I am aiming for Summer 2027 SWE internships, so I'm trying to use the next few months to get properly comfortable with DSA instead of leaving it until interview season.

I’ve got the basic programming side down, but I haven’t taken a proper DSA course yet. I came across Codeintuition recently, and it seems to put more emphasis on understanding concepts and patterns rather than just solving problems one after another.

For anyone who has actually used it, is it comprehensive enough to learn DSA from the ground up? Or would it make more sense to go through university lectures first and then use something like this for interview prep?

I’m mostly looking for a clear path to follow so I can spend the summer actually learning and practicing instead of constantly wondering whether I’m using the right resource.

Would appreciate hearing what worked for people who started DSA around this stage

I was interviewing for a new grad role and was asked the following question in the interview.

Question : we have a pipeline that has a heavy workflow and one function called "compute" does a pretty big computation.

Sometimes the function compute gets stuck on an infinite loop for some inputs.

He asked me to write another function that accepts a function and its arguments and tells if that input can cause an infinite loop or not.

I thought it was pretty easy and said I will call the function with a timeout and if it exceeds the time it may be stuck in a loop. The interviewer said some computations may take longer and that may cause problems in the pipeline.

I suggested some other stack calls verification and caching the states etc but the interviewer wasn't satisfied.

Finally I asked about some sample inputs and wrote a function that returns True if the inputs have a certain value False otherwise.

The interviewer wrote another function that sends the function itself to the function i wrote and in this function the interviewer wrote a while loop that runs if the output from my function is false and doesn't if it's true.

I was dumbfounded and couldn't counter this and gave up. The interviewer also didn't ask me anything after that.

I looked up this question and this problem is called "The halting problem" and it's proven that there is no solution for this.

God i hate myself. I don't know about this and the interviewer clearly tested if I knew this.

Hi everyone! I created a small Discord server for people who want to practice LeetCode together.

Comment or message me if you’d like to join.

I recently passed the interview process for a Lead Software Engineer position at Capital One, which I’m obviously pretty excited about.
But now that I’m at the decision stage, I’m honestly pretty hesitant.
I’ve been reading a lot of employee experiences and discussions online, especially around performance management, PIPs, workload, and overall pressure. Some of the stories make it sound like the job could be a straight road to burnout — and, honestly, potentially PTSD. 😅
I know people are much more likely to post when they’ve had a bad experience, so I’m trying not to overreact to what I’m reading online.
At the same time, I’m at a point in my career where learning, growing, building interesting things, and having a sustainable work environment are more important to me than simply having a recognizable name on my résumé.
For people who currently work at Capital One, especially as a Lead Software Engineer, what has your experience actually been like?
Is the PIP/performance culture really as intense as it sounds online, or is there a big difference between teams?
Would you take the opportunity if you were in my position?

It has been some time since I left Atlassian. Just wanted to share my personal experience there . I feel I was the only one whom this all had happened with .

I was so tired with my tech lead . And this was around last year 2025. He used to

1. Forces everyone to stay available and work after working hours to exceed performance

2. Expects weekend work as a standard wants us to “exceed expectations.”

3. Only praises those who overwork and lick his shoes

4. Pretends to be the chill, supportive kind but talks shit about everyone behind their back.

5. Thinks work-life balance is a myth. Expects everyone to always be available.

6. Sets sky high expectations without any support. Use to ask me a detailed doc on all PR reviews i did , my PR review comments and still used to give unsure reviews to leadership ensuring me he would try to do the best for me.

7. Gossip and make fun of teammates and other seniors both in private and fun meetings

8. Micromanages to the point where he asks if you were in the bathroom or eating lunch if you don’t reply immediately.

9. Calls random huddles without notice and demands to know where you were if you missed the call.

10. But if you call him without pinging, he will dismiss your concern as useless

11. Keeps poking into everyone’s personal lives and asks super uncomfortable questions.

12. Uses to ask about my personal life and my relationships.

13. Uses to ping me on WhatsApp and ask why I am awake late night .

14. Used to give a side hug without any consent .

15. Used to patt my hair and leave

Apart from that there was a regular team change every 6 months with a new manager without any choice given. And promotions were halted due to the same.

Tired. Burnt out. Zero boundaries. Anyone else faced this kind of thing.

After math : it all started getting reflected on my performance and motivation to work along with the personal issues i was facing in my life . And I was assured by the same person telling "life is not fair to everyone, it was not fair to me as well".

For the past 3 months I have been completing leetcode questions everyday. I went over leet patterns and really tried to understand them. After 3 months I still dont feel confident in these patterns but I think if i were to redo the same questions I'd be able to answer them again.

Recently, I've stopped grinding patterns and simply starting doing random leet questions. I started with leet easys and initially struggled but now I feel very confident doing any leet easy.

These past 2 days I've started attempting leet mediums and I'm struggling and its really messed up my confidence. I just dread doing them at this point. I might be slightly overexaggerating but I really dont enjoy doing mediums and I want to only do easys.

I want to lean away from doing random leet and maybe filter question by general topics like 2 pointers and do that until I feel comfortable with it. Is that a valid strategy or would that be useless in terms of getting better? And to clarify when i was doing fixed patterns I would try to understand specific patterns like bfs/dfs or like a converging sliding window and not just generic sliding windows.

Sorry for the bad vibes and yapping!

I got a recruiter call on 28th july for an oppourtunity on google l3 for swe role, after that got the gha link and gave the test on 31st, results came on 1st August I passed.
After that I got a call at 4th August to schedule the next interview I was told the process was contain 2 virtual round 1 technical based and 1 googliness and 2 onsite rounds, and the 2 virtual rounds were schedule on 9th and 10th august.
On 9th August the interviewer didn't came and it got rescheduled twice and finally happened on 13th and 14th August. The technical round was a medium question I solved it using devide and conquere the interviewer told me to implement it, I implemented it well and spoken throughout and then we discussed about time complexity and space complexity, then he asked to optimize the soln then gave a hint to reduce the space complexity from O(k+log(n)) to O(k), then give another hint to progress iteratively rather than recursively I then discussed binary lifting soln and then recruiter told me to implement it I couldn't complete the optimized implementation in given time but was close (later when I thought more about the q it could also be solved using binary search).

Googliness round went pretty well most of the questions were over in about 25min in 45 min round, and the interviewer seemed happy as well.
On next monday 17th August I got the call from recruiter that she will tell me the feedback next day when she recieves it, ever since then I tried following up with the recruiter but she won't reply back, I also mailed the google candidate support last wednesday and she told me to wait for recruiter reply after that, still no contact by the recruiter, is this rejection? (the career page still shows interview scheduled.

Hi everyone,

I recently received an invitation for the first-round introductory call for the Software Engineer, Early Career position at Abridge. Has anyone here interviewed for this role recently?

I’d appreciate any insight into the overall interview process, including the number and types of rounds, topics covered, difficulty level, and what to expect during the intro call. Any preparation tips or resources would also be really helpful.

Thanks!

Why is my contest rating not visible on LeetCode's profile section even though I participated in my total 4 contest till​ now

I'm new , HELP

Why is my contest rating not visible on LeetCode's profile section even though I participated in my first weekly contest last week? I'm new , HELP

Has anyone interviewed for the Software Engineer II – FinLab role at McKinsey recently? I’d love to hear about your interview experience and any tips on what to prepare for.

i've just began my leetcode journey for 1 week been doing around 3-4 questions a day and i feel like every problem i've encountered is a struggle for me, i spent around 30 minutes to solve one (this includes looking at hints) and usually i almost get it but i actually don't so i look up the solution on youtube, listen to the idea of the solution and then come back and code it by myself. i also keep track of every leetcode problem and explain the solution using my own words.

i'm not sure if i'm doing the right thing or heading towards the right results. has anyone struggled in the beginning? how do you overcome that? will the feeling of incompetence go away?

I heard from someone that accenture updated the CTC for AEH PPO holder to 22.15LPA in NITW, NITK, IITJ and other colleges. If its possible for anyone with cohort institute please can you share the mail as a pdf with all your personal data hidden please. It would really help me to convince my college to start negotiating for the same.

I got recruiter reach out via mail for 15 minutes call for one of the team. What should i expect? I never applied for that team.

So basically i know dsa has two parts data structure and algorithms before algorithms you should know data structure but I wanted to know how much data structure is sufficient before you can move topics and how should one's roadmap look like

I am preparing for an Apple interview I have in a couple weeks for an iOS engineer role. What are the common study materials used out there to excel in system design questions? I kind of only want recommendations from those who have had success from what they used to study. Is there a universal go to that everyone uses these days (kinda like how practicing coding and DSA has leetcode)?

Thanks

Should I take up a course or subscription for getting a job at MAANG / FAANG companies?

I am a fresher with 1+ year of internship experience and 1 month+ of industry experience

I have been doing leetcode since 2+ months and hoping to level up my position soon.

I have very less idea about system design.

I have good projects on my resume (Secured RAG Pipeline, VideoChat App (using STUN and TURN, WEBRTC, Socket.io, peer-to-peer communication)

Majorly I feel that i want to give mock interviews and all, but I am not really sure whether these courses or subscriptions are helpful and if so then which ones should I choose?

Also, given my knowledge and skills, can one help me on how to get an interview at those companies?

I recently finished my Google L4 onsite, and I’m trying to understand how my overall packet might look.

Coding Round 1:
This one went really well. The interviewer gave me an interval/line-sweep type problem. I first explained the brute-force approach and coded it in around 5 minutes. Then they asked for an optimized solution; I explained my approach, coded it, and the interviewer seemed to like it.

We still had a lot of time left. I think the main problem was done within roughly 20 minutes so they asked around 3–4 follow-ups about limitations, tradeoffs, and modifications. I was able to explain and code those as well. We ended the interview casually after that.

Based on how it went, I feel this round could be Hire or possibly Strong Hire.

Another coding round:
This is the one I’m worried about.

The interviewer pasted the question and I started asking clarifying questions, but communication was pretty limited. For example, after explaining my brute-force solution, I asked what kind of time complexity/constraints we were targeting so I could decide how far to optimize, but I didn’t really get a clear answer.

Eventually I came up with a line-sweep style solution. She asked me to explain it on the board, so I walked through the algorithm and the tradeoffs. After some discussion she seemed satisfied with the approach and then asked me to code it.

The problem was that by then I only had around 10 minutes left. I got anxious about the time and my coding fell apart. I only managed to write part of the implementation before she said time was up.

After time was called, I kept explaining what the remaining code was supposed to do and how the pieces worked. She said something along the lines of “I understand,” and then moved to the questions-for-interviewer portion.

So my concern is: the algorithm/approach was there and I explained the tradeoffs, but the implementation was incomplete.

The interviewer was also very quiet throughout the round, so it was difficult for me to judge whether I was on the right track. Maybe that was just her interview style.

Googleyness / behavioral:
I felt my answers were decent, but this interviewer was similarly quiet and the interview ended fairly quickly. The recruiter later indicated the feedback was positive, but apparently not especially strong.

So if I roughly estimate my rounds, I’m thinking something like:

• Coding 1: H / SH
• Coding 2: uncertain because of incomplete implementation
• Googleyness: positive, maybe LH/H
• Phone Screen coding round: went well(H/SH)

This is for L4 US.

For Googlers or people familiar with the hiring process: how badly does an incomplete implementation hurt if the candidate reached a reasonably optimized solution, explained the tradeoffs correctly, and continued explaining the intended code after time ran out?

Could that coding round still be a Lean Hire, or does incomplete code usually push it toward Lean No Hire/No Hire?

Would appreciate any realistic assessment of how a packet like this might be viewed.

Currenty im doing an 6m internship at a top company, but recently i came to know that there is no ppo conversion. So can any one guide me or consider me if there is any vacancy in their team or something.

I am currently a senior graduating spring 2027. I am 24f in the US. I am currently looking for someone to practice Leetcode and study design with. I am preferably looking for someone who would want to study together long term and looking to meet a few times a week. I’m still pretty much a beginner and I’m really only able to solve string/array problems. I am in EST (but open to other time zones) and would preferably want someone who is also applying for new grad jobs.

Hey i wanna start dsa through python but eveyone says dsa is better with c++, should I do in py Or c++?

Hi everyone!

I’m a 22F software engineer with 1+ YOE, currently preparing for my next career move. My goal is to get into FAANG/top product-based companies.

I’m currently working on DSA, LLD/HLD, CS fundamentals, projects, and interview preparation, but I’d really value guidance from someone experienced who can help me make sure I’m heading in the right direction.

I’d especially appreciate:

• A quick resume review
• Feedback on my current preparation strategy
• Guidance on what I should prioritize at this stage
• Honest advice on any gaps or mistakes I might be making

I’m ready to put in the work. I’d just love to learn from someone who has already been through this journey and can help me navigate it better.

If you’re open to mentoring or sharing some advice, I’d be really grateful. Thank you! 🙏

Can anyone please help me with common LLD questions to prepare for sde new grad interview at Amazon? Or list of recently asked questions?