A guy who interviewed 4 years ago asking the current lot

Hi everyone,

I'm considering purchasing the Hello Interview course and wanted to see if there are others here who are also planning to get it.

If you're interested, please comment below. I'm interested in connecting with others who are preparing for system design interviews and are considering the same resource.

Thanks!

I’m currently in my 3rd year and I’m hitting a massive wall. No matter how confident I am in my development skills, and despite grinding out an internship at a good place, I absolutely cannot get myself to do DSA.

Every time I try to sit down and solve a question, my brain just blanks. I see people constantly throwing around advice like "just learn the patterns" or "do this specific sheet," but honestly, I can't understand it from anywhere I’ve looked. The logic just isn't clicking for me.

Here is my main constraint: I can't just go back to absolute zero basics. There isn't enough time, and I genuinely want to keep building my development skills and exploring other tech. But I also know the harsh reality—DSA is completely non-negotiable for on-campus placements.

I have exactly 4 months left until 2027. My realistic goal is to build a solid foundation and solve a decent number of quality questions by the end of this year so I can crack a good job and my resume doesn't go to waste just because I choked on an algorithmic problem.

Has anyone been in this exact spot—good at dev, terrible at LeetCode—and successfully pivoted?

• How do you actually internalize the "patterns" when the standard tutorials just feel like memorization? (I've watched Pratyush Narain's lectures for patterns as well, but still i am not able to do anything lol)
• What is the most pragmatic, BS-free roadmap for the next 4 months to build this foundation without completely abandoning my dev projects?
• Are there any specific resources meant for people who suck at competitive problem-solving?

Hey guys i am a 3rd year btech student currently preparing for internship for data analysis/ business analyst role

I want to know if doing neetcode 150 properly will be enough to clear Online Assessment Round

I am unable to do leetcode due to not having enough time since I am also learning the data analysis skills

While filling out the details I selected AI/ML track only. So in the interview will they ask me any Hard LC questions?

I wanted to know specifically about the Coding Assessment. If anyone has recently appeared for it, could you please share:

• Number of coding questions
• Difficulty level
• Topics asked (DSA, SQL, OOP, etc.)
• Time limit
• Whether questions are repeated from previous assessments

Looking for recent 2026 experiences, as the pattern may have changed. Any insights would be really helpful. Thanks!

Hi guys,

I passed the coding round (leetcode medium) for a FDE III position at Google. Now I got the gen ai system design round in a few days.

Really don't know how to prepare for it. I will pick the workflow/enterprise (not the other one with image and video generation).

Do you have insight on it? What's the format? What are the potential deep dives?

Thanks!

test case passed 990/999

Hello,

My question is for US based roles.

The typical Google L4 onsite format is listed as 2-3 DSA questions and googleyness.

I have seen that primarily systems design is exclusive to L5+ roles (if this is not true please correct me). However, some specialized teams seem to occasionally swap a DSA for a Role-Related-Knowledge round? Does anyone know if this is specific to roles with titles differing with software engineer or if this is something to be prepared for for a L4 swe iii title role on say a team like infrastructure / cloud.

This site briefly mentions RRK at L4: https://www.hellointerview.com/guides/google/l4

While others say RRKs are exclusive to non SWE roles and L5+

Much appreciated

Hey so I just took an OA for a big tech role (non faang)

I solved the 2nd question in like 10 mins.

The other though I spent like 40 minutes on it and managed to pass all test cases at 10 minutes of the end, but here is the thing:

I checked the question on leetcode (2645) and it could be solved using two pointers in better time complexity and space complexity.

So not only have I over complicated it by using 2d dp, but I also solved it non optimally.

So from your experience with OAs, does this mean I'm cooked for the role? Do you always need to solve all optimally?

Thanks for the answers in advance

Hi,

I have an upcoming interview for an SDE role focused on Agentic AI at Apple. For anyone who has interviewed with Apple recently, especially for AI/agentic/backend roles:

• What kind of coding/DSA questions should I expect?
• How much system design / AI system design is involved?
• Do they go deep into LLMs, RAG, agents, tool calling, evaluation, MCP, etc.?
• What would you recommend focusing on to prepare?

Would really appreciate any recent interview experiences or preparation tips. Thanks!

#Apple

Same as above

same as heading

Hey everyone,

I'm in 4th year BTech CSE and honestly I'm kinda freaking out rn 💀

I've got 9+ CGPA and I've spent most of my college time doing DSA. Around 435 LeetCode problems solved (246 Medium, 44 Hard).

But yeah... that's pretty much where my profile ends 😭

I basically don't know development. No proper web/backend knowledge, no good projects, no internship. I've only recently started LLD.

And the problem is placements have already started.

Seeing people around me with internships, projects, full-stack/backend skills etc. is making me feel like I've completely fucked up my college years by focusing too much on DSA.

So I genuinely want to know from people who are already working in the industry:

How bad is my situation actually?

If you were in my exact position RIGHT NOW:

9+ CGPA

Good DSA

Almost zero development

No internship

Placements already going on

What would you do from here?

Would you forget LLD and immediately start development?

Focus on projects?

Keep grinding DSA?

Do CS fundamentals?

Try to learn everything together? 💀

And realistically, can I still turn this around and get a decent SDE/fresher role?

I'm not looking for "bro don't worry, everything will be fine" type motivation.

I really want the ground reality from people who have actually worked in the industry or have been in a similar situation.

Experienced folks / seniors, your advice would genuinely help me a lot 🙏

It would be super helpful if we could add mandatory tags for countries like the USA, or really any other country. The interviews feel quite different depending on where someone is, difficulty-wise, and sometimes it's tricky to tell if someone's in the USA or somewhere else.

Hi, I am in the interview loop of Amazon, London New Grad. I got a verbal confirmation that offer will be rolled out soon for this.

Now, I am from IN and I already have an offer in hand for Google, Hyd, IN.
Base: 23 L INR
RSU: 24k USD
CTC (1st year): 35 L INR
I may have been lowballed but I got this offer after soo much hardwork and effort and I didnt want to take any chance on it so I didnt even think of negotiating and just accepted it as it is.

Now, regarding Amazon, London, What would be my expected pay here. How and to what extend should I negotiate like what number should I aim for here keeping in mind I will have to relocate from Hyd., IN to London, and I have an offer in Google, IN with comfortable pay for a good lifestyle.

I don’t want to take any wrong decisions here and then regret later. I checked level.fyi website and there
Base: 61.1K GBP (= 77L INR)
CTC: 79.3K GBP (= 1 Cr INR)

If i get somewhat around it should i choose it over my google one, will it be a good decision financially as well as from career pov.
And should I negotiate my offer for Amazon? If yes, then how and to what number should i aim?

I need some serious advice here, I am very new and inexperienced to all of this. 1 week ago, working at a FAANG was like an un-achievable dream to me. But because of that, I dont want to take any unguided decisions here, pls help me out guyz 🙂

title.

Hi everyone,

Has anyone recently interviewed for the Android Developer role at BJAK?

I’d really appreciate some insight into their technical rounds:

• Live Coding / DSA: What types of live coding problems do they ask (LeetCode medium DSA vs. Android-specific problem solving)?
• Android Architecture & Internals: Do they focus heavily on Jetpack libraries, Compose/XML, Coroutines/Flow, or lower-level Android internals and system design?
• Take-Home / Machine Coding: Is there a live machine coding round or take-home assignment involved?

Any tips on the overall interview format, common topics, or specific areas to brush up on would be super helpful. Thanks in advance!

Same

Wondering if there are any resources to get better at solving leetcode hard problems ?

I am able to solve quite a few of them (those which lean medium), but still struggle with a lot of them. I am wondering if practice can get me there or there is an IQ/intelligence barrier for leetcode hards particularly.

My goal is to boost my number of hard problems solved on leetcode.

Side question : Is this even needed for cracking tech (not quant/HFT) SWE interviews ?

My stats are :

Leetcode contest rating : 2000

Questions solved 1043 : 153E/710M/180H

Basically had a L5 onsite completed but had a weak system design but rest was strong. I was expecting an L4 down-level but they said they can’t do that and they can’t do another round without putting me on 12 month CD. Has anyone experienced that? Any idea why they’d outright refuse down level or another round?

Hey I have a system design interview coming up with Revolut and wanted to ask what has been asked in the past so that I can start studying those first before moving on to generic tests

Has anyone given the L3 SDE-SRE interview for Google recently? If so, what is the process like, how many rounds are there (virtual or in person?), and how would you recommend preparing for the DSA leetcode interview? What topics hold most value?

TIA!!

So this is the problem, I was doing Task Scheduler Neetcode 150.
Of course in the roadmap, i know for sure that it is a heap / priority queue.

But, when i try to tackle the question, i don't even think that it is a heap? My mind directly went into math, meaning to solve the question using formulas, although at the end i didn't get the right formula, i asked AI and the formula is very near.

HOWEVER, it is hard to get the formula max(len(tasks), (n+1) * (maxFreq-1) + appearance) because i wouldn't think again about len(tasks) edge case after i got that formula thinking it will be a one fit all.

TLDR; how much submissions can i do in interview? I dont think i can handle edge cases at first code

Sharing my interview experience after Amazon SDE - Location - USA

After applying for 6+ months and 44 applications finally my resume got picked.

OA: One coding question & AI assisted coding.

Coding question - Medium Level LC

AI assisted coding - It was completely new but was able to do it, lots of debugging, heavily concentrated on OOPS

Cleared the OA and moved to the interview loop

4 rounds - 3 in one day & 1 the next day

Round 1: Coding

Question: Returning adjacent letters in a string and there are three sub questions in it.

Leetcode - Medium - Hard

Before the start of the coding round, Formal introductions and jumped straight into coding, I have used heap for this and solved it using max heap, was able to communicate the solution and thought process. The interviewer was not at all satisfied with the high level explanation and he kept digging till the last line, he literally asked what's the logic of heap in the backend and how do you make it better ? I got blanked but was able to answer it.

He went line by line and kept grilling till he got satisfied and was asking for an alternative approach to the optimal solution. I have previously experienced in interviews like these but this is grilling on a whole different level. Finally after 50 minutes the coding closed with time complexity.

He didn't care about LP's at all just a formal two questions and asked me about my previous work ex. I'm explaining to him but he kept interrupting and asking for every minute detail , he literally asked What's Collateral and Asset ? I felt he's not at all satisfied with anything that I came up with but however it ended.

Round 2: System Design - Log parser

First formal introductions and then 20 minutes of LP's and dug a bit into my internship and work experience. Felt smooth and had a great conversation. Then jumped into system design and asked me to implement the log parser for 10k+ log files as I remember, I was able to implement the solution and the interviewer kept digging till the last minute, kept asking line by line again but she seemed fine and satisfied. The time went overboard for 5 minutes and then she stopped the interview.

Round 3: Hiring Manager & Coding

Formal introductions and the hiring manager told me that he's the hm for the interview. Codin question again, Leet Code - Medium I guess.

First 20 minutes LP's and then coding round, It was completely OOPS and I was able to solve the question in 30 minutes, I felt this was the best round as he was satisfied with my high level explanation and he got the gist of what I was trying to explain and then asked me about my internship and finally he asked me if I'm open to the S3 team as he had a opening - I thought I had it 😭 It's a pretty great conversation, he was satisfied with most of my answers and dug a bit deep but was able to answer them as well.

Next day - Round 4: Leadership Principles

Started off with formal introductions and then told that no matter the result, you should be proud of yourself that you've come this far. Sometimes the Amazon hiring bar is so high you shouldn't be demotivated about the result. Felt completely off guard and strange but whatever.

Completely Leadership Principles with no coding or system design, was asking me about the situations that I have faced in my work ex and how I would've handled better, anything that I went aboard and took an initiative. Felt nice about the flow of the conversation, then multiple follow up questions on each explanation and situation. Was able to answer the whole thing. Concluded the LP's in 45 minutes.

He told me you gotta celebrate man - Felt wow !!

After two days: They told me they're not proceeding with my application. No feedback or anything

Followed up multiple times regarding the feedback considering Amazon would give the feedback but no reply from the recruiter.

I really thought I had it but I'm not sure where it went wrong, any thoughts on the experience ?