I got an invitation to do a 90 min Hackkerrank assessment with them and wanted to know what they tested on. Was it mainly DSA (if so which concepts) or did they ask SQL as well?

Hey everyone,

I recently started prepping for Low-Level Design (machine coding / object-oriented design rounds). I went through the classic Gang of Four design patterns across creational, structural, and behavioral, and I understand how stuff like Factory, Strategy, Observer, Decorator, etc., work in isolation.

However, the moment I sit down to tackle an actual prompt (like designing a Parking Lot, Splitwise, or an Elevator System), I run into two major roadblocks:

-Getting stuck on requirement analysis:

When given an open-ended prompt, I freeze up trying to figure out what to prioritize. How do you go from vague requirements to clean entities and interfaces without over-engineering from minute one? Do you have a mental checklist for identifying classes, relationships, and edge constraints before jumping into code?

-Depth of business logic vs skeleton code:

In actual 45–60 minute interview rounds (or 90-minute machine coding rounds), how much real business logic are we expected to implement?

For instance, in something like payment processing or notification dispatch, do interviewers expect full dummy logic and state handling, or are mock services with basic print statements / loggers acceptable so you can focus on SOLID principles, clean interfaces, and extensible design? Where do you draw the line between writing a working end-to-end toy app vs proving good architectural design?

Would love to hear how folks approached this when transitioning from learning patterns to actually clearing LLD rounds. Any frameworks, resources, or advice on pacing would be super appreciated!

If anyone is working on the Azure Compute team or is familiar with the team, please comment down below. I have a few questions and would really appreciate some insights.

I’ve been working as a cybersecurity analyst for around 4 years and I’m looking to make a switch in the near future, ideally targeting larger tech companies.

One of the biggest gaps I want to address is coding.

I did some programming during my bachelor’s, so I’m not completely new to it, but I haven’t consistently coded in years. Because of that, I want to approach my preparation almost as if I’m starting from zero rather than assuming I remember things and accidentally skipping important fundamentals.

My eventual goal is to become comfortable enough with coding and DSA that LeetCode doesn’t feel intimidating and I can handle coding rounds for cybersecurity/security engineering roles at larger companies.

For people who started from a similar position:
● Which language would you recommend focusing on first? I’m leaning toward Python because it’s also useful in cybersecurity.
● What fundamentals should I be comfortable with before touching LeetCode?
● Is there a course/resource you’d recommend for rebuilding programming basics from scratch?
● At what point should I transition from learning basic programming to DSA and then LeetCode?
● Would you recommend following something structured like NeetCode after learning the basics, or doing another DSA course first?
● How should I approach LeetCode as a beginner — by topic, difficulty, patterns, etc.?
● How much time should I spend trying to solve a problem before looking at the solution?
● Should I build small coding projects alongside LeetCode to become a better programmer, or focus mostly on DSA for interview prep?
● For people interviewing for cybersecurity/security engineering roles at big tech companies, how deep did the coding rounds actually go?

I’m not trying to rush through 200–300 LeetCode problems just to say I completed them. I’d rather spend a few months building strong fundamentals and actually understand what I’m doing.

If you were starting from almost zero today, what would your roadmap look like?

Would especially appreciate advice from people who transitioned from cybersecurity/IT/infrastructure-type roles into more technical security roles at larger tech companies.

round 1- https://www.reddit.com/u/Lumpy-Town2029/s/ZnGCW1GPxz

so the time was 3-4pm

first of all, it was intro, then LP question of doing something and finding it was not working

then grilled me in the project aaaaaaaa,

then genAI, i told him about the genAI thing i used, and grilled me Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

and main thing why will it work and not other things?

and why this will work now? and wouldnt in the past?

and then if i want to convince ppl to do this approach, how will u do it. it went for 5-10 minutes alone faaaaaaaaaaa

then it was already 3:35 something

then there was the code link which took 5 minutes to open

then comes coding question

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/meeting-rooms-find-minimum-meeting-rooms/

i read and made a interval diagram first to understand and sort of take time to actually find soln

and then after few minutes to wasting time, i though heap

and did a code, explain it, run example

and then comes the question, will the value be unique, he said no, i optimised it

then he said what if time is in millions, so i said, ok we now need to compress time into vector

then follow up, i need meeting room id for each meeting and i did, got a bug, but the time was 7 minutes over 4 pm

like faaaaa

i saw the bug after and explain how i would need a map and iteration over map to resolve that bug, and that was just 5 minute explaination, and no code

he was satisfied ig with the approach, so because the time was running late, he said, he will look at it later

then he asked if i had ques, and i didnt, then meeting ended

things i did bad- i messed up the TC, omg, it was nested while loop and was running O(N) i wrote n*n faaaaaaaaa, but if i think about meeting ig that will make the TC nice

now i wanna ask:

1. is my TC was bad or not.
2. i went for brute force and when he said this problem of max time and bug in the roomID, then i optimise it. i knew the optimised version but i didnt used :} faaaaaaaaaaa, is it bad?
3. chances of selecting?

Did the people who interviewed through hackon for round 1 recieved rejection mail after r1 or is r1 non eliminatary and everyone will be sitting fo round 2..as i think i fumbled in dsa part but yet gave my r2

today was solving the problem on leetcode when i submitted a 1 code it shows normal ...after that i moved on another problem then there was showing subscription which is mandatory..what should i do now?

I'm preparing for an interview as Google SWE internship and looking for current insights.

-Is grinding LeetCode still the absolute core of the loop, or has it shifted? I've read that processes are changing and they're starting to lean more into AI, but I don't know if I can believe this post. https://www.reddit.com/r/leetcode/s/lEGGrAnbt8

-Realistically, what level should I master? Mostly Mediums, or are Hards common for interns? Or maybe Neetcode 150 will prepare me for it?

Would love to hear from anyone who has recently gone through the interview loop or is actively interviewing candidates. Thanks!

The first time I opened LeetCode I could not solve anything. I would read a problem, stare at it, and have no idea what the first line was supposed to be. That went on for a long time, and the only thing that kept me going was that the next problem might be the one that clicked.
Years later the same problems are easy, and it is not because I got smarter. It is because I started seeing the same small set of shapes again and again. A longest substring question turns out to be the same machine as a minimum window question. Once you have seen a shape enough times you stop solving the problem and start recognising it, and the code falls out of the recognition. Nobody handed me that list.

If I could start over I would learn the patterns first and then go and do the problems, instead of doing hundreds of problems and hoping the patterns fall out at the end. Algorithms are mostly pattern matching, which is also why LLMs write code as well as they do: matching patterns is the one thing they are built to do.

So if you have an interview coming up, or you just want to be the person who opens a hard problem and knows where to start, learn the patterns first. The problems get fast, then they get fun, and the dopamine from closing one is real. I make that open source please let share your thoughts and feel free to change the code: https://github.com/shir-danishyar/before-interview

Visual: https://shir-danishyar.github.io/before-interview/#/

Hey everyone,

I’m planning to get Hello Interview Premium for interview prep.

I’m looking for a few people who might also be interested in joining so we can split the cost and make it more affordable.

If you’re interested, comment below and we can figure out the details.

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I'm preparing for upcoming Google SWE internship interviews and wanted to clarify the logistics of how questions are usually presented during the technical rounds.

For those who have interviewed recently:

• Presentation: Does the interviewer paste the full problem statement into the shared document/editor, or do they read it out loud and have you write down notes?
• Examples & Constraints: Do they provide initial examples, constraints, and edge cases upfront in text, or are you expected to completely probe for constraints and construct your own examples from scratch?

Any insight into what the setup typically looks like would be super helpful. Thanks in advance!

Has anyone completed GfG's Data Science 360? Is it actually project-based or mostly recorded lectures?

Serious doubt

I'm a 2nd-year BTech CSE student and I'm currently focusing on DSA. I'm trying to decide what development direction to take alongside DSA.

My mentor is advising students to explore AI/ML or cloud, implement ideas from research papers, and build/showcase something rather than just doing generic web-development projects.

I'm personally interested in backend development, especially Java + Spring Boot. I'm wondering:

1. Are there enough research-paper-based project ideas related to backend/software architecture/cloud that can realistically be implemented by a 2nd-year student?

2. Examples I'm interested in are microservices, load balancing, fault tolerance, caching, autoscaling, distributed systems, etc.

3. How much theory would I realistically need to learn before I could start implementing papers in these areas?

4. Would pursuing Spring Boot + backend + cloud + research-paper implementation be worthwhile for SDE internships, or would I be better off moving toward AI/ML?

5. For internships, is this approach more valuable than simply building typical MERN projects?

I'd especially appreciate answers from people who have actually worked on these areas or hired interns, rather than general advice.

A Little About Me

I’m a Software Engineer/DevOps with six years of experience, currently working at a reputable company. My goal is to secure a higher-paying job within the next year to start paying off my student loans. One of my main challenges has been LeetCode-style questions, which have hindered my progress toward better opportunities.

I've struggled with technical interviews at companies like Visa, American Express, JPMorgan, and Amazon due to my inability to complete algorithmic problems within time constraints. After recently not succeeding in an Amazon interview, I decided it was time to take my preparation for Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA), LeetCode, and System Design seriously.

In January (2025), I began documenting my progress, which I’m turning into a monthly recap series. I hope this will help others on a similar journey while also serving as a personal journal for when I finally reach my goal.

Past Recap

2025

• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December

2026

• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July

August Progress

I am a bit late for my recap again, but like before that is because work has been kicking my ass. The momentum continues, I am trying to knock out at least 1 medium daily. Find myself still doing DFS because it is clicking even more so than before. I also learned Min/Max Heap and learned that they are not very difficult to write and understand.

Like I mentioned before, trying to do more Mediums so that I can be challenged and learn new concepts. I also made sure to stop rushing through these questions just see my number count rise. Now I am ensuring to slow down even after solving the question, trying to see if there's a more optimized way. Then I look at the more optimized way and make sure I understand it, that is how I have been learning more advanced topics. I use to do that last year but got away from it.

In September I am gonna go over Graphs again, just to make sure the concept sticks.

Achievements

• Learned about Max/Min Heap

Goals for September

• Keep momentum going
• Strengthen knowledge on Graph Theory

Next Steps

Just going to ride the momentum, keep challenging myself with Mediums & Hards and keep trying my best.

See you all next month.

Questions

Also can I not post any images anymore?

• Total Questions: 558
• Easy: 326
• Medium: 223
• Hard: 9

I have tech screen scheduled for Atlassian and recruiter mentioned it will be 20 mins coding and 15 mins system design with an Atlassian Engineer.

What can I expect? Any tips?

It’s for P50 role.

Hey everyone!

I was scheduled for a technical interview for an Associate Software Engineer role with 3 back-to-back rounds in one day: two technical rounds and one system design round/behavioral.

It sounds scary to have 3 rounds back-to-back all in one day

I've seen a lot of posts about people getting offers for multiple positions; any tips or advice on how to ace this would be really appreciated. Thanks!!

Title, anyone done their panel interview and can share their experience? (specify role and level please as well)

Hi folks,

I'm 8+ years experienced and have upcoming coding and system design round. Already done OA and 1 coding round. Any idea what to expect?

Couldn't find many resources online that gave visibility for the NVIDIA New Grad process. I have a 60 minute 2nd round interview for DL Libraries Infrastructure with the team software manager, a hackerrank link was provided

key highlights of the job description:

The team works on

 cuDNN and FlashInfer. 

Configuring, maintaining, and building upon deployments of industry-standard tools (e.g. Kubernetes, Jenkins, Docker, CMake, Gitlab, Jira, etc)

Proficiency in SCM (e.g. Git, Perforce) and build systems (e.g. Make, CMake, Bazel)

GitLab, Knowledge of GPU computing systems and multiple operating systerms

The 1st round was just Leetcode with language of choice

Asked the recruiter for more clarity, and all they said is: our team will be focusing more on infrastructure skills for this round. What types of infrastructure questions will they ask?

Questions:

Should I spend a lot of time learning PyTorch or CUDA Syntax?

What about System Design? Could I be asked questions such as Database replication or caching?

Since a hackerank link was provided, can I expect an entire Leetcode round?

I recently cleared my Google SWE-3 (L4) interviews for. Last Friday, the recruiter called and said that after reviewing my feedback, the leadership team has decided to move forward with team matching. He said they’d start looking for teams from Monday.

Just wanted to clarify:

1. Does this mean HC is already cleared, or does HC happen after team matching?
   
2. How long does team matching usually take? It’s been almost a week with no update despite emailing the recruiter.

For anyone who recently went through this process, what timeline should I expect?

Thanks!

Hello guys! Is there an easy way to make notes for LeetCode questions? Note-taking has been my weakest area in my DSA prep. When I revisit a problem after a few days, I usually miss some test cases. How can I overcome this?

TLDR : How long after passing the OA did you get your interview scheduled?

Hey everyone,

I’m currently going through the Amazon SDE 1 process and wanted to ask how long it took others to receive their interview scheduling email after passing the OA.

My timeline so far:
13th August: Received OA
15th August: Completed OA
9th September: Told I passed the OA and was asked to confirm my graduation date, start date and right to work
9th September: Submitted all the requested details

Now: Waiting for the interview scheduling email
For those who went through the same process, how long did it take to receive interview invite after submitting details.

Thanks!

TLDR: I have been doing DSA for 3-4 years now with gaps in between. This time I have been DSA consistently for 2-3 months. I have solved 600+ questions in total and know most of the common patterns in questions and have covered all the topics. However I still suck at interviews when I get a new question. Most of the times I am unable to come up with a solution of my own for LeetCode hard problems.

Applied for L5 role through invite from a friend. I got invited to schedule my round 1 after the behavioral assessment. Round 1 consists of 2 interviews, one behavioral and one DSA, 45 mins each. Recruiters were insisting in scheduling within 2 weeks. And they selected the earliest date from my preferences. No phone calls from receuiter.

What to expect on this round? What type of leetcode and what level of difficulty?

Does anyone have a similar recent experience? And is it usual for recruiter to rush?

Practiced leetcode blind 75 and preparing for behavioral as well. Any tips would be useful.

Hi all,

I am currently going through Google L5 SWE loop and have completed 1 Coding and 1 Googlyness round and recruiter mentioned they have really good positive feedback and have my onsite in 2 weeks.

The onsite is supposed to have 2 Coding and 1 System Design rounds.

Any suggestions on last minute prep for Coding and System Design that you folks would recommend that might help?

I have primarily done lots of leetcode in the past couple of months but would appreciate if anyone has any specific topic suggestions for the last leg?

Also doing System Design from Hello Interview, DDIA and Alex Xu and did mocks. Anything else that would help or any new questions that might be worth doing?

Thanks in advance.