Education : BS Mechanical Engineer, MS Electrical Engineer
Position : Small defense company
Experience : 2 year (EE stuff) / 4+ years (software)
Questions : Easy (172) Medium (378) Hard(35)

I thought I will share my long journey with everyone since this community has helped me tons. I hope I can give back a bit and hopefully keep people on their journey. My journey was a rough 2 years. I thought I will tell my journey as a story instead of the standard template with some insights/thoughts.

I first learned about Leetcode through a friend and how Silicon Valley loves to do this kind of interview. Back then Leetcode had < 1000 problems. My first motivation to do Leetcode was when I was first contacted by Google for a phone interview for a front-end position. This was before COVID around early 2019. I spend over 2 month preparing for the interview learning about BFS, DFS, backtracking, and all the good stuff. The phone interview wasn’t too hard, but the question was nothing like I saw on Leetcode. For the onsite, which I scheduled for May, I think it went ok, but for 1 question. What threw me off was that I was asked 2 specific front-end questions. Those questions were you either know it or not. The end result was a rejection. Once I think about it, Google’s onsite question is a lot like Amazon’s online assessment. They give you a lot of content to absorb. Google likes to make their questions into stories.

I believe toward the end of 2019, an Amazon recruiter contacted me for a position and I took an online assessment. I passed and got an onsite. I thought I did decently here, but didn’t get an offer. My suggestion is put in the time for the leadership principle. I think my failure is here since I liked to keep using the same examples. And I didn’t approach the question with a STAR format.

About then, I have done ~150 easy, ~170 medium questions and gone through each question twice. And from then, I decided to just take a break from Leetcode since it is exhausting.

When COVID hit at the beginning of 2020, I decided to just apply around to see what the job market was like. I got a call from a startup and their interview was not fun. I have 1 coding challenge, which is followed by 2 phone interview. Afterwards, the virtual onsite was 4 rounds. All the questions were Leetcode questions or similar to Leetcode questions. I wasn’t given an offer. I thought I answer all the questions decently, but not perfectly. For this interview, I had around the same number of Leetcode questions done. I just reviewed them. And revieiwng means, redo-ing each of the questions.

From here, I didn’t really interview for awhile due to COVID and work. But around July, I decided to Leetcode again. And this time, I didn’t want to review. I wanted to get the number of Leetcode question solved to at least 500 problems. I noticed from going from 300 to 500, the Leetcode questions got easier to solve, but some of the medium ones were still really hard.

With over 500 Leetcode question done, I decided to apply around because I didn’t want to waste my effort. Aurora connected me, I passed the phone, and I got to the virtual on-site. For the onsite, I got 1 system, 2 front end, and 1 algorithm. The front-end question threw me off here again. I didn’t expect it. If I put in some effort into the front-end preparation, it would have helped a lot. I was rejected here. The algorithm was a Leetcode question.

As for Microsoft, I was contacted by through a recruiter. Took an online assessment and passed it. I got a virtual on-site afterwards. After doing a ton of Leetcode question, I felt they gave me Leetcode questions with a small twist to it. I felt the interview went ok. If I got a rejection, it will most likely be my behavior questions were not solid enough. I was extended an offer.

At the end of this journey, I can say never give up. It took me over 2 years to get this offer. I had a lot of other phone interview, but didn’t get pass those stages. So, those aren’t mentioned.

My advice is do not overlook behavior question. Prepare for them. At the end of doing 500 problems, before the interview, I decided it isn’t worth reviewing the problems. I will let my brain bull sh!t the answer out. I have the knowledge to work out the problem. The problem for me is can I apply it correctly. Therefore, before the on-site interview, I spend a good deal of time thinking about behavior questions and examples instead of reviewing.

Another suggestion for on-site interview, if you are applying for a specific job, review the concept/coding of that particular job. For instance, all the front-end questions threw me off since I was only prepare for the algorithm. I believe chances of them being ask is low, but you don't want to go, "if I knew that, I might had gotten the offer".

Best of luck!

PS : I will not disclose any questions as I signed too many NDA to know which company required my signature.