YOE : 12
Current Organisation : FAANG
College : Tier-1

Interview Experience

Due to NDA I wont be posting exact questions but will try to cover the topics involved.

Telephonic
One graph problem which was a variation of course schedule. Completed in time. Discussion on time complexity in detail. Got positive feedback.

Round1(Coding)
A Problem based on streams. Data coming in form of string in streams, implement some mathematical functions based on some conditions. Question was of medium difficulty (Not on leetcode) and I did it in time but made a syntactical mistake which resulted in a No-hire. I was shocked to hear that interviewer rejected me for a small syntactical mistake which he termed as a struggling in fundamentals(LOL) in feedback. Interviewer was late and wasnt prepared for the round. He instead asked me which round is it :). Sometimes bad luck costs a lot.

Round2(Coding)
Question was a variation of parallel courses but with a modification. I tried dfs, UF but solved it quickly using Topological sort. I couldnt find any other solution for this till date. Since time was remaining, detailed discussion of time complexity was done wrt problem and on general time complxity of TS. Interviewer looked very postive but gave a leaning hire to my surprise citing innovative but complex algorithm.

Round3(Coding)
Question was based on design involving signed and unsigned integers. Corner cases needed to handle integer overflow.
Did the question in time with correct complexities discussed. Question was of medium difficulty but not present on LC. It was a hire call.

Round4(Design)
A one liner vague statement was provided with all the requirements expected to be generated by me. Problem was a subset of designing a system like S3 but this was left open ended to evaluate if candidate can go to those details. Lots of detialed discussion to the solution. Every layer of solution was discussed in detail. Disaster recovery, Availability, Consistency were touched in detail. It was probably the best round for me with interviewere appreciating multiple times for details covered. It was Hire.

Round5(G&L)
Apart from standard questions, it was a deep dive in work done till now. Some cross questioning was done on the projects done. Answered them effectively. Got a hire.

Team match was done before HC and matched to 2 teams. HC asked for 2 additional coding rounds due to one negative feedback.

Followup Round 1 (Coding)
-Tell me an interesting technical work you have done recently and was discussed in detail for around 15 minutes.

• Design question around tcp packets coming randomly. I was told that it cannot be completed in time but core logic is needed.
• Multi-threading discussion around the core logic was done.

Overall interviewer was impressed. I gave 3 approaches to solve the problem. Got a Hire.

Followup Round 2 (Coding)

• Tell me a technically challenging problem you have solved in your career and it was discussed in detail. A simple problem around counting was given and java collections were discussed in detail in terms of time and space complexity. Problem given was vague and interviewer was expecting handling of tradeoffs between space and time. Gave the solution and we moved on.
• A backtracking problem which is on LC but I had never imagined it to come. Problem was lengthy and interviewer told that time left isnot sufficient to complete it but he wants to see core logic. I completed the problem to a logical end where interviewer said he is satisfied and went on for multithreading implementaiton of the solution.

Interview discussion was very vague and context was changing frequently. I had some appreciations which made me think it was a hire and in the end it came as a hire. I kept alive the conversation despite me struggling a bit initially which helped me a lot.

Team matching was done again and I got a hire from HC for L5.

Recruiter was friendly enough to let me know individual round feedbacks which helped me to not to repeat mistakes.

Learning :

• All 8 rounds had one liner statements. I was expected to generate question.
• Google definitely looks for speed. I was given a plus in all except one (NH)
• Solution shouldnt be complex, they point out in feedback and it hurts your chances in HC.
• Be ready with time complexities.
• Dont take hints, every hint will be mentioned (I didnt took any though) and will lower your overall rating.
• Use meaningful variable names, I was given positve feedback for this.
• Self test the code before interviewer points out. I gave a pause of 10 seconds after code was completed and interviewer pointed me out and mentioned in feedback though as minor concern.
• Everything you say is generally noted down and it comes in feedback.
• Dont let silence even if not able to come to a solution. Silence will have a negative cost in rating.
• Dont jump to answer quickly but dont let silence creep in. Speak up your thoughts.
• Luck is as important as preparation.

Solved 551 LC (60 H, 126 E, 365 M) in an years timeframe. Focused on concepts more which helped me solve questions I had never solved. Based on others experiences as well, I focussed on quality rather than quantity and it helps for sure.