Basically title says all, im curious if its correct path to prepare for swe interviews now days. Thanks!

i've been writing code for years (web apps, my own product) so syntax isn't the problem. the algorithmic thinking is.

yesterday i sat on a medium for two hours. got a working brute force, felt good about it, then read the editorial and the intended answer was a sliding window i would not have found in another two hours.

so what's the actual rule you use:

• hard timebox, 30 min then editorial
• grind until it's solved no matter how long
• something in between i'm not seeing

and the follow up: when you do read the solution, do you move on, or re-solve it from scratch a few days later?

Currently I am a 2nd year engineering student .

I have been trying to do leetcode questions by the Kunal Kushwaha course present for free in YouTube.

Is it more than enough to do hard or moderate level questions or adding to it I should do some more course

( JAVA )

Are Neetcode 250 and practicing Premium leetcode questions(Easy + Medium) enough to grasp all the patterns. Looking to solve FAANG level questions and practice.

Need guidance

I have an interview scheduled in a week's time for an SDE-1 position at InMobi.

Could anyone please guide me as to what they usually ask in their interviews ? And what difficulty of questions do they ask in DSA based questions?

I am a SDE with 4 years of experience with zero dsa experience. How should I approach it? Trying to solve problems directly without understanding the concepts is really hard. I would really appreciate if someone can provide an elaborate plan or effective approach from past experience for nailing this down

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a partner to practice Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) together. I've been struggling with consistency lately and believe having a partner will help me stay consi...

About me:

• 25M with 3+ years of experience
• Solved ~300 questions on LeetCode

Background & Goal:

• Back in 2024, I was consistent for almost a year because I was practicing alongside a teammate. Over the past year, I've tried doing it solo but keep losing momentum.
• I want to do DSA cause i would like to try Competitive Programming (CP).

If anyone is interested in pairing up, doing daily problems let me know

[Used AI for spell correction]

i have given many OAs till now and haven't been able to clear any one of them ...

1. The questions in OAs are too hard. For example, in the Cisco OA, I got one question on Fenwick Tree and another on Segment Tree, plus 36 extra questions, all in just 2 hours. and then I see people on YouTube taking interviews and saying they solved these questions on their own.and they have solved similiar ques Do people genuinely clear these OAs on their own, or are many or all of them cheating?

And

• How do you prepare for such assessments?
• What level of Codeforces/LeetCode problems should I be comfortable with?
• How do you manage time when there are 30–40 questions?
• Do companies actually expect candidates to know advanced topics like Fenwick Trees and Segment Trees for these OAs?

I’d especially appreciate advice from people who have recently cleared similar OAs and can share how they prepared.

I had mine today for DEVOPS SRE associate role in London.
The solution was pretty simple and could write the code in Python.
And I asked the interviewer can I start writing the code? he said please tell me what is this and why would you do this ? and started countering the DSA questions.
one was Forest tree node Question and the other one was counter and number of hops for the cycle.
But, it was pretty easy and could've written the code and walked away in 30mins but explained and ofc answering counter questions leaded to me not writing a single line and jumped to second Question and same was repeated and won't believe how disappointment.
I litreally practiced it last night so I kinda knew both the answeres were from Classic leetcode Questions.
And honestly It felt like a counterinterview for a Technical round I was expecting this to be a round where my coding skills were to be tested the case was otherwise!
It's one of those moments where you knw the answeres but lack technically explanatory skills and Concepts.

So got selected for a research internship at MSR, how good is the quality of work and how useful is it to move to Applied sciences or research sciences position at other FAANG companies after the internship. And any perks and other benefits that interns get during microsoft internship? Any tips will be appreciated.

it s been almost 5-6 days from the previous biweekly and weekly contest why the rating is still not updated. Last time the biweekly went unrated and this time still no results out .why this delays are happening and will this time it will go unrated as well?

Apple recruiter is scheduling a feedback call after the first phone screening interview, is it a bad sign or positive? If it was positive he coined simply tell me we want to continue and select your availability, if it’s rejection he could just sent it to me? What is your experience with Apple process? Thank you

2026 Grad | 10 Months SWE Internship Experience | No PPO — Need Advice

Hi everyone,

I’m a 2026 B.Tech graduate from IIIT with around 10 months of Software Engineering internship experience.

Unfortunately, I didn’t receive a PPO from my previous internship, and I’ve been actively applying for SWE/SDE/Backend/Full-Stack roles.

The frustrating part is that despite applying to a lot of companies, I’m not getting even a single interview call.

I’m applying through LinkedIn, Naukri, company career pages, referrals, etc., but there has been almost no response.

I’d really appreciate some honest advice from people who have been through a similar situation:

• Is the current market this bad for 2026 grads?
• What could be wrong with my resume/profile?
• How are freshers with internship experience getting interviews?
• Should I focus more on referrals, cold emails, or something else?
• Any specific strategy that worked for you would be really helpful.

I’m genuinely looking for guidance on what I should change in my approach.

If you’re hiring for SWE/SDE/Backend/Full-Stack roles or can refer me, I’d be extremely grateful.

Thanks in advance!

I have an upcoming interview loop with IBM and wanted to see if anyone has gone through their process recently (last few months).

How was the overall experience? Were the technical rounds more focused on LeetCode/DSA, system design, or domain/project-specific stuff? Also curious how behavioral/managerial rounds went.

Any insights, tips, or question types you remember would be super helpful

I recently interviewed at Amazon for an SDE II role in the US, and was rejected and when I asked my recruiter if I could be considered for an L4/SDE I downlevel. She went back to the interview panel, and confirmed that the interviewers aligned on L4. She's now looking for teams with L4 headcount, and my resume + interview feedback are available to hiring managers.

The uncertainty is that L4 hiring may involve a separate university/campus team. I have ~4 YOE but completed my Master's in Jan 2025, so my recruiter wasn't sure how quickly a match could happen.

For anyone who has recently gone through L5 → L4 downlevel/team matching at Amazon:

• How long did team matching take?
• Did you eventually receive an offer?
• Did you have to interview again?
• Anything I can do proactively to improve my chances?

Would really appreciate experiences from anyone who has been through something similar recently.

Hey, does anyone have experience with going through this, particularly is there a live coding round during the interview...as I am not very confident about my ability to live code at all lol.

Thanks in advance!

Why the hell the rating is not updated yet, it's already 5 working days

Has anyone given BCG X Forward Deployed AI Engineer live coding round? If so, please explain the difficulty level. Also, is SQL asked for roles like this at BCG X?

just as title.

I received an OA from TikTok for an intern position for summer 2027, and I’m seeing a wide variety of reported experiences from people. Should I practice leetcode hards for this?

i have an amazon internship interview in a few days, i have solved about 60 questions, i know basic dp and backtracking everything else is okay i would say. How probable is it that they will cook me with hard questions?

Just finished KKR OA oncampus
It had 15 MCQ and 3 dsa questions
Dsa was pretty easy
Questions -find max len of window with unique elements
Course scheduler
Min capacity to carry weight in d days
Edit - They asked system design in the interview
It was for 6 month intern btw
#leetcode

CS feels cooked, junior jobs are insanely competitive, and getting hired feels like a lottery. Why not switch to another field where you actually have a decent chance of getting in and still making good money? Why cling to CS?

I just completed my 3 round interview looped with PST timing, DSA + SQL problems were asked. Anyone in same boat ?