I got offers from Google, Meta, Amazon (SWE intern) by GRINDING for exactly ONE year which made technical interviews for big tech TRIVIAL (rant)

disclaimer: lowkey this is just me yapping/ranting about my experience for this recruitment cycle cause looking back i realized that big tech interviews are really easy IF you do the proper preparatio

disclaimer: lowkey this is just me yapping/ranting about my experience for this recruitment cycle cause looking back i realized that big tech interviews are really easy IF you do the proper preparation beforehand and are way less intimidating than i thought. and i think ANYONE can land these offers no matter your background (i think like working towards cs degree would be bare minimum) and if you dont believe me read the context of where i started just ONE year ago below. a lot of people have been asking how i

passed my technical interviews at google, meta, and amazon for swe intern and perfect scores on OAs to get interviews so heres everything i did (this may or may not work for you but it did for me and i would not consider myself an above average thinker - see context for where i started). context: exactly ONE year ago i was a really cooked cs major (couldn't solve any leetcode easys, ai slop projects, no experience, 3.5 GPA, etc.). a year later (today) after 800+ solved i have gotten offers from Google, Meta, and Amazon for swe intern and 90% of technical interviews/GCA OAs for big tech is pretty trivial - like lwokey the hardest part of the process has become the behaviorals for me but maybe thats cause i more introverted. (also failed some quant interviews so if youre interiviewing for swe quant i cant help - feel free to drop advice though cause ill be recruiting for next cycle). so yeah if you are like me from a year ago and you actually lock in starting now, anything can happen. getting interviews/passing resume screens: this post is moreso about preparing for technical interviews so imma keep ts short but basically for me i did - undergraduate research with a professor (low barrier for entry, just cold email them) - my universities student quant club (getting interview is easy and usually they are just looking for chill motivated people) - if u dont like quant do like another cs related club that has a really high talent density (eg. math club, competitive programming, etc.) - 2-3 projs that actually show problem solving and not just AI slop - i also only got to like a T30 college so it def was not a feeder school. - GPA matters. anythign above a 3.5 and youll be fine, ofc anything higher will only increase your chances if passing resume screen (dont listen to the ppl who say GPA doesn’t matter) - get your resume reviewed often by CREDIBLE people (optimize EVERY word - no filler words, show impact through metrics, etc.) how to pass technical interviews: grind leetcode. now i will preface and say that 800+ problems solved is definitely overkill (idk how much is optimal probably different for everyone but if ur really smart and can pick up patterns quickly then im sure doing nc 150 is enough - but i am not that smart so yeah). for me once i did like 600 problems i was able to pick up the patterns pretty quickly and from there just did like 1 a day so that i wouln't forget everythig. important thing here is CONSISTENCY which im sure if you're readiung this you already know. for me i started with 1 a day (at the start be super strict about this, like the days that you really dont want to do it are the most important days to actually do it, changes the shape of your brain, neuroplasticity, blah, blah, blah). then eventually it just becomes part of your routine and is pretty easy to maintain (i actually started to like leetcode at one point and started doing like 5 a day). not gonna say too much about how to actually learn leetcode cause this post is already long enough + there are a ton of resources on this, ill just say watch neetcode and REALLY understand how the solution works, why it works, look at edge cases, if you have trouble understanding it fully run through a test example line by line and keeping track of values/data in data structures. you can do spaced repetition or wtv but whats the most important is understanding deeply why that specific algorithm/ds works for this problem. i have feeling that this is the main reason people get stuck is cause they dont take the time to truly understand why a solution works and what its actually doing now during the actual technical interview if you really understand all the patterns the problem solving aspect becomes pretty trivial imo. from here its just following an outline to clearly communicate which is equally if not more important than actually solving the problem. for me i followed this outline: - first read the problem out loud if they dont do it already (if they do then i just paraphrase what they said and ask if my interpretation is correct) - this buys you time. - next ask clarifying questions covering edge cases,

input shape, etc - this also buys you time. - then i run through an test example (if they dont give you one make up your own). by now you should know exactly how to solve it - first i like to give the brute force quickly (if there is one) and then move to the optimal solution giving space and time complexity discussing tradeoffs in time/space if i can think of any. - then ask if this works, and starting writing out the code while talking about each line as you write it. -finally run through the example from earlier through your code line by line, keeping track of variables and data structures to catch and bugs. couple other notes: - you should be writing out everything that seems important when talking out the solution in the beginning (observations, pseudo code, etc.) - i spend about like 20-30 minutes talking out the solution first and then the last like 10-15 minutes actually coding it/ testing it). - you or your interviewer should ALWAYS be talking, if theres like > 30 sec of silence it might be over. like theres no reason why there should be any gap of silence, if your stuck just say exactly what you’re thinking outloud and - LISTEN to your interviewer for any hints. - also idk if ts is just a coincidence and we got super lucky but ive never heard of Amazon, Meta, Google, Netflix for SWE intern (even citadel but n=2) asking harder than a LC medium from my experience and my friends experience (n=\~20). usually its just a lc medium + a twist which shouldn’t be hard if you actually understand the patterns. or its lc which is more sys design leaning. but yeah maybe this is wrong and there have been ppl who’ve gotten hards but i still think its very rare for interns especially conclusion: take everything i said with a grain of salt and just apply the stuff that feels relevant to you. also i have no idea how interviews will work next cycle but it could be more sys design than actually leetcode (got a few sys design this cycle but i find these a lot more trivial - as long as you know all the concepts its pretty easy to apply). or leetcode with AI but knowing leetcode will still be necessary here. but if i had to guess i think leetcode will still be an important skill to know regardless. also i know friends who have just grinded the week before the interview and have also

passed but idk if im cut out for that. tldr; grinding leetcode (800+ solved) actually worked for me, went from knowing nothing to big tech interviews being trivial in less than ONE year. https://preview.redd.it/p9irm16eewtg1.png?width=872&format=png&auto=webp&s=8139295a00a41b8f07f330473e5b8408e9af4e4b https://preview.redd.it/qr6n0qmfewtg1.png?width=1071&format=png&auto=webp&s=2a0ae4eb4dd331898e6964175c72e0b575d74b09