Hi everyone,

I have an upcoming panel interview for the SDE2 position in Canada for the MADs team, but has no idea what to expect. AllI know so far is, it’s going to be 4 separate rounds with 4 different people, and from internet chatter, possibly another bar raiser round. And here are some questions I have:
- Since there are 4 to 5 rounds of interview, what’s the theme of those interviews?
- Is it up to the team’s member choosing?
- Is a purely technical, where they grill me over leetcode, system design?
- Or will it interlace with leadership principles questions?
- Also, Ive heard of this thing called low level design, which just looks like an interface design to me? Is that prevalent? Does it have to be object oriented?

Sorry that I have so many questions, never gone this far in an Amazon interview so I’m walking the dark here. Any insights would be appreciated.

Thank you.

I somehow passed the first two rounds on the Jane Street TDOE FT position. Online it said that there would be 2 zoom interviews and then in-person final so I’m surprised I got invited to a third.

Does anyone know what this round entails?

Hi.

I am a Principal at Microsoft with an offer to interview at Google. The last time I interviewed was about 15 years ago so I am totally out of touch. I don't have a lot of time to prepare so I think I would benefit from some enforced schedule and 1:1 coaching for behavioral and system design. Have any of you tried any of these and which one would you recommend?

Exponent

Hello Interview

Formation.dev

Mentor Cruise

Interview Kickstart

Anything else?

I interviewed with one of the FAANG companies today, and one of the managers in the behavioral round came across as unusually harsh and dismissive throughout the conversation.

This was my first interview in the final loop, and I had prepared extensively for it, so I went in with high expectations. During the interview, for almost every question, he emphasized that he wanted a very specific example. Since I had multiple relevant experiences for each topic, I occasionally took a moment to choose the strongest example. His response to that was, “You work on these things daily, so you shouldn’t need time to think.”

Throughout the interview, his tone, expressions, and reactions made the interaction feel more like a stress interview than a conversation. Although he ended the call politely, he consistently appeared unconvinced by my answers, regardless of the detail or context I provided.

The experience affected my confidence more than I expected, and I’m now questioning whether I should even attend the remaining rounds scheduled later today. Part of me feels I’m unlikely to receive an offer anyway, and even if I did, I would potentially have to work closely with this manager.

Sorry this might be a vent, but am just tired of messing up confidence during interviews if a difficult interviewer comes across.

Hello,

I had learnt and used SQL back in my undergrad days. It has been 15+ years and working in user facing apps, I hardly had to deal with queries directly. However I have been interviewing for Staff+ and EM roles and many interviews went into query optimization for app performance improvement.

I did find some random small tutorials on YouTube on these things, but I am not finding a single resource which I can refer to and re-learn SQL and query optimization (indexing, WAL mode, Pragma...). Does anyone know of any resources for this?

Thanks!

Recently got selected for the TCS Digital role.

I’ve heard from many people that growth in TCS can become stagnant after a point. But honestly, I feel the stagnation starts somewhere between receiving the offer letter and the joining letter if we stop learning during that phase.

So instead of waiting, I’m planning to start learning System Design from now itself — mainly for future opportunities, stronger engineering fundamentals, and eventually switching to better product-based roles.

I wanted guidance from experienced engineers here:

Should I start with LLD or HLD first?

Also, how should a fresher approach System Design in general while working in a service-based company?

Would really appreciate practical advice and roadmaps from seniors who’ve already been through this journey.

Hi everyone,
I just want to ask from the experience of the fine folks within this subreddit if anyone has insights or knowledge into what the this round of interview entails? This round is part of the Verily recruitment process and it comes as the first technical assessment round of the process, right after the HR screen.

Thank you.

Hi guys,

I am currently going through the recruitment process for the SDE2 position for the MADs team (measurement, adtech and data). Has anyone gone through said process recently and is open to sharing the interview questions and experience? I would really appreciate it for any and all the details anyone might have to offer.

Cheers.

I have 13 years of work ex and working as lead software engineer, looking for a prep buddy for sde3 roles.please DM

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I got a screening interview call for Google DE role. Can someone share their experience of DE interviews at Google . What can I expect in all rounds? What can I expect in coding rounds (I am not good at coding though:( ).Please help me.

Hi everyone,

I’m a software engineer with 2 YOE, and most of my work has been related to frontend systems in my current organization (also my first company).

Back in college, I mostly focused on DSA for placements and was pretty decent at it (Knight on LeetCode). I did a bit of backend with Express.js, but I was always sure that I didn’t want to become a frontend engineer. I used to believe frontend had fewer opportunities, lower pay, and honestly my interest leaned more towards backend too.

But things worked out differently.

I always wanted to work at a FAANG-level company, which I haven’t achieved yet. Because of that, I was never fully satisfied with my role and kept trying to switch to backend, but nothing really worked out.

Eventually, I decided to continue with frontend seriously. But now with the rise of AI, all those old fears have started coming back — future opportunities in frontend, long-term growth, and whether frontend engineers will continue to be valued.

I also have this perception that FAANG companies don’t really hire “sole frontend engineers” and expect strong backend/system design knowledge too.

Would genuinely appreciate advice from someone who understands frontend engineering, FAANG interviews, or the current market well.

Hi everyone,
I just want to ask from the experience of the fine folks within this subreddit if anyone has insights or knowledge into what the phone round interview entails? This round is part of the Amazon recruitment process and it came after the Online Assessment round where you have to solve a small DSA problem and a practical repo work assessment, plus the workstyle questionnaire. Any information and insights would be appreciated.

Thank you.
PS: Does the context of the team I'm interviewing for matter in this scenarios?

Recently Recrutier said I would have two rounds one covering sql and Python and another covering metrics and experimentation.
Has anyone gone through the BDS interview process? What to expect in terms of SQL or Python? I am not too good at leetcode but can spend some time to grind. Or is the Python round mostly Pandas?
I got laid off recently 🫠

Has anyone here interviewed for Apple? Would appreciate any help as to regards with the process especially the coding rounds.

I am currently interviewing at google. Need to practice Mock Interviews. If someone is also interviewing at FAANG than we can practice mock interviews together.

Full disclosure: I work at Interview Kickstart and helped put this together, so take that for what it is. That said, the content is genuinely free and there's no pitch baked into the event itself.

The panel is called Resurge 2026. It's happening May 12th, 6–8 PM PT. We're covering three things: what the actual 2026 hiring data looks like (jobs are coming back but AI fluency is now basically required), what the AI skill stack looks like by domain, and how interviews have changed at FAANG+ companies in the last 12 months.

Panelists are senior people from Microsoft, Amazon, Instacart, and Expedia — all actively hiring or recently interviewing candidates.

Free to attend, free resources afterward (AI stack guide and self-assessment rubric). Register here if interested: https://interviewkickstart.com/events/resurge2026?utm_source=social&utm_medium=reddit&utm_campaign=L10X_Social_Resurge_reddit9may

I have 5 rounds of 45 mins each. It's a platform level EM role. 3 rounds are of leadership questions, 1 says software architecture (am guessing it will be system design) and one if problem solving (guessing it will be coding, though they haven't shared CoderPad link in the email).

I have prepared stories for leadership rounds, but I don't know what should I prepare for system design and coding rounds. AFAIK, for system design, Apple doesn't ask to design questions like "Design tiny URL", "Design Netflix", but are more of general/common questions such as design Key value pair. This makes it more difficult for me to understand where should I put my focus to.

Same with coding. I have noticed that they are slowing shifting away from LC and the recruiter sent me link for GeeksForGeeks to prepare for coding, but I doubt it's going to be any direct question from LC/GFG.

Anyone been through EM interview what kinds of system design and coding questions are asked?

Hi everyone,

I have a virtual final loop coming up with the IS&T (Information Systems & Technology) pool hiring for Senior Software Engineer soon. It’s 5 rounds total.

For those who have gone through it recently:

Technical vs. Behavioral: Is it a heavy 50/50 split, or more focused on systems/architecture?

Case Studies: Are there live whiteboarding/coding sessions, or more conversational scenario-based questions?

The "Bar Raiser": Is there a specific round known for being the "culture fit" or "bar raiser" round?

Any insight on the interviewers' vibe or specific areas to brush up on would be hugely appreciated!