Survivorship

There is an element of survivorship behind all the “I cracked FAANG and you can too!” Interviewing is such a crap shoot, especially at most of the FAANGs. So when someone says “hey, here’s all you have to do to get in!”, please take it with a grain of salt. We know we have to grind LC. We know we have to study the top tagged questions. There’s nothing special that you in particular did. There is no magic solution that you or anyone can give us. And if you are currently grinding, don’t take it too hard if things don’t go your way. Luck is such a crucial element. You could be asked a hard that’s disguised as a medium that involves some form of DP in the optimal solution, while the guy that had his onsite last week was asked 2 sum as a warmup and 3 sum for the actual problem. And that’s the guy who will post here about how to get in. You just get lucky sometimes and that’s how it is. Getting into FAANG is 70% luck and 30% grinding. I say all this as a Meta senior SWE.