Most Tech Interview Prep is GARBAGE. (From a Principal Engineer at Amazon)

Most software engineering prep videos on YouTube are only good for entry-level jobs. You deserve more than that. Let me share my mental model for how to successfully prep for a senior, staff or principal role at a FAANG company.

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The most important currency you have is your undivided attention. This book shows you exactly how to spend this currency in a manner that will lead to head-turning accomplishment.

SYSTEM DESIGN
Currently the best reference contemporary for system design.

For interviews, the best references are System Design Interview and System Design Interview Volume 2 by Alex Xu.

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[miramar-]

I totally agree that the interview process should not just be focused on leetcoding interviews - especially for Sr+ engineers, but from recent experience with FAANG as an engineer with 25+ yrs experience, what I found was ... screening calls .. 100% leetcode (HARD in my case) .. so if you can't pull leetcode hard Q's out of your backside (perfectly) in 25 mins you don't even get to the 'onsites', where, you get another THREE leetcode HARD interviews, followed by a System Design and a behavioral ... this was the pattern across the board. The focus, no matter what your seniority, seems to be leetcode .. which is what takes 90% of the prep time going in .... as I Sr guy I can do Sys Design all day long, because it's closer to what I actually do as a Sr engineer .. but the leetcode stuff.. well that's never been part of the dayjob and requires practice..and luck! Such a terrible and contrived way to evaluate Sr engineers IMHO

[jrmoulton]

Video: stop doing leetcode
Me after watching the video: Guess I better go do some leetcode

[elmonje]

Lovely what you said, and thank you for that. I worked at Amazon, an according to my buddy I was expected to code like him, design like him and think like him because I started in a L5 role (as him). Language was not a barrier because we both speak Spanish. In fact after one week working on a project he stopped joining any meeting because I was supposed to answer all questions (no writing documentation exist because he worked alone, in fact I must say SIM tickets were poorly documented if you try to find out why some technical decisions were done that way). I recall once my manager told me to get more info about a process and when I asked my "buddy and mentor", he says that it was not my work and I need to spend more time coding. I ended up quitting, because you could be a good technical developer (I am not consider myself the best but I do my best) but the lack of business info and the lack of support was a nightmare. In fact, in the starting training sessions when they tell you you must rely on your team in order the avoid that feeling of the impostor syndrome, well my lovely buddy made feel that way.

My big advice, those companies (FAANG) like any other companies have their pros and cons (like any other job). Do not idolatry them (in my case the salary was not that high, a 10% raise in compare to my previous job, so it did not pay off the nightmare I experienced). And I am the kind of person that do not mind working extra hours as long as I am learning (in fact the project was quite interesting). Try what you think it is best for your career (and probably you realize these kind of companies are not meant for you, and you know what.... It is OK)

[md]

The irony of most of the interview prep courses out there is that they were almost all created by ex FAANG engineers who turned out to be much better at creating YouTube videos that they were at being software engineers.

[bigkurz]

it's cool to find someone who gives advice that isn't for "COMPLETE BEGINNERS". I enjoy the senior/principle mindset.

[abhilashravi]

Thanks for squashing the notion of leetcode..i was so anxious around it. Cant wait for more prep on senior engineers

[sitronco]

Thank you so much for your content. Just with this video alone I have learned plenty. Definitely following your channel since within the next 5 years I hope to be able to reach senior or (hopefully) a principal level :).

[grandgao]

Thank you so much for the video. Still just a beginner in coding, but it really shed some light on what you might need to succeed, going down the path!

[jlecampana]

Generally speaking this video is spot-on, however, for FAANG, the level evaluated for the coding sections at ANY level (specially for Google) is tremendously high, hence the need (for most candidates) to over-prepare for that part alone. And just like you mention in the video, the baseline or minimal test that you need to pass in order to be considered for a position will always be an Algo & DS exercise. But overall good advice to not skip System Design and Behavioral for those of us who are more experienced. Great video!

[Yui-eemw]

Thanks for sharing, the last section about how answer shows your seniority really makes me rethink about my answer before.

[vishnugovindan]

Your wig game is strong 😂 Would love to see more system design videos!

[FieldOrder]

Thank You! This information was so helpful for me. I have a big interview for an engineer role later today. Glad I found you!

[al-b]

Great content, really helpful tips for more senior candidates. Thanks a lot for making this video!

[perryhertler]

The story telling recommendation is gold. I’ll remember that. Thanks for the content!

[felipesantos]

Thanks a lot! This talk is pure gold!!! And it's available for everyone. Super detailed and knowledgeful. Thanks a lot for sharing,

[shivamjalotra]

It would be great if "Senior Role" was also mentioned in the Thumbnail.

[juliahuanlingtong]

The wig part is gold!!! The last piece of advice on the ratio of portions gives an exact idea what to do next! Big thanks!

[CollegeFootballNerds]

This was an excellent video. I would point out that a lot of senior/principal engineers focus on coding so much because the LC game has come up while they were busy building things over a decade+ career. It's the hardest thing for them to do because it's the most removed from their actual job. LC interview questions have you draw on DSA concepts you may not have seen for two decades, while behavioral and system design questions often draw from your actual experience.

[ElctrLun]

Lots of good information here, thanks! I have 14 years of experience as an engineer, of which 5 as a senior, 1 as a software architect, and overall during these periods the last 2 years I've been a tech lead. My last 6 years have all been at a well known tech company too.

That said, if I got a question like "Tell me about a time you strongly disagreed with your team" I probably wouldn't know what to say as I feel that in all my experience I have NEVER seriously disagreed with any of my teammates - in all the teams I've been I always had a surprisingly good rapport with my teammates and the things we did disagree on were small and inconsequential, hardly worth mentioning. However I have disagreed with engineering managers and even our head of engineering, and in some of those disagreements I was able to make a compelling case and get what I and the team wanted, whereas in other situation my opinions were acknowledged but the course of action set.

I left the company recently and I've been interviewing. I found that I am very bad at interviewing, because I was often stumped by behavioural questions such as that one - where my immediate answer was "never disagreed", or I just couldn't tell them of a time I did X because I just couldn't remember specifics. To the point where somebody told me they thought I was a beginner. Cool, but if I'm such a beginner then how was it that I have all these achievements - managed to lead teams, run critical projects, deal with stakeholders and deliver things that were loved by our customers?

Well it's because I wasn't prepared for these types of interview questions. Now I am prepared, I have identified a set of stories that I can tell these people, but now I feel like this is also disingenuous, because anyone can prepare and give good sounding stories during an interview, yet that doesn't mean they will actually be good at doing the job.

[mrchedda]

Great stuff! I’d be interested in more system design questions and how to approach and formulate an exceptional type of answer. 👍🏽