What psychopaths created the interview process?

Leetcode is famous for being a perfect platform for practicing coding problems and to master coding interviews, unlike others, it is not for competitive programming, this guide will help you to get started with Leetcode without losing hope too early.

A Guide to grinding Leetcode

Follow a list

Biggest reason why people don't find DSA interesting is because they are unable to discover good problems which are easier to solve, simply solving popular questions with no track of questions will bore you very quick. Even worse, you might try solving a really hard problem and lose motivation when it wasn't that hard, you just had to get a grip on it. That's why it's absolutely necessary to follow a list of questions, that way you won't have issues discovering new questions.

Solving problems in right order is very important,

you might see question marked easy which isn't actually easy, the solution will be small, but sometimes, it isn't easy to come up with that solution if you haven't done simpler version of it, thus, it will be demotivating,

Blind 75 Leetcode Questions

This is an awesome list which is asked in interviews and is ordered by actual level of difficulty with prerequisites coming before harder questions, if you follow this, you'll feel interested, once you have done most of this, do problems in “similar questions" section below each problem till you master that category.

Once you feel confident, you can use this,

Leetcode Patterns

and solve problems by category, this will help you master a data structure or some algorithm.

don't get afraid by “hard" questions, there is no hard problem which can't be broken up, try to break it, you might not be able to solve it but you'll convert it to much shorter set of problems which can be solved with some practice.

Thinking abstract and looking at bigger picture is very important, try to convert it to a standard problem. Leetcode is addictive if you improve gradually, try it.

Avoid looking at solutions easily

It's not bad to look at solutions, afterall, you can't know everything and learning is necessary, however, looking at solution just after few minutes of brainstorming is bad, you have to give your absolute best and try every possible "inefficient" solutions you could come up with.

First phase is to figure out what Algorithm and data structure will be used, if you are able to determine what data structure will be used, you can check the Related Topics section to verify if your assumption was correct, and if after few minutes you can't figure it out, you should still check the data structure that will be used and then try to figure out how and where it will be used in given problem.

If you are able to come up with a solution which works correctly, just isn't the best one, that's still a success, coming up with a brute force solution is a bare minimum in an interview.

You can try improving the brute force solution by using some optimizations, that might not lead you to the optimal solution, but improving a solution is a great skill. After spending an hour, if you can't solve the problem, you should usnderstand that you just aren't well versed with the given algorithm and should try solving related problems with that data structure and understand how it works.

You should avoid looking at solution, a solution you made yourself will help you much more, you should abandon the question and maybe revisit in future when you have some experience with that data strucure. That way you can also track if you made some progress with that technique and if you could solve a new problem given to you in an interview,

Interview Questions don't come with hints

One thing to remember is that Interview questions won't tell you what data structure will be used for the problem. That's something you can only master with practice, the patterns and requirements of problems determine what's going to be used.

There is no substitute for practice, reading about algorithms will sure improve your range of thinking, but practice is what will help you master it.

Be Consistent

This goes without saying that practice needs consistency, simply overdoing once and abandoning for months will be destructive, it doesn't take much to take out some time everyday for Leetcode, as far as discovering questions is a concern, you can use Daily Challenges to keep the consistency and maybe also earn Leetcode coins which might buy you a Leetcode T-Shirt one day.

Turn Demotivation into learning opportunity

There will be times when you can't solve a problem despite all efforts, that's very common and bound to happen, but some question being too hard is not something that should demotivate you, every question is a learning opportunity, you can always learn it. Demotivation should be avoided and that's only possible if you have confidence in yourself and will to learn as much as you can.

Participate in contests

Eventhough Leetcode isn't a competitive programming platform, there are contests which allow you to try out brand neew problems and even compete with others. They have categories of 1 easy, 2 Medium and 1 Hard, and solving 3 is more than enough. Once you have enough confidence on your problem solving ability, these contests will help you gain interview experience as they don't have any hints and solutions aren't available during contest. This is pretty close to a real interview experience where time is limited.

Keep Hustling

Leetcode is an addiction and soon you'll fall in love with it, all you need to do is start, there is only one good time to start anything great, NOW, just do it and you'll sure be satisfied with your decision and be proud of yourself. That's all, It's never too early and never too late.

I'm a rising Junior and I'm getting my resume together for SWE internships. Any pointers? Should I step up my projects? I don't have any prior work experience besides my part-time job so I'm not sure how I can change the work experience section. Any tips would be appreciated.

https://preview.redd.it/yulca3cqezrc1.jpg?width=2550&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bc88a753160a28f1468bdfcd965a80e260d6cb81

I have never felt like this in my life, but I am having a full-on existential crisis about what to do. I live in Vancouver Canada and I was accepted to McGill, Western, Queens, UVic and SFU all for a bachelor of arts in Psychology I'm waiting for back from my #1 choice, UBC....

I got into SFU with a $40,000 scholarship but I do not like the school... So that in itself is a problem. I don't like the campus, or the reputation and the students tend to be very introverted/awkward there for some reason. But, at that school, I want to switch from psychology to either labour studies or economics.

If I go into economics I will have a way better career trajectory and more lucrative opportunities + I decently enjoyed economics in high school, however, university economics is way harder of course. I am usually really bad with numbers and I am currently only getting a 60% in Foundations 11 and 12 while all my other courses are generally 90%+. The good thing is I can switch to Economics first year because they don't have a pre-calculus prerequisite like other schools do, but they have Calculus 1 for social sciences which frightens me + the other hard math courses. I would need to maintain a high GPA to maintain the scholarship too.

If I go into Labour Studies, I feel as if I will enjoy my degree a lot. I enjoy the courses they offer and it looks interesting to me, but I will be pigeonholed to HR-type jobs and I won't make a lot of money. I want to be financially set and even wealthy, and the absolute most I could make would be $200,000 if I got this degree and my masters in Industrial Organizational Psychology.

Or I could throw away the scholarship and SFU entirely and do Psychology at a higher-ranking school such as McGill or Queens....

Overall, I want to make the right decision and I want to do well for myself financially. I am freaking out so badly I can't eat. If you have any advice I would truly appreciate it more than anything, it would mean the absolute world to me.

Hi guys! Actually I'm currently trying to enter the job market for posts like junior developer or any internships. I needed help regarding my resume as I don't have any prior work experience and extra certifications also trying to find some hackathons or coding bootcamps till then what should I do to fill up my resume and start applying for some entry level positions ?! (I'll include my portfolio website to showcase my projects and skills)

Had a few interviews this past 2 months, with my most recent one being the one I felt went the least well (although I am yet to hear back); while the others, despite being unsuccessful, ran a lot smoother and felt well delivered by the interviewers. For my last one, I’m not sure if I’m the one at fault or if it was delivered poorly.

This was for a comms/engagement role at an NGO.

First question was on my motivations for applying for the role - so I spoke about my current position, aspirations, and interest in the mission of the NGO. One of the interviewers interrupted me to say they were actually looking for me to talk about how my skills and experience align with the job spec. Which is fine as a separate question, but I can’t see it in what they initially asked me.

Another point, they asked me how I would go about tracking engagement, referring to examples from my own experience of previous campaigns - I began to talk about a previous campaign I put together going through the steps of how I identified engagement metrics. Again they interrupted me to say they wanted me to talk about specific metrics within their NGO - again, not what they asked for initially. I suggested a few options but advised I’d really need to have a better understanding of the organisation first.

There were a few other instances like this and I feel very mixed about the interview. They seemed to like the examples I provided - however the interruptions and direction changes threw me off. It wasn’t very facilitatory and it seemed as though they had a very specific idea of how they wanted me to respond. Did I just misread the questions or was this handled poorly?

TL;DR: Interruptions and direction changes by the interviewer - was this a poorly done interview on their part or mine?

So i randomly applied to an investment banking firm a while ago and got a rejection but they had an intern drop out and said they want to interview me. I know a decent amount about financial topics but if I want to speed run knowledge up to the interview, what are the main topics I should go at? What questions could they ask? What’s are the things that I need to be sure I have down to sound like I know what I am talking about? Hope someone is able to help!

Hey guys, I got to the final interview stage with a company I would really like to work at. the interview was last Tuesday and it seemed to have gone great. The conversations were casual and flowing really well. I got a lot of great information. The recruiter even asked me about an ideal start date and we talked about compensation as well. They seemed genuinely interested in my answers and would ask follow up questions as well. But in the end they said it would take about 2-3 weeks to get back to me. I am worried because that seems like a long time to prepare a job offer. I also did not get a response to the thank you email I wrote post interview. Should I be worried about this? And is there anything I can do from now on to increase my chances?

TLDR: I just finished my final interview and everything went perfectly. But the recruiter gave me a huge amount of time before expecting a response. Should I be worried and what can I do to increase my chances?

Anybody else got email for the live technical interview(after clearing the hirevue)? What sort of questions should I expect? How should I go about my preparation?

Hi all! I am pursuing MS in CS from a T20 in US. Currently exploring opportunities for Summer '24. I am 400+ applications in but have received 0 interview callbacks. Would love feedback on my resume.

https://preview.redd.it/yd3v59hq6k8c1.png?width=877&format=png&auto=webp&s=eb254edaca512c3f1e2d12eb5ba1a01a02ab7133

I,as a full stack developper hijabi , am preparing for a crucial Skype interview in a multinational company. I'm passionate about my feild but i have doubts about succeedkng to secure a job there since i've heatd a lot of stories about potential bias and i honestly don't how to handle a question that will attack my religion or my beliefs, how should i present myself on the screen? How can i dress professionally as hijabi and also be respectfull to the company values ? And how can i address biaces and challenges regarding my appearance?

I'm gratefull for any advice,tips , stories you can share.

Can anyone tell me what the interview questions for Procter and gamble P&G for qc analyst please. Thanks 😊

I have my FM Interview on 29 th November. Anyone who is up for IV practice, please respond. Thanks!

Hi, I’m in my last year of university studying Computer Science. I’m applying to high-frequency trading companies (Optiver, Jump Trading, Flow Traders, etc.) for the role of a Software Engineer. In my cv is it better to mention:

1. 2 larger web development group projects

or 2. 2 smaller C++ concurrency / benchmarking courseworks?

In general, I have more experience with web dev than with low-level programming.

These companies usually want people with a low-level understanding of computer architecture / backend experience. However, when I look at the more senior positions (e.g. at Jump Trading), they are looking for UI developers too.

Today I had my first experience with a virtual interview on hirevue where you have to record yourself answering questions. The timer was 30 s to think about the answer and 1-2 mins to record the answer on video. I panicked in the very first question and that set the tone for the entire process. The questions were not even hard, they were basic like why do you want this job and why this company, etc. I badly wanted this job but am afraid that they would just rate me as a bad candidate based off of this.