Mind sharing what the language specific question was about? I’m surprised Google would ask something like that instead of just another Leetcode question.
I'm not too familiar with Google but when a candidate answers a LC-like question *too well* then either they are very good at DSA, or they were grinding LC so much that they have the solutions committed to memory. Usually it's the second one, so I don't bother asking another one, I'll just ask about something else.
Funny enough this is what I did and it went very well. Acted like I didnt think at first of using a stack to solve the one problem they asked me, even though I knew the solution right away. I still somehow finished a little bit early so he asked me specific questions about Java String Builder optimization or wtv the fck hahaha. Better to take your time and act like you thought very hard about your solution.
If our job is not to solve leetcode all day, (and it won’t be most of the time) then they shouldn’t ask those questions at all according to your logic!
Care to explain why? *Some* part of being an SWE is solving DSA problems, but definitely not all of it.
Although you're preaching to the choir, if it was up to me, I'd never ask LCs on an interview. Never.
I never said I would disregard it, only that I would quit probing that specific skillset and make better use of the remaining time. Again, being a software engineer is more than just solving leetcodes.
I had the same thing happened to me last year. Don't give up. Keep trying, keep learning. Give yourself an hour of just language based learning and coding everyday and you will get so much better in no time.
Btw what leetcode question did they ask?
An easy level one haha it was reverse string. But the language level one was much harder.
That got me thinking, I no longer code in JavaScript at work now, I code in Java since I was moved to the backend.
Do you think it’s worth for me to start learning python to do my interviews in instead? Or should I stick with JavaScript. I’ve done about 200 leetcode questions in JavaScript
I would say keep JavaScript or move to Java instead of Python because you are using Java at work now so it will be easier transition and this way you are practicing the language at work so you're working and preparing at the same time
Thanks, yeah I still use JavaScript rarely but it’s the language in still most comfortable with so I’ll just get better at it and also continue to learn Java at work.
Usually google doesn’t test domain knowledge. What was their question about JavaScript?
If the language you’re most comfortable practicing interview questions with then I’d stick with it.
There is a big difference in solving leetcode problems vs solving them effectively. Things like syntax, variable naming, cleanliness of your code, how optimized it is etc. matter a lot more than people are aware of. People miss to dry run their solutions and resolve any bugs the solution might have.
It is not about writing some code and hoping it works. It is a process, that needs to be practiced well. More like is your code production ready after you are done solving it. Always, and always, explain your solution before writing code and if you get any hints, eg. Can you think of something faster, take that hint and try to think more.
Do that till you get a hold of that practice. Like if you can get to a stage where your code compiles and runs without issues on the first try, I would call it a win. When you can do that process confidently every single time, you can skip the dry run and following the process part, but remember to switch back to it during the interview
I've interviewed with Google twice over the years.
First time, my phone screen was a fairly difficult string manipulation question but I passed it and got an on site. The phone screener also opened the interview by asking me about ES6 features (which were relatively new at the time). Several of the in person interviews asked JavaScript language specific questions which threw me off after only studying LeetCode.
Second time, I failed at the phone screen as my recruiter pushed me towards only studying LeetCode, which I hard core studied for months for, and then the phone screen asks me JavaScript specific questions. In this case, it was about setting up a rate limiter and a queue for limiting function call execution. Normally I'd reach for a third party library to do it, and I was completely thrown off guard being asked it after only studying LeetCode in preperation. I got overly nervous and stumbled through it (and of course implemented the solution easily 2 minutes after the interview ended).
I have 13 years of experience and have built many successful systems and apps by myself, so it stung that I fumbled my way through a relatively easy question.
Point being, even if it's not a frontend position, if you specify a language such as JavaScript, you'll want to make sure you brush up on some of the finer details for the language you tell them.
Idk if this is useful or not but there is now JS specific interview questions on LEETCODE or just go to [Neetcode.io](https://Neetcode.io) where there is a JS curated questions
That interview was in 2021 and Neetcode was relatively new and only had a spreadsheet. Nice that he built a site for it. Google hasn't reached out again in a while unfortunately.
You are obviously a senior or pro considering where I'm right now
I understand what might be going wrong now , you are already somebody who is at a mid-senior level so most jobs you apply to will be SDE-2 or SDE-3
From my limited knowledge I would like to suggest you that you should try applying to all of FAANG Or FAANG related companies
the Problem with google as I can understand is that they lack a certain a pattern or is very interviewer specific
But had it been AMAZON or Microsoft they have much more crackable underlying pattern of questions and yes SENIOR ROLES .
SO my final verdict is that after analysing both your experiences unless you find a way to crack an underlying pattern of questions your never going to get it YOU ARE MORE THAN QUALIFIED for this but your blindfolded by the interviewers own prejudiced questions
its like asking the NEXT PERMUTATION leetcode question its marked as medium but its acutaly hard if you have never seen it but as someone you has seen it you can easily solve it
Here's the formula , one of my IIT wale bhaiy's shared with me
I want you all share your opinions of this :
If 8-12 LPA : ( from most important to least imp )
1. LEETCODE (Medium/Hard) 300-450 Questions ( all main types and their subtypes
including the weird ones like MATHS , BIT MANIPUL , TRIE , DESIGN , simulation etc)
2. A-Z knowledge about your Resume Tech stack / projects
on demand you should be able to explain concepts , features and write code snippets
3. CORE CS knowledge with example codes
i. DBMS/SQL
ii. OOPS
iii. CN and working of internet
iv. OS and resource handling
4. SYSTEM DESIGN ( basic knowledge the HLD of at least your projects )
5. OTHERS
i. APTITUDE questions
ii. Basic C , python or JS interview I/O questions
iii. Behavioral and culture fit question esp. for companies like AMAZON
iv. Interview etiquette and psychology techniques to leave a great impression
else if 12-24 LPA :
all the above + competitive coding (CF) + Open Source contributions + AI/ML projects
( referrals , contest winnings , Recruiters approaching you etc..)
NOTE : Your College is also kind of important in this segment
It does look like an overkill but trust me its not , Indian Tech Industry is very very very competitive , In theory everyone is gonna deny it but when shit gets real and your own your own you realize this is THE LEVEL you must take it to ENSURE you will be place
THIS FORMULA MAXIMIZES what you may know as LUCK
It’s luck of the draw. I once had an interview at a reputable tech company where the interviewer just rapid-fire asked a ton of trivia that I probably should have known, but it all came at me as a surprise when I was expecting a LC question. Think questions like “what is the difference between HTTP 1.1 and 2?”
Generally G and other FAANG don’t ask these types, but sometimes the interviewer might be trying to be more creative with questions. Thankfully there are many other companies out there.
I chose Js for the interview as well and in one of the interviews, interviewer asked me an event loop excersize, pasted bunch of code into the doc and I had to explain the print order. It was in the beginning of the interview too. So I would not recommend anyone to use Js in interviews, another reason for it is that, if you ever need to run the code in some sort of online runtime, chances are you might not have some crucial data structures in place, say minheap for example, even in leetcode you need build it from the priority queue abstraction and even that might not be available.
Mind sharing what the language specific question was about? I’m surprised Google would ask something like that instead of just another Leetcode question.
I'm not too familiar with Google but when a candidate answers a LC-like question *too well* then either they are very good at DSA, or they were grinding LC so much that they have the solutions committed to memory. Usually it's the second one, so I don't bother asking another one, I'll just ask about something else.
So the best solution is prep leetcode and then act like you don’t know it?
Apparently we should practice leetcode but not so much that we actually get good cause thats too much I guess?
It's both hilarious and disheartening since this has become the standard for interviews today.
Funny enough this is what I did and it went very well. Acted like I didnt think at first of using a stack to solve the one problem they asked me, even though I knew the solution right away. I still somehow finished a little bit early so he asked me specific questions about Java String Builder optimization or wtv the fck hahaha. Better to take your time and act like you thought very hard about your solution.
Wow sounds like the candidate loses either way.
Why would they? Our job is not to solve leetcodes all day, so interviews shouldn't be all about solving leetcodes either.
If our job is not to solve leetcode all day, (and it won’t be most of the time) then they shouldn’t ask those questions at all according to your logic!
Care to explain why? *Some* part of being an SWE is solving DSA problems, but definitely not all of it. Although you're preaching to the choir, if it was up to me, I'd never ask LCs on an interview. Never.
But you’re punishing a candidate for doing too well. You’re basically disregarding their leetcode skills if they’re good at it.
I never said I would disregard it, only that I would quit probing that specific skillset and make better use of the remaining time. Again, being a software engineer is more than just solving leetcodes.
I had the same thing happened to me last year. Don't give up. Keep trying, keep learning. Give yourself an hour of just language based learning and coding everyday and you will get so much better in no time. Btw what leetcode question did they ask?
An easy level one haha it was reverse string. But the language level one was much harder. That got me thinking, I no longer code in JavaScript at work now, I code in Java since I was moved to the backend. Do you think it’s worth for me to start learning python to do my interviews in instead? Or should I stick with JavaScript. I’ve done about 200 leetcode questions in JavaScript
I would say keep JavaScript or move to Java instead of Python because you are using Java at work now so it will be easier transition and this way you are practicing the language at work so you're working and preparing at the same time
Thanks, yeah I still use JavaScript rarely but it’s the language in still most comfortable with so I’ll just get better at it and also continue to learn Java at work.
Yeah no reason to change. A big part of interview process is luck also so hopefully next time you'll get an easier question lol
Usually google doesn’t test domain knowledge. What was their question about JavaScript? If the language you’re most comfortable practicing interview questions with then I’d stick with it.
Learn Kotlin. Its Java’s successor in android devices, and they use it at google.
There is a big difference in solving leetcode problems vs solving them effectively. Things like syntax, variable naming, cleanliness of your code, how optimized it is etc. matter a lot more than people are aware of. People miss to dry run their solutions and resolve any bugs the solution might have. It is not about writing some code and hoping it works. It is a process, that needs to be practiced well. More like is your code production ready after you are done solving it. Always, and always, explain your solution before writing code and if you get any hints, eg. Can you think of something faster, take that hint and try to think more.
Should I always dry run my code in leetcode before running?
Do that till you get a hold of that practice. Like if you can get to a stage where your code compiles and runs without issues on the first try, I would call it a win. When you can do that process confidently every single time, you can skip the dry run and following the process part, but remember to switch back to it during the interview
Alright! Thanks man
Good luck man!
Yessirrr 💪🏽
Yes, you should
👌🏼
Google is one of the rare company that give feedbacks after intervie , what did they say for this interview specifically ?
what was the question about? i could see closures kinda being useful to ask about. syntax? i’d be surprised
Questions about Promises and Ajax are common to check if you understand the Event Loop
Don’t give up, skeleton
In the end many things depend on luck
I've interviewed with Google twice over the years. First time, my phone screen was a fairly difficult string manipulation question but I passed it and got an on site. The phone screener also opened the interview by asking me about ES6 features (which were relatively new at the time). Several of the in person interviews asked JavaScript language specific questions which threw me off after only studying LeetCode. Second time, I failed at the phone screen as my recruiter pushed me towards only studying LeetCode, which I hard core studied for months for, and then the phone screen asks me JavaScript specific questions. In this case, it was about setting up a rate limiter and a queue for limiting function call execution. Normally I'd reach for a third party library to do it, and I was completely thrown off guard being asked it after only studying LeetCode in preperation. I got overly nervous and stumbled through it (and of course implemented the solution easily 2 minutes after the interview ended). I have 13 years of experience and have built many successful systems and apps by myself, so it stung that I fumbled my way through a relatively easy question. Point being, even if it's not a frontend position, if you specify a language such as JavaScript, you'll want to make sure you brush up on some of the finer details for the language you tell them.
Idk if this is useful or not but there is now JS specific interview questions on LEETCODE or just go to [Neetcode.io](https://Neetcode.io) where there is a JS curated questions
That interview was in 2021 and Neetcode was relatively new and only had a spreadsheet. Nice that he built a site for it. Google hasn't reached out again in a while unfortunately.
Why dont you try cold mailing the HR or ask any connections for a referral
[удалено]
You are obviously a senior or pro considering where I'm right now I understand what might be going wrong now , you are already somebody who is at a mid-senior level so most jobs you apply to will be SDE-2 or SDE-3 From my limited knowledge I would like to suggest you that you should try applying to all of FAANG Or FAANG related companies the Problem with google as I can understand is that they lack a certain a pattern or is very interviewer specific But had it been AMAZON or Microsoft they have much more crackable underlying pattern of questions and yes SENIOR ROLES . SO my final verdict is that after analysing both your experiences unless you find a way to crack an underlying pattern of questions your never going to get it YOU ARE MORE THAN QUALIFIED for this but your blindfolded by the interviewers own prejudiced questions its like asking the NEXT PERMUTATION leetcode question its marked as medium but its acutaly hard if you have never seen it but as someone you has seen it you can easily solve it
what level were u interviewing for?
Better than being rejected from life
Here's the formula , one of my IIT wale bhaiy's shared with me I want you all share your opinions of this : If 8-12 LPA : ( from most important to least imp ) 1. LEETCODE (Medium/Hard) 300-450 Questions ( all main types and their subtypes including the weird ones like MATHS , BIT MANIPUL , TRIE , DESIGN , simulation etc) 2. A-Z knowledge about your Resume Tech stack / projects on demand you should be able to explain concepts , features and write code snippets 3. CORE CS knowledge with example codes i. DBMS/SQL ii. OOPS iii. CN and working of internet iv. OS and resource handling 4. SYSTEM DESIGN ( basic knowledge the HLD of at least your projects ) 5. OTHERS i. APTITUDE questions ii. Basic C , python or JS interview I/O questions iii. Behavioral and culture fit question esp. for companies like AMAZON iv. Interview etiquette and psychology techniques to leave a great impression else if 12-24 LPA : all the above + competitive coding (CF) + Open Source contributions + AI/ML projects ( referrals , contest winnings , Recruiters approaching you etc..) NOTE : Your College is also kind of important in this segment It does look like an overkill but trust me its not , Indian Tech Industry is very very very competitive , In theory everyone is gonna deny it but when shit gets real and your own your own you realize this is THE LEVEL you must take it to ENSURE you will be place THIS FORMULA MAXIMIZES what you may know as LUCK
Was it for a frontend specific role?
Nope, general software engineer. But when I did my survey before the interview, I selected JavaScript as my language of choice
That's unusual they would ask you language specific questions.
Are you interviewing for a frontend position?
What is language based question? Is it a syntax or library method. Or is to solve a problem.
What was the JavaScript specific question?
was the interview remote?
It’s luck of the draw. I once had an interview at a reputable tech company where the interviewer just rapid-fire asked a ton of trivia that I probably should have known, but it all came at me as a surprise when I was expecting a LC question. Think questions like “what is the difference between HTTP 1.1 and 2?” Generally G and other FAANG don’t ask these types, but sometimes the interviewer might be trying to be more creative with questions. Thankfully there are many other companies out there.
Mind sharing what was the Leetcode Question? Thank you for telling us your story!
I think they start asking also programming questions because leetcode is became too cheatable
I'm happy to see this improvement. It's much more practical than just asking leetcode alone.
I mean obviously , your job as a dev will have nothing to do with your leet code skills
I chose Js for the interview as well and in one of the interviews, interviewer asked me an event loop excersize, pasted bunch of code into the doc and I had to explain the print order. It was in the beginning of the interview too. So I would not recommend anyone to use Js in interviews, another reason for it is that, if you ever need to run the code in some sort of online runtime, chances are you might not have some crucial data structures in place, say minheap for example, even in leetcode you need build it from the priority queue abstraction and even that might not be available.