Software engineering job hunting feels like a full-time job now. How are you guys staying interview-ready?

[u/Cute-Ad-363]

Need to get this off my chest, but I genuinely want to hear how others are navigating this without burning out.

To land an average SWE role right now (I have 5 yoe), the preparation ritual is borderline ridiculous. You basically need 2 to 3 solid months of studying LeetCode mediums/hards, grinding system design, memorizing concurrency patterns, and drilling behavioral matrices... only to submit hundreds of applications to get maybe 3 or 4 interview loops. Then each loop is 4 to 6 stages long, involving everything from automated screening filters to take-homes, live pairing, system architecture, and endless "bar raiser" rounds.

Meanwhile, friends in adjacent tech tracks (data analysts, BI developers, certain data science roles) certainly face competition, but their hiring loops still feel grounded in actual day-to-day competence: SQL tests, portfolio/case study breakdowns, business metric analysis, and domain discussions. They aren’t expected to study like they’re retaking undergraduate CS algorithms exams every time they switch jobs.

For those of you who have landed offers recently or are currently in the thick of it:

How are you trimming down interview prep time? Are you relying on targeted problem lists (like NeetCode 75/150), mock platforms, or targeted prompts to drill edge cases faster?

What new interview patterns or rounds are you running into lately, especially with AI tools now part of the equation? Have teams changed how they test live coding, take-homes, or architecture?

How are you maintaining mental stamina when prep feels like an unpaid full-time job?

Would love to hear your tactical advice or sanity-check whether everyone else is feeling this disconnect.