Why I fail candidates as a Google interviewer
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- Опубліковано 1 лип 2024
- After joining Google in 2022, I got trained to interview candidates. I’ve had a chance to meet candidates and saw how much they struggled. I’m ready to share some of their common mistakes (that I’m legally allowed to share).
Not knowing their data structures is NOT the #1 reason why I fail candidates.
Before we dig in, let’s go through what the interview process looks like today.
#coding #engineering #programming #google #softwareengineer #softwardevelopment #systemdesign #python #java #engineer #developer #programmer #codinginterview #code #dayinthelife - Наука та технологія
![Interview with Product Manager in 2024 [Corporate]](/img/n.gif)
Woah, I didn't know Google gives you a mock interview! Game changer
Now I want a mock Google interview just to say I tried it. Google isn't a dream job anymore either.
Faang is dying
No worries if you are rejected. About a 1/3 of Googlers will pass this interview.
After working for a few years, you'll forget how to quickly solve some of these silly questions, because in real work is a completely different skill.
If you get to onsites and they assume you can code by that point because of the previous leetcode interviews, and the onsites are about communication and collaboration, why are there more leetcode questions? Why not discussing past work, sharing a personal project and talking about it, walking through some code together with the interviewer and seeing how well the candidate can digest and explain what is going on, discussing open source development, etc. This is precisely a school test, the whole way through. Pretending that it isn't is unfair and just lying. I don't mean to attack you. But everybody, including these companies, know that these many leetcode interviews don't determine someone's competency and certainly aren't an indicator for if they will fit in at the company. It's just an easy shortcut. Communication is a weak point because in order to prepare *just* for the interviews, you have to go through 3-6+ months of studying leetcode. You can't communicate with the interviewer during the test, they aren't allowed to talk much other than vague hints here and there. It's weird to have to juggle thinking about solving the problem and trying to speak every 5 seconds because that's not how thinking works. It's just a weird industry practice and we all know it's a broken system. Everybody knows this, but as an industry we keep pretending. Sorry for the rant, I'm sure you and all of us can understand how insanely frustrating it is. Again, I am not attacking you specifically, just frustrated at the system in general. Needed to vent.
Hey it's absolutely frustrating. I mean as long as someone can code that's all the should really matter.
Here's some more thoughts just trying to help
From the 5 onsite rounds, there's usually 3 that are coding, 1 behavioral, and 1 system design depending on the level.
The behavioral is where people get to talk about past projects and how people handle work/people problems. This is where companies figure out what level someone should be at. (Did they lead a team or did they get led?)
The onsite coding rounds do include tons of Leetcode. It's pretty unfair and I don't like it either but I have to admit that's just how it is. I wanted to make this video to mention that even when people solved the question it was just the communication holding them back.
Something a friend of mine helped reframe Leetcode to be healthy for me was that once you feel comfortable doing most questions, it's a passport to any other tech company because the format is almost always the same.
Wishing you best of luck it's been hard for everyone lately
@@realalexnguyen Thank you. I agree, it's one of those things that's just how it is unfortunately.
Because they don’t care about all that stuff. They only care if you can get through the filter or not, no matter how ridiculous the filter is and no matter how good you are actually.
Womp womp
@@gauravaws20 that sounds a lot like hazing
Thanks Alex, appreciate the video!
PS love the droid
Yeah they just know databases, replication, ci/cd, Kubernetes, docker, webpack, vite, bloom, tailwind, html, htmx, css, scss, postcss, GCP, AWS, Azure but they can't revet damn linked list!
Oh the horror! I've needed to use all the above technologies in my job at one point or another in some way or another. You know what I've never needed to do so far nor been asked to do? Reverse a linked list. However, if I'm ever asked to do so, I know where to find authoritative information and practical guides on the matter thanks to a little skill called research.
Very Insightful, shall keep these points in mind!
thanks a lot for sharing
thanks for the great advice 💌
Why do most start up’s not give a f about leetcode and more interested in what you can do or past projects. Big contrast from FANG companies.
Startups need creative ppl who r better at actually getting things done . Startup needs things done, FAANG needs perfection
@@Dreambreakersmakes sense also good that they showed the FANG companies mostly use leetcode as a way to filter out people reduce number of applicants and not really to determine how good one is.
@@weiSane Nope, he/she was literally speaking from imagination and big tech obsession, FAANG got tons of candidates, so they can afford to use leetcode as an aggressive filter to get rid of tons of people regardless they are good and bad. As long as the bias rate is less than 20%, then it's good. Their strong infra and budgets can tolerate those bias.
Source: lots of ppl I know got into faang, their skill is wide ranged, even ppl who only know code less than half a year (but with good degree or possibly STEM related experience). and the success rate has nothing to do with personal skill, it's all about leetcode + luck. During the hiring boom, even if you semi-fail the leetcode, you still got into the company by luck.
Many also speak broken English, at least in US, it's a instant reject for small startups, startups can't afford those communication cost regardless personal skill due to budget limit.
Big techs internally have a lot of strong systems that aren't open-sourced or shared. Built by many strong engineers in the past. Many new engineers even the veterans didn't have a complete picture what they are doing as a whole. Thing is so complex or due to company policy, they can't share or are incompetent to share. Many were just only 2 years in a big system and too early to know anything about the tech. Guess what they can share? leetcode that the resource is everywhere.
As a result, you will see tons of ex-faang or current faang people only sell leetcode course + interview course. Are they better than you, it's unknown, they are just using their company brand to exploit you.
mock interviews are great. the feedback is the best part. my friend is high up in a tech company and said they can't give feedback in a regular interview because of a possible lawsuit. But that doesn't happen in a mock interview.
Thanks for the information.
Push the nodes of a linked list onto a stack and then pop them off, rebuilding the linked list in reverse. I'm guessing you could also use recursion.
very helpful explanations👍
Nice insights Thanks buddy
You are on the top our field. So you are in the best position to answer my question... What is best roadmap to get a good foreign internship by 2 nd years I mean skillwise
so only 1-2 real life questions + a bunch of google-able stuff. man I love tech companies
Im googlingACK
Hahah love the text message from mom 😂
phone case with no phone in it
Insightful
(Before the loop, setup the initial location of the pointers and set prev.next to null or whatever the "end" code you're using)
Loop start
curr&.next = PREV*
Prev* = curr*
curr* = next*
If(next&.next === null) {
return next* // done and here is the new beginning
}
next* = next&.next
Back to loop start
I believe that shpuld reverse the linked list
I'm wondering if Chrome developer candidates could ever explain their code, or maybe they only review it for running time but never for memory use.
9 step interview just to get free salads.
what a joke
There is this one girl in my batch ...she doesn't even know the basics ..not even to reverse the string..I dont' know on what basis google shortlisted she doesn't have good profile nor projects ...how did they even select her for the internship ..its frustrating to see non deserving people getting selected
nice books you got there
Oh yo I seen you on linkedin lol. I saw on your moma that you left this year. Was a it layoff by any chance? Why didn't you just find another team?
I'll make a video on it sometime
Idk what candidates you are interviewing, I have never received any Interview call despite applying a dozen times. I have 2.5 yo experience out of college Still gets rejected 🤔
The real question I would have is why the fuck would you want to work for Google?
Who gives shit about linkedlist? The last time I wrote program with it was during college time, it if I need it again I’ll look it up, I don’t need to be able to reverse it off top of my head. Interviews at those companies are idiotic
But i can reverse linked List
Plz teach me
@@realalexnguyen 😂Sure
I question the value of the process. First, most developers are introverts and this kind of “code on demand” filters out genuinely good devs who vapor lock. Second, the leet code approach is not even remotely real. Actual daily development tasks are far more mundane and only occasionally do you even get to the detail level required by high-pressure leet-code puzzles. The reality is the interview process is gate keeping elitism. I could easily construct interviews that FAANG devs couldn’t pass if wanted to be an ass. And when everyone wants to work for you, you can pretend that your process is great.
When I interview candidates, I’m looking for technical understanding and “comfort”. An experienced dev won’t have difficulty conversing about architecture, data structures, language quirks, tools, libraries, etc. None of that requires writing code that you would only ever write once and you’d take an hour or two to compose.
Yep. It is to become part of a club.
Tbf, my "tech interview" was exactly knowledge questions about ML and got most of them right and tadá.
Now that I'm part of the club, the mundayne shit is much more appealing that the dreaded code problems of such interviews.
Ura-beach.
Did not watch but you need a double linked list.
... and who cares... Name one time (in an actual job) where you reversed a linked list. It is irrelevent.
Sir how much do you earn as a software engineer now? Plz reply. Thanks a lot.
Is money important? If you love programming and enjoy working with specific technologies, then it's good for you in the long run. If not, it can be stressful and affect your mental well-being. You might end up like many engineers who work in different branches despite being programmers or engineers, which is referred to as a negative outcome in software development or engineering.
@@pr1meKun of course money is important, especially knowing how much others make. Its important for gauging whether or not you're being compensated fairly and gives you more leverage during a salary negotiation. Its one thing to find a job you love, but its another thing to make sure you're compensated fairly. While you love doing it, you're also generating value for your employer, and you should be compensated thusly
@@pr1meKun uh oh re tard alert
And the Googlers who did not fail write an AI system generated responses such as you can glue pizza or eat rocks.
Why are googlers and ex googlers suddenly turning to youtube? are you not getting paid enough at google anymore?
Just admit it. Faang system is broken and kinda idiotic. There's literally no hype for Faang. If some junior comes to me and asks about how to join faang, I'll clearly suggest them not to and go for Unicorns or Startups. Just a shitty companies these are
ll.Reverse()
Now, quit playing games and go do some actual engineering. We've got oodles of neckbeards that can reverse a linked list by hand in sub-constant time no less, but can't actually design useable software.
Its bananas. The industry is optimizing _way_ too far into the wrong attributes.
Because reversing a linked list, or other ‘leet-code’ questions are so important, right? Trash.
Who cares
Bruh rev a linked list is cakewalk. If your interviewing for Google i expect complex questions in DP or something. Jeez can't believe their that dumb
all that coding wont impress them unless you can work well with a team.
Why do most start up’s not give a f about leetcode and more interested in what you can do or past projects. Big contrast from FANG companies.
Because most startups aren't building ridiculously complex projects, where just building UIs and REST endpoints that have nothing to do with algorithms. Such algorithms are mostly business processes that would process data in a specific way; in Google's case, their algorithms are for organizing and processing search results. Even then, I think FAANG companies are a joke, it's all talk and no substance.