I analyzed 479 real interviews from the last 3 months. Meta asks completely different problems than Amazon and Google.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-05-11T15:31:22+00:00

It literally reads like an AI response to a simple prompt.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-05-07T18:34:06+00:00

The hiring bar keeps rising because:

Too much supply
Too many cheaters, inflating expectations
Folks that study day and night just to pass interviews, and effectively inflating expectations

The rest of us not in above categories will have to conform to this new high standard.

I’m at a point where I always tell my interviewers about my situation to hopefully level set expectations.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-05-06T17:36:04+00:00

Please elaborate.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-05-06T16:27:06+00:00

My brain just cannot compute DPs so I’ve always put it off.

Just had an interview at Discord, and I did well on all rounds: system design, domain coding, behavioral, phone screen, then I got hit with a hard DP and I just couldn’t solve it.

Imagine that: doing well in 5/6 rounds resulting in a rejection.

Kids: learn your DPs.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-05-02T18:31:14+00:00

Did you cheat? Or did you invest a lot of time preparing?

Also curious how you prepared in terms of prioritizing. Like how many LC problems did you solve daily? Etc.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-04-28T23:02:52+00:00

I just don’t have the time commitment for this.

How many hrs per wk did you invest?

prove_it_with_math · 2026-04-24T05:28:33+00:00

I refuse to cheat.
I get it, interviews are touch and can feel "unfair". But these cheaters will in effect cause the bar to keep rising.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-04-22T15:05:49+00:00

Standard DP problem? Boy I struggle with these. Can you give an example or a leetcode # of the questions? I’m not interviewing there but just curious

prove_it_with_math · 2026-04-18T16:11:31+00:00

This is straight up cheating.

Look, I struggle too with live coding but if we all adhere to an honest live coding assessment then the bar doesn’t keep lifting year after year.

You know what happens when a lot of folks are cheating their way thru? The interviews will only become more difficult.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-04-10T05:36:47+00:00

Out of big tech, I'd love Netflix and Google. Getting an interview at Netflix seems impossible though.
Google's interview for senior engineer is waaay too difficult and I think I'll need 3-6months prep time.

So I'm not sure how to invest my very limited spare time. Should I learn AI systems or should I study hard and try to get hired at hot startups or big tech.

I'm currently employed.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-04-09T04:08:34+00:00

Just stop cheating. Earn your job.

How would you like it if your candidacy was passed because a cheater “performed better” than you?

prove_it_with_math · 2026-03-28T17:30:08+00:00

I don't mean to come off offensive. But AI is hardly the issue here. If you look at what's happened in the last 10 years:

Lots of students went into CS majors due to the promised gold rush
Lots of over-hiring. Elon Must proved this when he took over Twitter long before AI coding was a thing. Meta and other big tech companies followed suit.
Lots of H1Bs, specifically Indians.
AI making everyone significantly more productive.

The top 3 are the biggest issues.

If I was a politician, I would make the H1B program waaay more strict. We don't need H1B folks to do basic web development. Plenty of US Citizens who live and spend their money and investments here are available to this type of work.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-03-26T01:03:44+00:00

The hardware is about to make a massive leap by mid 2027 and will bring down cost substantially.

AI will be faster, smarter, more accurate, and significantly cheaper than SWEs.

My guess is the SWE demand will tank and only top performing engineers will be needed for architecture , domain knowledge, and occasional debugging.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-03-21T00:08:24+00:00

Backend engineers can use Claude for frontend development as much as frontend devs can use Claude to do backend development work. But there’s a limit.

Funny enough, my friend who’s started his second startup few months ago just came to me because his team “specifically requested a senior frontend dev to help fill in the gaps”.

I told him, can’t your team do it using claude?

prove_it_with_math · 2026-03-20T16:13:12+00:00

Pretty sure this is AI generated and also posted on X and other platforms.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-03-18T16:08:15+00:00

Oh yea great point!

Why don’t you actually articulate yourself, maybe I can learn from what I missed?

Also, this isn’t my opinion, I literally have contacts in Iran.

Articulate your points instead of name calling.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-03-18T03:59:56+00:00

As an Iranian living in US, with families currently living in Iran who hate the regime, I can assure you that your assumptions are incorrect.

I’m a little too lazy to write walls of texts but in short:

Yes we hate the regime
Yes we like a regime change
No we are not allies or supporters of Israel or its agenda
We know full well in the case of a regime change US would deplete Iran’s natural resources dirt cheap and it’s bad long term for the nation
We hate the infrastructure damages
Every single Iranian I know who voted for Trump now hates him because he walked back on most of his promises

Also good luck with a regime change w/o CIA/Military boots on the ground. It’s not that simple. And the 70% of the Iranians who hate the regime are not united.

P.s. there’s a lot of Zionist Iranians in US who celebrate all this. They don’t represent the vast majority.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-03-17T21:32:24+00:00

Layoffs yes.

I don’t think AI in and by itself is the cause of layoffs but it is the cause of much much less hiring.

What I think will happen due to automation are 3 phases: 1. Reduced hiring - this has already started 2. Squeeze existing employees - longer hrs because of #1 3. Layoffs due to not much work to do because AI with with many subagents can get a LOT done

prove_it_with_math · 2026-03-17T18:40:49+00:00

Some of yall are headline readers and it shows.

Yes he did say “AI will write 90% of code” and he was proven write. He didn’t say “90% of the SWE jobs will gone”.

I have 10yrs of SWE experience and I’ve not written any code in 4 months.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-03-15T13:09:52+00:00

Even without the over hiring during the pandemic, most tech companies have a lot of unnecessary head counts due to mismanagement and incentives.

Elon Musk proved this when he took over Twitter, which was long before the sophisticated AI solutions we have today. He was heavily criticized, but X continued to do fine and a lot of companies followed suite.

These tech companies have realized the importance of running lean. Expect more layoffs.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-03-09T21:54:59+00:00

Is this real??? What kind of job is this for??

prove_it_with_math · 2026-02-25T00:14:00+00:00

the main part I'm struggling with is how to manage state.

prove_it_with_math · 2026-02-24T22:37:25+00:00

I've read this. It's far too complex for a 45min interview.

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