I see some companies (especially famous ones) are still obsessed over these leetcode type questions in interview rounds even for experienced folks, it’s frustrating.

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Is grinding leetcode still necessary?

Software Engineer

Is grinding leetcode still necessary?- Grapevine

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Is grinding leetcode still necessary ?

I could solve general problems from arrays, trees, sorting and all. I would fail miserably when the interview goes in the direction of DP problems. After a point I realised it actually doesn’t matter, you will find enough places where you are valued for your skills. 

Been a person who was on the both sides of the table, more on the side taking interviews. I realised one thing how many of us end up writing those fancy TSP code or backtracking etc day in day out. Almost most of the code we write is in some form a version of CRUD and its a reality.
Someone getting hired in google is not going to be assigned to improve their search algorithm. I know a lot of ppl who joined and left google because they were not getting to work on meaningful stuff. 

I ask real life programming stuff and I try to judge based on that, I want to see given a real scenario how the candidate thinks rather then knowing how good the person is in solving some DP problem.

Some ppl can write real good code without realising that they are actually using the best practices and design patterns and not remembering the patterns name, it sometimes just comes naturally

I suck at DSA, realized its okay.

I'm a 4th year student from a pvt college. Did 3 internships, one in a decacorn, one in a unicorn. Have an offer from Amazon for SDE 1 when i graduate, and one from the company I'm working at right now. Reached so far only with development skills, projects, hackathon wins and OSS contributions.

My leetcoding and competitive coding skills are downright garbage. I have absolutely no motivation to become a leetcode monkey and get more offers, but given the current market scenario, seems hard to get good offers without mugging up  800 leetcode questions.

Folks in software engineering who made it with leetcode, how did you do it, and what did you do to kill that builder urge and mug up leetcode. I can't do this anymore.

No motivation to do Leetcode

Hello awesome Devs!!

How do you keep up the motivation to grind leetcode after a regular job? For example, I am a software developer with 1 YOE and I find it boring to continue with those algorithm problems after a certain threshold. 

But anyway, I feel the hiring process is still the same for most and there would at least 2 DSA rounds for most of the product based companies.

How do you keep up the motivation for this?

Motivation for leetcode

After what stage (designation or YoE), do you typically start to find that the interviews you give no longer place much relevance on Leetcode problem solving?
Surely it stops at some point, but where?

When does Leetcode no longer matter for interviews?

Given the case that a fresher has to fix bugs when he joins a company would he/she be recruited based on the basis of algorithms and DS and no practical applications and creative thinking ? 

For startups I very well know that they prefer skillset over DSA and CP, but why aren't MNCs starting to slowly adopt the same as well

Should SDE be solely based on DSA ?

Generalist

Before you raise your pitchforks let me preface by saying that I am glad LC exists which has allowed me to basically double my comp in a very small time and I have seen many people able to make jumps into high paying jobs and bettering their lives.

Having said that, I sometimes feel I am working with absolute buffoons who need to be spoon fed at every single step to get any meaningful progress. These people are excellent when tasks are well groomed and will complete them efficiently. 

Now put them in an ambiguous situation that will need talking to product and/or customers and no progress will be made for weeks. Every single solution would be hacked together quickly without giving it some thought as to what the longer term implications might be. Asking them to work on projects that need coordination with multiple teams means risking deadlines and escalations.

I would expect a fresher with no experience to struggle with the above but not seasoned devs with 7-8 years under their belt and at this point I have seen too many of them. There's definitely a place for leetcode but I think practical questions is a better vetting tool.

/rant

Leetcode style hiring has lowered hiring bar across the industry

I am not sure but how every influencers have faced everything in their life.
From being yelled by professors in front of whole class to going on foreign trip for first time after they became an influencer.

And all influencers are from tier-3 college, and everyone think going to college is waste and everyone needs to do remote jobs and leetcode.

PS: also saw an influencers who wrote he traveled by train for first time in life in 2022 (his 4th year of college)

Influencers life experience

Data engineer

I (27, Mumbai, India) switched from non-tech background ( commerce) 2 years ago , and started with learning  frontend development and grinded very hard despite all odds. And i recently joined (March to be precise) as a React JS web developer. We are a team of all freshers except for the TL of course. Before getting the job,  I only focused on the web development part and never learned DSA except for solving codewars sometimes. Now, in my non office hours, I try learning DSA and solving codewars/neetcode problems which takes all that time and I am also reading a book on javascript. But sometimes I get into a dilemma, like it happened today, where I wonder if I am correct to learn DSA and improve logic building and dive deep into javascript, OR should I instead invest my non office hours in diving deep into React JS and also improving my CSS skills (where I suck a lil). I really get into this dillema somedays and end up getting anxious. Please tell me what you think. It would be very helpful, and I would be grateful.  Thank you.

Am I doing the right thing? What should I more focus on?

👋 Hey everyone! I'm a mobile developer with 2.5 years of experience in React Native and Flutter. I'm thinking about making a change and getting back into DSA (Data Structures and Algorithms). Any tips on where to start? Also, how long might it take to get interview-ready if I dedicate 1-2 hours daily and 4-6 hours on weekends? I've been applying for jobs but haven't heard back, any advice? Feeling a bit stuck in my current role and looking for a fresh start. Appreciate your thoughts! 🔄📱 #CareerChange #HelpNeeded

Seeking Career Change! 🔄📱

I once asked an interviewer if I could give him a question to solve and he panicked 🙂

Reality of DSA based interviews

Senior Software Engineer

Need help on the kind of skillset needed
What all do i need to learn/ upskill
List the technical and functional/ non technical skills
How to prep for interviews
How to aim for the mega companies like Amazon/ google etc.. 

( i do have significant yrs of exp but it’s just a number/ years getting added but not enough experience… doing the same stuff for years.. )

Can anyone tell me what are the skillsets needed to aim for 60 lpa package

Frontend Engineer

Why AMA?-
New to GV. I see potential here; trying to gauge audience and perhaps I can talk about a thing or two; can definitely learn from ya’al otherwise.

Primer Qs (from some successful AMAs outside of GV)-
What tech has better future?
Is Ai going to kill our jobs?
How to increase Tc 5x, 10x, 20x+?
Startups vs big corps?

Background, Tc stuff-
Decade+ yoe
Started with <10Lpa. Crossed >10Lpm.
Life is fun and no amount of money is enough.
I’ve seen it firsthand that the investments and luxuries grow at far bigger rate than your comp, Can’t complain though.

A Staff engineer :: AMA

Software Developer

Recruiter reached out to me and have the screening round coming up. I read that the interview process at Stripe is unique and there are rounds for fixing bugs, doing integration, etc. Can anyone shed some more light on this and how to prep?

Need info on Stripe's interview process

Everyone needs a working code in the first attempt and that two proper and optimised. 

But DSA round I believe comes with luck based factor. You need to be lucky enough to get a question which you have done or seen before. 

Or have yourself updated with each structure and almost every type of problem. 

Fucked up and interview today.

Why is there nothing beyond DSA?

"Interviews are hard in that they have absolutely nothing to do with your day-to-day job. If I were to go through the interviews again right now I'd make a massive fool of myself. 

I'd say it's basically common knowledge that prior to making any hops, you've got to take at least a month or two to grind leetcode problems so that you're back in that head space where you can solve pointless problems with high efficiency.

Interviews are also hard because, if you end up with the personality type which views interviews as a chance to show how much more clever they are than everyone, then you've already failed. Their ego is tied to their "high bar" and impossible question set, and you're just fodder for them to show off that "high personal bar" during the de-brief."

A lot of FAANG engineers seem to report that the interview was the hardest thing... | Hacker News

A lot of FAANG engineers report that the interview was the hardest thing that they've done, harder than anything they do as part of their actual job

Growth Manager

Hey guys a master's student here . So it's finally that time of year placements have started and the first companies to arrive are the hardware companies like micron , TA etc 

So here's the question is it ok to start your career in these companies considering they are not SDE profiles ? I am aware that the highly specialised roles that these companies offer will end up becoming dead end in longer run . They are offering position only for the masters students 

How difficult would it be to transition into different core cs  companies? 

My coding skills are not that great , still grinding out leetcode ? 

Should I just end up joining these hardware companies or wait and try to crack sde positions ? (The competition is extremely high for those companies and undergrads are great coders)

Hardware companies and software profile

Have more than 5 years of experience working for a consulting MNC, a SaaS startup and a medium-sized consulting company.

Over the years have gotten the opportunity to work as a frontend engineer(angular, react), a fullstack engineer(java, javascript/typescript, python) and currently a data engineer(pyspark/databricks, azure, gcp).

Projecting my self as a fullstack/backend engineer only. 

What should be my fair salary ask in series A/B/C startups & other product companies?

I believe many of people in here will be in the same boat as me, so please put down your thoughts…!

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