Hey everyone!
Wanted to just write a post to give back to the community since I been reading every single post here.
Currently I'm at Amazon for almost a year, but still going to join Facebook as an E3, and applied through the new grad since graduated in 2021.
Personal background:
- 3 internships at unknown/small companies
- bachelors of Software Engineering in very small unknown university (lmao cant even find it in most lists when having to select university when applying for jobs)
- Graduateed in Summer 2021
- Applied in December
- Am in amazon as new grad currently for a year but not good (meets bar but still don't feel like I'm doing much)
Phone Screen:
I did around 30 (?) Leetcode for phone screen. It was purely technical. Both questions were not on the list, although the second one was kinda similar to a question I did before. I couldn't optimize first question, but had a brute force way of solving. Second question, never seen, but I had a epiphany near the end and just straight up coded the whole thing, but couldn't clean up or test anything, and just yolo-ed as I coded.
Thought I failed since didn't optimize and couldn't clean last question or double check or test, but somehow they moved me to onsite.
For onsite I did around 50 Leetcode.
- First question, I saw before, its on the list. Second question, ITS ON THE LIST BUT I SKIPPED LMAO FOR NO REASON. It's a graph question that I felt you had to know the trick to know how to solve it. I tried my best, but I was really stuck on what to do and couldn't find a proper solution, asked a hint and interviewer just straight up wrote the whole answer, and then said that's it, interview is done. So I failed one out of the 2 questions.
- Second interview, never saw first question, I even completely misunderstood it in the beginning, wrote some code, didn't get stop. Then realized I was completely off, and scratched it and rewrote some brute force way but it worked. Second question, part of the list TOP 50 ? . So I guess I did both questions, but first one is brute force. At the end of interview, we were kind of vibing so I still felt good even though first question was very iffy.
- Behavior: I did Amazon LP stuff, but I was so burnt out and kind of depressed from failing my first interview that I didn't super prepare for it. By the grace of God, words just poured out of me so smoothly, and me and the guy was chilling and I sounded like I know exactly what I am doing. I felt good about this round.
I still honestly thought I failed, after seeing posts about people doing 2 questions optimally and get rejected and that first guy just gave up on me and wrote the answer for me lmao. Miracle. They want a follow-up.
This time, I'm like IM NOT GONNA RANDOMLY SKIP QUESTIONS AND REGRET. I grinded LC until 150 I think.
Follow-up: Both questions are on the list, not sure it's top what but they are somewhere on the list. However, the interviewer hated my guts from hello. He just felt like really bad mood, no smile, just digging into everything I am saying. I choked really hard and one point wanted to cry lmao in the second question. I thought I knew what I was doing, but he made me feel like I am just straight up copying a memorized answer (which I kinda was), but he made me doubt my memory and asked me WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT NO THATS STUPID???? Gave me 5 minute to finally write the code for last answer. I monkeyed and spit out the memorized code yolo. Didnt give me time to test. Im like GG studied 4 months for what ,Imma book my therapist on Friday for when I get bad results so I dont end up on suicide hotline.
So I gave up but prayed for miracle. Got the offer!!!
I always thought going to a school that doesn't even sound like a real university, and can't even be found in the list would incapacitate me from ever getting a big tech job and make my mommy and daddy proud to say my name, and that even getting to Amazon was a fluke and I got lucky, but I'm just saying sometimes I am blessed and God works in mysterious ways.
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