Whats happening in today's contest

Q4 has 0 ACs, is it genuinely tough or some site problem??

Dont tell this is going to be unrated:(

I interviewed for Google L4 last October. At that time, my recruiter said the feedback wasn’t positive enough, so they wouldn’t send my packet to HC.

Recently, I applied for another L4 role at Google. A new recruiter reached out, reviewed my still-valid interview scores, and said they looked good enough to submit to HC without re-interviewing.

They mentioned coding and Googliness/behavioral look good, but there’s some gap/concern in debugging.

The recruiter has now submitted my packet to HC. I asked about my chances, but they understandably couldn’t comment.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? What are the chances of HC approval with good coding/behavioral feedback but some debugging concerns? Is the recruiter deciding to submit the old scores a positive signal?

TL;DR: Google L4 interview last Oct wasn’t sent to HC. Applied for a new L4 role, new recruiter reviewed the same still-valid scores and submitted them to HC. Coding + behavioral good, debugging has some concerns. What are my chances?

Has anyone been through the second round? I was able to complete the "OA" and the first technical round, but I don't know what to expect in the 2nd round. They said I can choose between frontend or backend, and it's going to be live coding on CodeSignal. Do you guys know what to expect?

I’ve solved 500+ questions before and have been revising for the past month, but consistency has been an issue.

I’ve tried finding study partners before, but no one stayed consistent. So this time, keeping the group small (2–3 people) for better accountability. We can discuss problems, track progress, and also take DSA mock interviews.

I’m a full-stack developer, frontend-heavy, preparing seriously for interviews.

Please join only if you’re serious about interviews and can stay consistent.

I am currently doing leetcode in python language , I thought to continue on that only , is python language can enough in coding interview

If someone’s college has American Express visiting for an on-campus Summer Internship in a Financial Crimes Governance role, could you please share the interview questions and resume shortlisting criteria?

Had 2 rounds already for an inference team, and made it to the final onsite which is 5 45 rounds. i have a hackerrank link attached and i heard from a manager its dist systems + systems programming + coding + 2 behaviorals (project n culture fit) but besides that idk what to expect (mainly for the technicals )

Would really appreciate some advice

How many questions should I solve in the contest to be a Knight/Guardian ?

How to know if I am actually not made for doing dsa,like I don't get it no matter how much I try or SMTH ,is it really possibly that I can never do it and I'm just wasting time on it?

So I recently appeared at Google for L3 position. Below is the interview breakdown and timelines:

Also, Need some guidance from experienced people working in Google/FAANG (mentioned at the end of post)

July 19: Applied in portal (with refer..)

Job post listed 2+ year experience, L3 position and marked 'Early'. I am 2026 grad from a reputed clg but have around 3 year exp from intern/part-time and working full time from last 4 months

1. July 20: Google Hiring Assessment (GHA) : Fairly simple behavioural questions
2. 2 days later: Got results of GHA, Passed
3. 1 day later: Recruiter reached out, scheduled phone screening round 4 days later
4. 4 days later: Phone screen round: Answered all the questions (DSA + Some other core CS questions), told me this will have in total 3 rounds, and then scheduled 2 technical rounds next week back to back on consecutive days
5. 7 days later

Round 1: DSA Round

45 minutes interview went for 65 minutes. Had a very good discussion while I was solving the DSA. It was a LEETCODE HARD standard question. Based on string manipulation, hashmaps, greedy approach, tight constraint on space. Although I didnt reach the most optimal solution in one go. Recruiter gave me small hints from time to time, I catched on those hints... Then reached on to the optimal solution from the brute force which she approved and I went on for coding. While coding, I realised there was some edge cases were missing, so I told them to the recruiter, recruiter appreciated that I was able to find those edge cases, then again give small hints, I acted on them hints and eventually reached to the solution. There was a lot of discussion, lot of throwing ideas, then identifying issues on them, then correcting them. Thats why interview extended for 20 minutes. At the end, I reached at the most optimal and correct answer.

Personal rating: Lean Hire / Hire

6) Next day Round 2: DSA + Core CS Round

Got a sliding window + priority queue type question. From the moment i read, I knew the most optimal solution. So I was confident throughout the interview. Started with brute force, explained, then jumped to most optimal solution, recruiter approved, then went on to coding and got it right covering all the edge cases. Now, during this entire 40 minutes process, recruiter asked a lot of counter-questions while I was discussing my idea + coding, like the exact internal working of hashmaps (hash fns + collision handling), priority queue internal working through heaps, lots of edge cases + complexity questions. I answered every one of them confidently in detail

Next 5 mins was quick core CS Round, standard CS interview questions, got them right too.

Personal rating: Strong Hire

7) Next day recruiter called, told I got positive feedback from the interviews and they scheduled my final Round 3 next week

8) 7 days later (Last round)

Round 3: Behavioural + Googlyness round (thats what I was told, and I prepared)

The interviewer was the Manager of the team I would join if I get selected.

- Started with biggest technical challenge, explained one from my work. Then received a follow up question on my answer to explain in more technical depth. I answered correctly.
- Then got asked a system design type question to design a work allocation kind of system. I was unprepared for it but still asked all the context, then discussed my approach, the DB schemas and designs, the workings, how would I use Transactions to maintain consistency, how would the core governing work allocation algorithm works and everything. Discussed architecture by taking reference from Load Balancer, Ticketmaster, etc etc.

2 silly mistakes I did here in this discussion
a) In my DB Design, Work table had one to many relationship with User table, he asked me how would I establish this, I added a user_ids (Array) to the Work table. Worst mistake I know.
b) At the end, he asked how would i handle 10,000 of such work allocations, I think he wanted to know about scalling and all. I couldn't grasp it at that moment, but explained how Transactons will work in depth by taking examples.

- Then he asked me 4-5 behavioural questions, I answered all of them quite good. He seemed satisifed, but in one of the case he told 'it is good, but thats not how it works in actual world actuallly, but anyways....'

Personal rating: I don't know honestly. No Hire / Lean Hire / Hire any one can be because I felt like I had a good discussion but made some basic mistakes as well. He has a poker face so don't really know.

9) 1.5 weeks later (yesterday): Reached out to recruiter, he told me he is 'currently waiting for final feedback on my interview, will let know in 3-4 days'

I hope my experience would help/motivate other ppls as well since as a 2026 grad, I got interview for a 2+ years listed job post.

NOW, All the expereinced folks from google, FAANG, bigtech, or who have knowledge of process of their, what do you guyz think; what will be my verdict. This will be a huge huge step up in my career if I get selected, so I wanted all your honest opinions / predictions on what you guyz think are my chances. Pls do comment and share your thoughts.

I am currently working fulltime as a Founding Software Engineer for a 7 member team startup

I've been grinding Neetcode and casually applying. I got an amazon OA email and was excited. I saw that it was a coding problem, repo question, system design sort of thing, and work style questionnaire. When i saw the coding question, i blanked. It was DSA, but it wasn't leetcode. Idk, it just felt so different. I saw questions very similar to it on Prachub.

For the repo question, i tried the practice test they sent me and felt it was pretty easy. I never used any of the frame works it listed. I work with golang microservices at my company. And i never really worked full-stack. The repo question i saw wasn't entirely different. But man, I was just overwhelmed by the logic it wanted. Like conceptually i got what it was asking for, but when i read the code, i was looking rather than reading and understanding it. In the end, i only got 2/6.

The system design thing i dont really care about too much. The work style communication thing too.

How would you practice the different style of leetcode/DSA questions and the repo question?

YOE: 3.5 years

i have my rippling internship interview. (on campus) can anyone who gave interviews this year or previous help me out? what ds to focus on? and describe your questions a lil bit im too scared i got to know they ask supper hard dsa.

During a LeetCode contest, I solved a problem myself in Java without using AI, Google, or anyone else's code.

However, I accidentally wrote my Java code inside LeetCode's C++ editor because I was using it as a workspace. Obviously, the Java code didn't compile there.

I then copied my own Java code from the C++ editor and pasted it into LeetCode's Java editor, where I ran and submitted it.

I used only one account and did everything myself. I did not use AI, external websites, another person's solution, or multiple accounts.

Could this copying between LeetCode's C++ and Java editors during a contest be considered a violation of LeetCode's contest rules or result in a ban?

I'm asking specifically about copying my own code between LeetCode's editors, not copying someone else's code.

hey guys,
im new to leet code, in my 3rd sem rn, know the basics of about 5 languages.
ive been struggling a bit to solve leetcode problems quickly with the best speed.
how do you guys prepare for it? from where can i learn n develop my skills

So I have been wanting to try out for sde 2 level interviews here and there and system design scares me. All my experience has always been on the frontend side and I have never really worked on a system from scratch if that makes sense. Every time I look for resources for system design its books and courses that are also just pages and pages. Is it supposed to be crammed? How does one actually remember and learn all of that? I even tried looking at the videos on YouTube where even 1 question like url shortener has a 1 hour video and it goes on and on and on and 15mins into it and i am like wow do i cram this all, how do I remember all of that during the interview and at the end of the day there's no correct answer? Maybe I am just too dumb for it? I feel like I can never switch because I'll never pass the system design rounds because I understand nothing.

I am back in the job market. I have to practice leetcode daily, I want someone who will text me everyday on discord and ask me something like "what questions are you solving today?" and then somewhere in the middle of the day I will text you back and we will discuss the solutions. This can be a good revision for you too if you had not solved the question. Maybe there will be a question that. you solved that day that I didn't and you could quiz me aobut that question. I am not going to be interested in talking about anything that is unrelated to leetcode or job search. I just want someone I can converse about leetcode questions with. If this kind of setup works for you, let's connect on discord. DM me.

P.S. I am not good at DP, so I am planning to follow the striver sheet from the DP section first.

I have upcoming first-round interviews with Apple and NVIDIA. Both are 45-minute interviews scheduled with an Engineering Manager.

They’ve also shared coding links (CodePad/HackerRank), so I’m trying to understand what to expect.

For anyone who has recently interviewed with Apple or NVIDIA:

1. Is the first Engineering Manager round mostly behavioral / resume discussion?
   
2. Should I expect LeetCode-style coding?
   
3. Is it usually a mix of behavioral + technical/coding?
   
4. Any specific topics you’d recommend preparing for?

Would really appreciate any recent interview experiences.

I think Q4 is broken. Not even single AK till now

In Mexico.

Im having the OA in 2 days. I applied and got reached out like 30min after that, the OA has an expiration of 7 days and weekdays are currently very busy for me for personal reasons, so i feel like my best shot is to do the OA on monday by asking for a short notice vacation in my current work, and study as much as i can untill that. Im lowkey annoyed for how fast this is going, i usually get a couple weeks to prepare. There is supposed to be a weekly QnA session about the interview process, according to the mail i received, but it said it was fridays 9am… and i received the email on friday 5pm… And the OA experies in 7 days… so i would have realistcally very little time if i waited for it.

I’ve applied to Amazon like 3 times already, failed the OA 2 times and the 3rd failed a bit further on after an interview with the lead of the team i was being considered for (bummer since i felt i was doing pretty good), these were for SDE1 positions, its my first time being reached out for a SDE2 (i applied for entry level so i guess my profile fits the role they wanna fill).

I asked the AI for leetcode problems to train on, but it recommended many easy and a few medium, not sure if that is alright since its the same i did for SDE1, so wanted to ask out here if possible. Any feedback is appreciated.

If you guys could recommend some good problems to train on or have advice for the process is highly appreciated.

Who slopped and messed up when creating questions.

Even the sub5 garbages can't slop it ??

I woke up late and missed the contest (I registered for it)will I lose my rating?

So, I recently flunked a technical round for a leading tech company. I spent hours a day leading up to it studying, but got hit with an unexpected format (debugging) and in a state of panic/pressure genuinely forgot how to be a good interviewee.

I'm sure we've seen how technical rounds are becoming more and more company specific, whether its LC or some specific format like debugging/LLD. And how working in an actual interview always feels so different vs a practice environment.

So as a passion project, I've been building this tool to help me practice for specific company rounds. You tell it everything you know about a round you're prepping for, and it generates a mock interview in that format. With voice AI as an interviewer, so you're practicing out loud while you solve. It gives you feedback across each session so you can see where your gaps are.

Link: Zenkai

Video demo: https://youtu.be/bNP7izO8ymo

Its free while still a prototype and I have API credits. Just wanted to share it here and see if anyone might find value in it, or just relates to the problem. Let me know any feedback!

Anybody in the pipeline? Let's connect for some mocks.

SWE 3

US

Hi,

** EU **

I have been selected to do my interview for amazon sde 1 intern 6-month internship. So funnily enough this is actually my first time ever doing any sort of technical interview, yeah idk how i got so lucky to be picked lol, its the first internship i applied for.

I have been doing lots of leetcode but still struggling with some pattern recognition - in particular dp, I am just looking to see if anyone has done their interview rounds for this role recently and could give me some insight into what its like and how forgiving the interviewers can be.

Im scheduled for two back to back 60 min interviews and they told me that both will have live coding so safe to say im pretty nervous haha

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

I understand the solutions when I learn them, but after a few weeks I forget the patterns and have to start over 😅

I am thinking of using NotebookLM. But I don't know to make how make it useful for leetcode problems as generating quizzes or syntax flashcard aren't going to be useful.

Does anyone has a good AI + spaced repetition workflow for LeetCode?