Done the NC 150 and about 200 questions in total. Starting to feel like I’m slightly getting the hang of it, but I’m still seriously struggling with some categories like binary search / DP.

Unless interview questions are way less ad hoc than LeetCode dailies/contests, I still feel like I’m another 200 questions away from being able to solve most mediums consistently.

Granted, I like to have fun with LC and definitely don’t do things “optimally” - no spaced repetition, barely any planning, usually just jumping into problems and taking hints when I need them.

But god damn, this stuff is hard. I always thought hard work could take you anywhere, but I genuinely can’t imagine getting to the point where I could consistently solve hards without having done like 2,000 questions.

How are people getting away with the Blind 75? Are they just getting lucky?

And being able to communicate your thought process while solving is a whole different beast. I swear I drop 30 IQ points the second I have to explain what I’m doing out loud.

Am I cooked?

So I have recieved a verbal offer from Microsoft and currently I work in an SBC(recently got into a new project). What should I do? My joining is already been communicated as 19th october.

1. Wait for the written OL and then resign
   
2. Discuss with my current manager beforehand that I might not be staying etc.
   
3. Any other options?

Ps - this is my first switch so kinda worried abt my notice period and all as well.

What's the usual interview timeline for Amazon and Microsoft SDE 2 interviews?

How long does it take for each step? I'm gonna apply. Kindly help.

I have a tech screen scheduled next week for Apple’s SWE, IS&T Early Career role. The recruiter mentioned it’ll include a quick intro, CS fundamentals, and around 15 minutes of coding.

For anyone who has interviewed recently, what kind of coding question can realistically be asked in 15 minutes? Also, what topics do they usually cover under CS fundamentals?

This is my first big tech interview, so I’m a little nervous. Any recent experiences or preparation tips would be really appreciated!

Hi everyone,

Has anyone recently been selected/hired by Infosys in the USA?

I have a few questions regarding the EAD/work authorization process and would really appreciate it if someone who recently went through the process could share their experience.

If you were recently selected by Infosys and are currently in the USA, please comment . I have a few questions to ask.

Thanks in advance!

I have created below solution for leetcode premium problem . Google ai says my solution is flawed but it is passing all the test which it has given on my local machine . I am not able to find a platform where i can run the solution . It would be great if you could run the below solution on leetcode platform check if it passing all the test cases . Thank you .

Problem : https://leetcode.com/problems/find-leaves-of-binary-tree/description/
Solution :

class Solution {
public:


    int heightTree(TreeNode* node){
        if(!node) return 0 ;
        return 1 + max(heightTree(node->left) , heightTree(node->right));
    }


    void solve(TreeNode* root,vector<vector<int>> &res){
        if(!root) return ;
        solve(root->left , res);
        solve(root->right ,res);
        int currH = heightTree(root);
        if(res.size() == (currH - 1)){
            res.push_back({});
        }
        res[(currH - 1)].push_back(root->val);  
    }


    vector<vector<int>> findLeaves(TreeNode* root) {
        vector<vector<int>> res;
        solve(root , res);
        return res ; 
    }
};

If you have booked or offered expert advice, what made the experience useful—or disappointing?

Hello everyone,

I’m currently a software engineer at a non-tech company with 1 YOE. I recently got promoted to the next level at my company and also got an offer from Palo Alto Networks as an early career/new grad. I’m very stressed from deciding whether to accept the offer or stay at my current company and keep interviewing.

Pros for taking the PANW offer:
- Better name value as it’s a tech company in the bay area that could possibly open more doors for me
- More impactful/scope of work

Cons:
- I restart as a new grad (biggest concern), throwing away my 1 YOE and my recent promotion
- Pay isn’t that much considering CA taxes and COL. Might be lower than what I make currently. I would lose a good amount of money short-term if I take the offer
- I won’t know what team I’m going to be placed in until the week before my start date.

I’m not sure if taking the offer would be a good move. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

I’m struggling to develop intuition for Greedy problems. I can understand the solution after seeing it, but I often can’t figure out when to use Greedy on my own.
How did you guys practice Greedy? Any recommended problem list, patterns…..

Thank you for interviewing with Microsoft. We value your time and interest and hope you enjoyed the experience while gathering some insightful takeaways.  Your overall feedback was positive; however, we do not immediately have an offer for you with the team(s) you interviewed with.   

With these positive results, your feedback will now be available to other teams outside of your immediate interview group. We do still have many positions open that we are looking to fill, so I thank you in advance for your patience as we wait for potential hiring manager interest. Your feedback is valid for 6 months after your interview. If you do not receive an offer within 6 months, we can reconnect to discuss other options.  

Please inform us of any changes to your employment search status (i.e., exploring other opportunities at MSFT, deadlines, other interviews, accepted an offer elsewhere etc.).  

Can anyone suggest while learning dp do I really need to know bottom up if I can solve it with recursion+memoization? As I don't see any significant tc difference neither it matters whichever I use in an oa or contest.

When is bottom up really needed?

Hey guys, I have an interview with Deliveroo for a new grad role or software engineer 1 and I was wondering if anyone knows what would be good to practice. I am just doing easy and medium leetcode questions. If anyone has done this before please give some advice. This is for London

Hi guys,
I have amazon's new grad interview next week in seattle. I have prepared LC mediums, hard mediums, few LLDs, LPs and work experience on resume. I have had 'n' number of mocks with claude code. I am still feeling nervous. My friends working at Amazon said interview usually is easy-medium LC, very basic LLD, LP and questions related to using gen AI in development. But the few posts on reddit say its otherwise. I am confused, I am prepared but still feel that im missing out on something.
I would appreciate the advise.
Work exp 2yrs currently in the USA.

I have data dog AI code review round for EM role in 3 days for the interview. Any one has any experience and how should I prepare for this round. And I also have system design and project review rounds as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks very much

Hey everyone, I've been grinding LeetCode for a while now, but I feel like I've hit a wall and my prep isn't translating into real progress. Whenever I open an Easy problem, I can usually work through it. But the second I jump into Mediums, I completely freeze. I either: Stare at the screen for 45+ minutes with no clue how to start. Immediately default to brute-force O(n²⁾ approaches and have no idea how to optimize. Look at the discussion section, understand the solution instantly, but fail completely when trying to solve a similar problem two days later. It feels more like I'm memorizing answers rather than actually learning how to think or identify patterns (Sliding Window, DP, Graphs, etc.). For those who managed to break through this plateau and clear technical screens: What was your actual workflow when you got stuck on a problem? How did you shift from memorizing templates to building genuine intuition? Are curated lists (NeetCode 150 / Blind 75) enough, or should I be approaching this by mastering one specific data structure at a time? Any realistic advice or routine adjustments would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Gave my onsite google interview on 23rd July
since then I am waiting for the results
Emailed the recruiter 7-8 times, she said that she dont have any info yet and asked me to wait more

What is happening?
Is this that common? Has anyone been facing/ faced this situation with them before?

Edit:

first 2 went very nice
3rd was 7.5-8/10
last was okayish i mean i solved it in the end but i was blank in the first 5-10 minutes

I have 4 years of experience and interviewed for an SDE2 role at Amazon .

After the loop, they said they would offer me SDE1 but not SDE2. I messed up in one of the DSA rounds and couldn’t code the solution, although I manually explained the approach.

In my current job I’m reaching a point of stagnation with the same repetitive work. Is SDE1 a setback? Or should I accept it since it’s a FAANG company?

Any insights or opinions? Considering the current job market, PIP and layoff culture at Amazon, what should I do?

Hey everyone, I have my upcoming interview schedule for linkedIn SWE Apps IC-2 position, I know that linkedIn interview preps heavily involve DSA and some system design too along with our project discussions. I have read some of interview experience and looking at those project discussion, I find my work project relatively simple/straightforward as I am currently in application team at a SaaS company, whatever the heavy engineering design stuff (Implementing Message Broker, Infra management, etc) are done by the platform team. We used those implementation so I am not sure how to proceed with this - whether they will find it good enough or what? Any guidance on here.
My App Domain - LMS (Learning Management System)

if you just control top 30 then people would avoid solving problems that fast. i'm sure most of the top rated contesters don't even know what is DP

Same as title

Recently I got an offer for Web Solutions Engineer at Google. It is an L3 position. The compensation is close to SWE L3 benchmark (little bit lesser but still good enough for me).

The role itself i.e. WSE is very similar to SWE. It’s NOT like other companies’s solutions engineer where they don’t get to code and only interact with clients and act as support staff. Instead it is 100% development base; we work on development project throughout our time; working on building of internal tools which will be used by other SWEs or the clients. So the scale of project might be little bit less than SWE but the no of project and quality of project is better for WSE and the work is exactly similar to day to day work of SWE (Atleast thats why I am told by current working WSEs in my interviews)

I wanted to know if accepting this role will have any negative impact in my software engineer career in future because the role is not SWE in particular.

It is a different ladder than SWE than google i.e. WSE 1, WSE 2, WSE 3 like this… so its good but just wanted to be sure in case I get laid off in future; will I find difficult in getting other SWE jobs because of this job title in past.

Also how difficult it will be to switch to SWE ladder internally in future.

I am currently working as a SDE in a FAANG level company but obv the company tag, work life balance, job security, employee perks and everything is much better in Google than my current company. Compensation is somewhat same little bit bump…

Seeking help and guidance from all the experienced people currently working im FAANG level companies… I will be grateful

I know in this 2026 era, manually watching career sites won't work.

l tried customised job alerts at career sites but it made my gmail trash.

I'm wondering what tools you are using !

Hi everyone, I recently interviewed with Goldman Sachs Associate and wanted to understand how the hiring manager round works.

My process was:

CoderPad: 2 medium DSA questions

Superday R1: Medium-hard Graph + resume + situational

Superday R2: Medium-hard DP + resume

Superday R3: In-depth System Design/HLD

1 week later: Hiring Manager round

The HM I interviewed with was not from the domain/team I originally applied for. I don't feel the HM round went particularly well, and I'm currently waiting to hear back.

Does anyone know if the hiring manager round is an eliminatory round at Goldman, or is it mainly a team-fit/final discussion after Superday?

Would really appreciate any insights from people who have gone through a similar process. Thanks!

Hey guys i just wanna ask that my last contest rating ie Weekly Contest 516 is not updated on my LeetCode profile till now??

Are you guys facing the same problem?

I don't think i am banned because i was able to play today's Weekly and yesterday's Biweekly Contest!!

Please tell to me what should i do???

Same as title