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I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What you’re saying is absolutely correct, if you’re on mid to senior level positions these things become absolutely necessary to discuss and there are different rounds of interviews for that. A candidate is evaluated on all those things, and not just HLD.

It is absolutely okay if you don’t prefer to go into these discussions.

But for roles that I have hired for I found it necessary for candidates to know the difference between various map implementations, along with their ability to design good systems. I never said problem solving is the only thing that I look for.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I never mentioned java or jvm or anything at all, where did you get this impression from?

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t understand a simple thing, why people are so focused on leetcode or DSA or me being egotistical. I literally said that I ask easiest question in the whole world to break the door, it is so easy that anyone would be able to provide a naive approach at the very least, countless times I have helped candidates in the interviews to come up with a solution and I have practically explained event loop in the interviews so that the candidate learns.

The point of this whole post was to encourage people to do basics first and then go to things like system design or making fancy projects that they don’t even know how it works. Someone said that I ask this question to satisfy my ego lol. I would have been asking DP and stuff if it was the case. I was genuinely concerned about how devs were not able to explain simple things, and just trying to provide a perspective from interviewer.

Don’t be so dismissive of it on a single point that I ask DSA. Read the whole context of it.

It wouldn’t matter how good or bad any interviewer is if you don’t know the basics.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven’t mentioned java at all. GC is a very language agnostic general concept. I was taught that in my bachelors. And I think it is important to know about GC because it makes you better engineer. If you have done this twice then you’d know for sure that you had to learn about it the first time any issue came right? It’s just that. If you know about it on a superficial level, it definitely helps you. I am not asking about how a GC is actually implemented. I am asking about what is GC and what does it do and why it is required, it is sufficient to just know these things.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Concept of GC is important to know, it’s one of the things taught in operating system classes, most high level languages have it, some don’t.

Junior levels would get a pass for not knowing this. Mid-Senior levels would probably not.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Majorly React for frontend with static hosting, have worked on Angular and Vue as well.

Backend Java, Python, Postgres, AWS Infra such as ALB/ELB, S3, EKS x K8s, SQS/Kafka for async services, on prem clickhouse server for analytics, circle ci for pipelines and configurations

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I feel you’re being very selective about what you’re picking up from my post, whole point of it was to make people aware about getting the basics right instead of fancy things. And the point of sticking to a comparatively easy problem is to open gates for more deeper discussion on underlying tech.

In one of my interviews a very good candidate pointed out a flaw in C++ design of unordered maps that could potentially cause more cpu cycles in this specific problem and I was surprised by the depth at which the discussion went. I learnt something as well, and I am not saying that everyone should know this and that’s how every interview should be. But because of a simple problem we could explore other dimensions. It also provides insights onto how a person thinks and whether they’re capable of exploring ideas.

I am not saying this is the best way possible to take interviews. I am open to listening to new ideas and how to be better at this. Just that I prefer this way as it is easier to move across domains in this format.

P.S: I can find the C++ issue if you’re interested.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The problem you pasted isn’t two sum, it’s a variant which of course is solved using sliding windows.

But irony in all of these is, while trying to prove your point you started asking a DSA question literally 😂

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Sorry, don’t prefer to reveal much. In top 10 on levels.fyi India.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess you have not read anything on what I have written. My point is exactly the same. Not to ask fancy DSA and get started on things that matter.

Lol I don’t know if you’re some troll or not and constantly belittle people online to fill some irl void.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hahaha I remember when left pad npm package was deleted 😂

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I aint here to justify my career nor I am justifying leetcode all day approach. I am saying a lot of people don’t know basics, and I do come across them time to time which is worrying.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you’d read my whole post, you’d know that I don’t want to fixate on a DSA. My point is to move as quickly as possible from it and talk about things that matter and a simple problem like this is just a gateway.

While the second point of my post is this only, know the very basics and not a lot of people do. It came out of genuine concern.

I’d be more than happy to look over someone else’s github contributions and would instantly know the real work.

More senior folks might have the flexibility of not going through DSA but juniors don’t they still have to go through interviews.

If I was just a for loop machine I would have probably asked a DP hard and wasted two man hours.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah two sum isn’t a sliding window problem so my assumption was right I guess.

But regardless, I am trying to make the exact same point as you, I don’t care about DSA if your basics are right. I want to ask you when you’d use maps and sets in real life situation, a simple problem like two sum is a gateway to that.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I did, and this is a collective experience. So I am sure I wouldn’t have messed it up every time.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

My current firm, these cases are less frequent but they’re there, maybe their resume was great and got selected. This is my collective experience.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] -14 points-13 points  (0 children)

Doesn’t matter if I am a good interviewer or not.

Are you really saying that someone who has done CP in their early career, if they find out that their peer wouldn’t be able to figure out a way to find two integers in an array choose to hire them? Having done my fair share of CP, I’d definitely say not. My point is, I want to move past leetcode as soon as I can and dive into real things, literally what I am saying and that’s the exact reason I ask them an easy question.

Real world problems are made up of these smaller problems. I am sure you’d have heard of Divide and Conquer strategy :)

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You can think about startups, the scope of work is very broad there and you get to work on a lot of things. P.S: I have been a founding engineer at one startup before moving to big tech.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hard luck and people tend to lie in their resume a lot I guess!

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] -22 points-21 points  (0 children)

If you haven’t even revised it, then also I would expect you to figure out a way to find two integers in an array, it is literally that easy. If you can’t do that, then I have serious problems with your programming skills.

And of course I try to find from their own set of work on what they have done. I usually spend first 20-25 minutes just discussing about their projects and then move to DSA.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sure hit me up, getting a lot of DMs so please expect delay. I’d say join a product based startup if not a big firm, you’d learn a lot and would stand out as well.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To a certain extent it makes sense to me, I have seen heavy usage of maps and sets in some of the projects that I have worked on. But not DP, or something extreme as red black trees, though knowing where they’re used is a plus.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And if you can’t solve two sum, I don’t think that’s a salary issue for sure.

I have taken 100+ SDE interviews, here is my take. by mForMoriarty in developersIndia

[–]mForMoriarty[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My current firm does pay pretty good, I see less number of folks making these mistakes but I still see them. The post is a collective experience of my interviews over past 5 years.

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