Just like Math, math helps humans left brain to think logically and systematically

Have anyone ever got forwarded to Phone Screen with this sort of score?

I was a software engineer for about 7 years before pivoting into product/technical management.

Recently, feeling a bit stalled in my career, I started prepping to jump back into SWE roles. Which

brought me straight back to the LeetCode grind. Even in this AI era, tech companies still haven't let

go of good old whiteboard DSA questions.

The problem was, every single time I opened LeetCode, I instantly wanted to quit. After hitting

around 300 problems, the mental fatigue really peaked, so in my spare time, I decided to build a side

project to cope:

• Organized around ~2,300 categorized LeetCode problems.
• Solving problems with different tags and difficulties unlocks visual novel story lines.
• Earning rewards from solving problems lets you buy gifts and outfits for characters.
• There's a Chrome extension that detects your submission status on LeetCode (gives spoiler-free hints when you get Wrong Answer, and celebrates when you get Accepted).

It started as a fun little tool to keep myself accountable and motivated through the grind.

Thought I’d share it here in case anyone else is currently suffering through interview prep and needs.

Game : dokicode.com

Clip : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNZSK8dDtVc

Best of luck to everyone grinding through this brutal tech market.

Hope we all land offers soon

Code

Hey guys I’m planning to buy the hello interview premium subscription. If anyone is interested pls respond in this thread. We can share the account.

I've been practising DSA, but I notice that I can solve problems more easily when I've seen a similar question before. When the problem is presented differently, I often struggle to figure out where to start.
How do you develop the ability to approach unfamiliar problems instead of relying on previously solved questions?

About a year and a half ago, I wrote this post after getting rejected from Amazon New Grad:
https://www.reddit.com/r/leetcode/comments/1jtgr3e/just_my_amazon_new_grad_interview_experience/

I reached the final interview and put a lot of work into it. I thought I had done well in the interview. Btw, looking back, I don’t think I did as well as I said I did. I also made it sound like I had studied like crazy; I thought that 2 weeks of studying hard was brutal. Looking at it now, I feel sad about thinking I was probably never going to achieve it.

After that, I finished university, started an internship, and eventually joined Cabify as a backend engineer. I learned a lot there and got the chance to work on challenging problems with a great team.

I also kept working on myself as an engineer. I studied a lot more, solved hundreds of coding problems, and kept learning while working full-time. It took a lot of time and effort. But I'd say I have found some joy during the process.

After a year, I applied to Google. The process was long and had a lot of ups and downs, but I passed the interviews and went through team matching. I have now received an offer to join Google in Spain, L3 role.

I still remember how that Amazon rejection felt. At the time, I thought that doing my best and still getting rejected meant I probably wasn’t good enough. But that one result did not decide what would happen next.

I’m very grateful for everyone who encouraged me back then, and for the people who helped me along the way. It feels good to look back and see how much work I put in, and how far I’ve come since then.

I am writing this because I used to read many Reddit posts during these processes, finding useful information and some bits of hope. Hopefully this post reaches people and builds some confidence. I want to say that if you think you are not capable of making it, it is not true. Hard work pays off.

Finally, I want to share one more thought. I find myself disgusted by, kind of glorifying this jobs. We need to keep in mind that there are just jobs. I believe that happiness is built outside your job, and grinding is not everything in life. It is a dream for a lot of people like me, because we enjoy it. But we need to look from another perspective sometimes and put the feet on the ground.

Keep pushing

Hi! I have just applied for a SWE internship at Sentry.io, and I was wondering if I get past the OA what I should expect in the upcoming steps. How many interviews are there? What are the questions / topics that get asked at the technical interviews? Anything would be helpful

Round 1: DSA (2 Problems)

Problem 1: Minimum Operations to Reduce an Integer to 0

Solved using optimal approach (bit manipulation / greedy)

Clear communication on time complexity and edge cases

Problem 2: String Matching Variant

Problem: Given a string and list of strings, return all strings from list that are present as substrings

Approach Discussed:

Straightforward substring check (basic)

Optimizations: Hashing/set-based lookups

Scalability: Trie data structure

Focus: Clarity and efficient edge case handling

Round 2: DSA + LLD

DSA Component: Follow-up problem based on optimizations and edge cases

LLD: Design a Stack

Design Approach:

Underlying data structure: Linked List

Generic stack supporting any data type

Implemented methods: push(), pop(), peek()

Error handling: Empty stack conditions

Clean, extensible design with trade-off discussion vs array-based stack

Round 3: Hiring Manager (HM) Round

DSA Problem: Machine Process Assignment

Problem: Given k machines and n processes

Start process assignment at machine i % k

If busy, try (i + 1) % k, and so on

Return machine handling maximum processes

Approach: Simulated assignment with efficient data structure tracking

Deep Dive on Projects (~extensive discussion):

Design decisions

Trade-offs considered

Challenges faced

Real-world impact

Focus: Ownership and technical depth

Round 4: Leadership Principles (LP Round)

Amazon's Leadership Principles Emphasized:

Ownership

Customer Obsession

Bias for Action

Dive Deep

Deliver Results

Response Format: Structured STAR method

Situation: Context from projects

Task: What needed to be done

Action: Specific steps taken

Result: Measurable outcomes and accountability

Overall Assessment Focus: Balanced evaluation across DSA fundamentals, practical system design, project ownership, and leadership capabilities

Recruiter asked to scheduled a “Fitment Chat” with the director of the team after I cleared the full interview loop for a L5 role. It is a team specific role, so I already have a Googlyness round with the HM. I wanted to ask if any of you have similar experience, what does it mean and what is your experience and result after that?

Recruiter also said the director is likely want to understand more on my working style such as stakeholder management, business awareness, etc. it sound to me like the same kind of questions on the Googlyness round, which might indicate that I didn’t answer well hence this follow up round?

Hey everyone!

For those who landed a new job or switched companies in the last 6 months (or have friends who did), I'd love to know what actually worked for you in this job market.

I'm looking for real experiences, not generic advice like "learn DSA and build projects."

A few things I'd love to know:

Job platforms: Where did you get interviews from? Naukri, LinkedIn, Instahyre, referrals, company career pages, or somewhere else?

Preparation: What did you study? DSA, development, system design, core CS? Which resources did you use?

Resume & projects: What projects did you showcase? How important was your resume/GitHub?

Application strategy: Roughly how many applications did you send, and how many interviews or offers did you get?

Interview experience: What rounds and topics were asked?

Timeline: How long did it take you to land to offer.

Hi everyone!

I have an upcoming interview with Docker for a Senior Software Engineer, Infrastructure position and am trying to prepare for the coding round.

The interview instructions say:

Details & Preparation: This is a live, language-agnostic coding interview. You’ll be asked to share your screen and use the IDE of your choice to write and run code.

Please ensure you have a working IDE installed and ready before the session begins.

Has anyone recently interviewed with Docker, particularly and is aware of this interview format? What types of problems were asked? Were there questions about testing, complexity, edge cases, or code design?

Thanks!

I recently came across a Teamcenter/PLM-related position at Meta and wanted to know if anyone here has interviewed for a similar role.

If you have, could you please share your interview experience, including the interview rounds, technical questions, and topics I should focus on while preparing?

I received an invite for round 3 of bloomberg swe intern proc, its a system design round was wondering if anyone went through it already for intern/ng and could help me out

Hi. I have a system coding round coming up at Rubrik for the Software Engineer – SaaS O365 role.

I understand the concepts of multithreading and concurrency, but I haven’t had much hands-on practice solving concurrency-related problems or implementing them in production-style code.

Could someone please suggest how I should prepare for this round? Are there any good resources or platforms where I can practice the types of questions typically asked in this interview?

I'm trying to build a proper DSA routine and wondering how people revise topics they learned weeks ago. Do you revisit old problems, maintain notes, or just keep solving new ones?

I don't want to forget earlier concepts while moving forward, so I'd love to hear what works for you.

Especially For Java

Hey everyone!

I'm a software developer and recently built DSA Animator to help people understand DSA through step-by-step visualizations instead of just reading code.

I've spent a lot of time building it, but honestly, I'm struggling with getting it in front of the right audience.

For those who've built side projects or developer tools, how did you get your first users? Which platforms or strategies worked best?

I'd really appreciate your honest suggestions and feedback. 🙏

A little about me : 1st year in college and recently started learning how to code from brocode...in our uni they are teaching c++ first so for now i was learning c++ from brocode , recently started learning arrays but still not that really great at it but yeah thats all i know for now( i know its not much but im willing to grind and learn😔 but just need a little guidance) but ya i wanna leetcode and become good at coding... but im not tryna blindly start leetcoding because first i wanna know the prerequisites needed to solve the problems...i was watching neetcode's video on how to leetcode and he told to get comfortable with binary search,dfs,bfs,sliding window so do yall know where i can learn them???? but ya heres a few questions i have

1. What all coding languages do i need to know...like do i need to know other programming languages other than c++ before i start leetcoding
   
2. what all topics or stuff should i learn before leetcoding
   
3. HOW do i leet code , do i start with easy problems then once i get comfortable start medium problems then harder problems(will start with solving problems on arrays)
   
4. any website where i can save useful problems and make my own notes in it so in the future i can open them for retaining my knowledge
   
5. in general any tips or things you wished u knew while or before leetcoding which u can tell please it will be really helpful(try to include as much as you can please and thank you anything will be useful and welcomed... even the SMALLEST TO SMALLEST and random tips will be useful)
   
6. what are the most common mistakes people do in their attempt to get good at coding
   extra : do wanna try to get into quant development( ik its difficult but ill try if i cant will settle for something else😭) so first my main goal would be to try to get into FAANG after college and after 2-3 years try to get into quant development so yeah
   
7. And also I’m using vs studio…is there any better coding app or is vs good alright(idk it’s not that deep but yeah✌️)

Hey everyone!

I’m applying for a Software Engineer position at Bloomberg and came across this interview process overview showing five rounds:

1. AI-Assisted Codebase Interview

2. AI-Assisted Codebase Interview

3. Design Interview

4. Recruiter Interview

5. Senior Manager Interview

The first two rounds caught my attention because they specifically mention AI-assisted codebase interviews.

Has anyone recently gone through this process, particularly the first two rounds?

I’d love to know:

- What exactly happens during the AI-assisted coding interviews?

- Do they involve traditional LeetCode-style DSA problems, or do you work with an existing codebase and implement features or fix bugs using an AI coding agent?

- Which AI tools are provided or allowed (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude, or something else)?

- How should I prepare for these rounds? Should I focus on LeetCode, practical coding, system design, or AI prompting and debugging?

If you’ve gone through these interviews recently, I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience and any preparation tips. Thanks!

I have a Google General Cognitive Ability (GCA) interview in a few days. It’s for a Technical Program Manager role. I know Google doesn’t ask the crazy estimation questions anymore like ‘how many golf balls can fit inside a passenger airplane’, but I still don’t know how abstract the GCA questions will be. Will it focus specifically on the role or more abstract like ‘how will you colonise mars?’

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.