> demand. Better do masters and go outside or try in Europe region
30 is nothing btw. Even tech leads/staff / principal engineerd do ms.
Do you come across as arrogant and dominate in the interviews? .
Good question. Truth is i don't know and I'd be naturally biased towards saying no. I intentionally use lot of punctuations to try and come across pusillanimous and not threaten their fragile ego. Also, I have recently cleared rounds with leadership who interview ONLY for cultural fitment. With one IIT-B guy in singaporean start-up, I was discussing metal genres for 30 minutes. Anyway, even if it was yes, it'd address only one point, not the whole rant. Funnily enough, the big name companies I try, the interviewers actually seem pretty rude/patronizing to me whereas small/random companies where i barely show interest clear all rounds. And pay is same so you can't say these small companies are of lower standards.
Trust me, coming across as arrogant and dominating in tech interviews is an automatic no for many interviewers. You wouldn't know how many companies I missed out on because of this, before I finally realised it. Suggest you try and be more docile in the interviews.
With that YoE, I think you should start having niche specialisations being an IC. Examples are big data, distributed systems, AI/ML, etc. Being a "coder" is not enough since companies can hire freshers or low yoe people who can write crud, abstracting db layer and stuff and they will do it for less TC. The other path is of course, convert to manager. Do politics and score big.
What's best route to take specialization? Doing ms in us/eu/au?
MS is not required. Lot of opportunities in India only. Also after you have worked for a significant time in India on the field, you can get calls from EU easily. US is trickier and only some companies allow you for an internal transfer. Although MS is another way to do it, it's not economical.
Atleast you get to know the feedback
Omg ! do you even get feedback? It has been ages since I last got a feedback.
I have been facing the same OP. Lot of rejections. Each and every interviewer has different expectations. One way to crack the interview is, not to ignore where the interviewer is driving you, follow that path interviewer want you to walk.
I have similar experience with PhonePe interview. Most of the folks who interviewed me had barely 1-2 years of experience. And they ask 3 questions in coding round. Fuck that
Had a similar experience with Flipkart, won't even bother giving the interviews again. Imo, good interviewers are a proxy to good and smart people. My interviews at zeta and media net were awesome- even though I was rejected at media net but loved the interview process and experience.
Lmao DM for Microsoft with job Ids it has a reasonable interview standard
Microsoft is no different. As an interviewee one needs to do what interviewer expects. You deviate you are rejected. There are some interviewer who are open to accept different opinions.
Hmm maybe , I found my interviewer to be good so it might be an exception
Even I'm thinking that there's probably an infinite supply of good coders/ people with good luck