Are software engineering interviews broken?

[@MrGTFOplz]

Its completely broken and pay is irrelevant imo. When I interviewed at my current company (I'm in the UK), it was a single two hour interview where they asked about experience, some basic system design questions and some quick-fire technical questions about the stack I'd be working in. None of these irrelevant questions that check whether you've memorised LeetCode or your algo class you did 10 years ago. Got the offer with a 6 month probation period. Of course they would quickly realise if I was useless within this 6 month period. That's the whole point of probation. Its the way it should be done. Helps eliminates interview biases, nerves, intimidation etc and still protects the company. Lets be honest, there's a huge ego problem in our industry.

[@ITGirlll]

I got a degree in Software Development & can literally build full stack apps locally & in cloud, but because I didn't spend my time learning how to invert binary trees first, that somehow would make me an insufficient candidate... Cool FAANG, I'll just be a PM instead and have my own SD company on the side 😉

[@nikolaykolesnik7228]

PM at Faang?

[@Terracraft321]

SWE is full-time learning anyway. So it's not like it's that much on top of learning full stack to be frank.

[@Rajmanov]

ª

[@nonequivalence1864]

I've been a software engineer for over 6 years now and have been at the startup I work at from seed all the way to acquisition. I've seen the good, the bad, the ugly, the euphoria, the dreadfulness of it all and yet - I still get rejected left and right from interviews because they decide to ask very vague theoretical questions which are "Gotcha!" questions. Some companies give take home assignments which I KNOW I aced but somehow - it's not perfect in their eyes so I get that dreadful rejection email a few days later. I've built websites from scratch which garnered over 10k daily active users, generates revenue and gets positive feedback from users and yet - I still get rejected left and right because I couldn't answer a tricky theoretical question. The funny part is 90% of you technical folks asking these questions during these interviews wouldn't be able to answer it yourselves if the roles were reversed. I have light years more experience in terms of fortitude and wherewithal than 98% of people interviewing me. Those of you who work at startups know how it is. I'm honestly super depressed and frustrated especially when I know I have a plethora of experience. Rejection after rejection after rejection after rejection is demoralizing me and making me doubt myself when I shouldn't given the amount of experience I have. I can't help but feel depressed. This industry's broken beyond repair and honestly - the reason why tech in America isn't as resilient as the tech coming out of China and Russia is for this very reason - the hiring process is defective.

[@whalingwithishmael7751]

I’m a university student, but I’ve had several lengthy interview processes, some with rake home assignments using company frameworks, and several interviews that I felt went well for just entry level positions. Wanted to have had an internship before graduating, but now it looks like I won’t. Don’t have the experience you mentioned, but I’m unable even to reach into a door.

[@TumblinWeeds]

You know what the hiring process in China is? Welcome to the interview, we basically only care about which university you went to. Here have a mediocre salary and work 12 hours a day for 6 days a week. Don’t complain, every other company is the same. You don’t want to work software in China lol. Grass is always greener. You don’t know how jealous Chinese engineers are when they hear about Americans earning 5 times as much, and leaving the company before 9pm. They probably think “with those extra 4 hours, I could study leetcode for 2 hours every day and still have 2 hours left over. And also have Saturday off.”

[@nonequivalence1864]

@@TumblinWeeds Well, that's awful then but it doesn't change the fact that tech coming out of China is way more resilient than the tech coming out of the USA. Whether or not their salary is mediocre and/or they work crazy hours is irrelevant to the context of my original post. My original post is my perspective and experience being an engineer in the USA.

[@markemerson98]

thats like saying to a PHD graduate - hey, forget all that academia as when you are interviewed you won't be asked a damn thing about that to get that job.... why the hell should a developer with a decade of real experience have to constantly revise for unrelated questions.... makes no sense

[@seru1190]

Leet code type of questions are similiar to knowledge that we learn at school. It is well known that calculus won't learn us how to deal with taxes or calculating real-life spendings, same as binary tree that won't show how good we are in web development.

[@SweatySockGaming]

Goated youtube channel. I loved how the ending was abrupt to send a message that you don't need to have been in fancy companies beforehand

[@ussgordoncaptain]

Well I think the fact that interview questions don't relate to day to day work is the real problem. If I'm a master at leetcode style programming mayb e I get past a software interview but I still might be completely worthless as an employee. It would be nice if someone could find a better set of tests to give that do a better job at measuring how useful you would be at the company, so we could do that sort of tests instead (I think something like "Here's this massive codebase modify 3 tiny parts of it without breaking anything"

[@GaganKPolska]

For Faang companies it makes sense to filter out low level candiates using leetcode style interviews, the problem is with new upcoming startups who start following blindly what big tech companies do. If you as a company open up a position for a SE, and 6 people applied for the job...like common, you don't need to do the live coding interview of data structures.

[@browntechdaddy]

Yeah I’ve never had to deal with a binary tree at work despite studying countless leetcode binary tree problems lol

[@kedarkulkarni9464]

I think you derailed from the question all together. You talked about perspective and taking a step back. But that doesn't answer the question in the title right ? You are saying that the interviews are hard because you are getting paid way more compared to XYZ professionals. But you didn't talk about interviews being RELEVANT to the job. People say leetcode style interviews are broken because of the TYPE OF QUESTIONS being asked. Not because of their difficulty. You can ask relevant questions that are difficult. Preparing for those questions would make sense because they are required for doing the job you are applying for. Not only that, if you work in a particular area, for example - frontend, then even if you are giving an interview tomorrow for a front-end developer position, you won't have to prepare that much. Sure for Google you would still need to prepare for weeks but YOU DON'T HAVE TO START FROM ZERO. And that's the thing people are mad about. If I have 7 years of experience in frontend then I will be able to answer even the most difficult questions because I use those concepts everyday and if I clear the interview, I will be a great candidate because I have relevant experience. But on the flip side, if I get asked LC questions, I will most likely fail and the company lost out on a great candidate with great experience ! Instead they might hire a person who just leetcoded for 2 months and isn't as good as me in frontend. You see what am saying ?

[@AndrewOng]

Your argument is that the time or effort is the same as a surgeon. I argue that the level of effort/preparation can be kept the same but with a test that actually matters. When was the last time you had to make a deep copy of a linked list with pointers to random nodes in the list? Or the last time you had to trap rain water? I'd much rather be tested on my knowledge of Bluetooth or pointers or something relevant.

[@anniephan665]

Agree that SWE interviews are broken. I even see ex-FAANG engineers with 5-10+ YOE get rejections at some places after the offsite due to lack of Leetcode preparation. On the other side, most tech interviewers are kinda forced to ask these types of questions since they have to be unbiased, objective, and fair in their candidate evaluation. I really hate Leetcode questions in general but don't know of a better system that can achieve all this.

[@brynnhoward7229]

Question: I always hear people on youtube talking about either big tech companies like faang, or startups. Is there no in between? I want a normal work life balance, like 9-5 and then go home, but it seems like at start ups and faang that wouldn't be a reality...?

[@roninpwns]

Making videos about getting into FANG gets views. Nobody wants to hear about how to become a software engineer at some insurance company lol.

[@lapatria100]

@@roninpwns But they're still making decent pay? Especially in areas where the FANGS are taking the top 5%.

[@andyzhang6965]

There are companies out there like this. They just don’t pay as well, and do not have the “prestige” that comes with working in Tech.

[@PetyrC90]

Because these people aren't smart enough and define their lifes through their jobs, not by doing things that self realize them as a person like art or family.

[@KeepItFresh02]

My most recent interview, the hiring manager told me she is having a hard time finding developers. I said, that is because the process is broken. You are looking for exactly my experience, like you said. But later I will be asked a question that is not related to the actual job duties, I will be asked to regurgitate some algorithm function that I am not studying for because I am working on real projects solving real problems. I also build real things on the side, not study leetcode. So this is why your having that problem. In the final round I was asked to regurgitate a recursion function from memory. I was not allowed to use any resources. so I failed and was rejected. At the end I was asked if I have any questions and I said "what do you love most about working at the ecompany?" he replies "There is a lot of documentation"

[@aljab012]

Thanks man for these videos. I just watched your whole channel and find it very informative

[@developerann6659]

yes!! software eng is one of the few fields where you can have a degree or not but at the end of the day it all comes down to what you can do and i think that’s pretty cool :)

[@joshuwa3953]

About to graduate with BS bio and want to get into programming. Love the channel bro!

[@joshho5205]

you should do it! BS in bio here and transitioned into Software. If you want the best of both worlds look into bioinformatics

[@AnkitPatel-jg1fw]

@@joshho5205 Hi Josh, would love to hear about your journey and how you went about it? I too am a chemical engineer looking to transition to tech.

[@sirasitt274]

You made a really good point, man. Thanks for sharing.

[@BilguunsparKO]

I really appreciate that you put some research into what you are saying and showing it to us with actual fact

[@qinxue1]

Loved your video! It would be great if you had a proper outro to let us know your conclusion :)

[@skyheart9245]

You are trying to justify! There should not be a standard way to do the interviews. Your interview process should reflect problems you need to solve at your business. You should not ask a question “just because” google asks it! These days in US even a medium/small company asks the same questions google asks and then nags about talent shortage! Imagine how ridicules is that. Justifying problems and comparing it to irrelevant topics just shadows the truth.

[@Alex-tx1gl]

Cries in Canada but I’ll hope to join everyone in the states soon

[@MR_MAX_DOG]

You are killing it with these vids, man. Keep it up!

[@boot-strapper]

"Isn't that why they pay you so much?" The answer is no, because thats not what you do all day at your job.

[@TSkyD]

Agreed. Realized that SWEs make a lot and the required effort is warranted even though I still complained about it.

[@avinash-dhumal]

Its the approach how you solve the problem .

[@lorenagonzalessaar6488]

I totally agree with you!

[@JakeJJKs]

I don't understand why these unrelated metrics are being dragged into a conclusion about a potential broken interview format. People outside of the US are being asked leetcode questions too, so I don't understand why you are talking about these things that doesn't relate.

[@SweatySockGaming]

People outside the US are asked leetcode questions but not as hard as how faang does it

[@JakeJJKs]

@@SweatySockGaming faang exists outside of the US. They adjust the pay based on location, while doing the same interview process. And also, the hardest questions I’ve gotten hasn’t been from faang.

[@SweatySockGaming]

@@JakeJJKs the hardest questions are from Quant/prop trading firms. Yes faang exists outside the US but even those are some of the highest paying software jobs outside of quant dev in those non-US countries. And faang popularized leetcode type questions. The local companies usually don't need to ask as difficult of questions

[@JakeJJKs]

@@SweatySockGaming absolutely! I guess my point that I am trying to get across, is that compensation shouldn't even be in the discussion, because the interview process could potentially be broken regardless of the level of compensation. I personally find the interview process alright (not perfect, but also not completely useless), and I know we are compensated well, so I am not trying to complain. Just stating that compensation has nothing to do with the interview process being fair or not.

[@4Evergreens]

Hey Kevin just want to say I appreciate you sharing your experience, knowledge, and insights. It is encouraging me to pursue this career. Just recently started to learn JavaScript and will be learning HTML and CSS along with it. I am pretty new so I was wondering if you can shared the resources on job listings for junior or entry level people that didn’t ask for difficult interview coding questions. Thank you!

[@CreatedByKC]

Keep it up man, you'll get there! And yes I totally forgot to link it, here you go github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards

[@4Evergreens]

@@CreatedByKC thank you sensei! (Teacher in Japanese)

[@Jiglo]

Kevin mind sharing the link for your keyboard? Thanks.

[@iknowmyname7]

Leetcode is better than the alternative

[@introspectiveengineer392]

Hey, can you make a video on how you prepped for System Design? I really like the way you explained the leetcode process

[@jakemorales7949]

+1

[@recursion.]

can you make like sub 3 minute video 6min is too long

[@nonbread7911]

You have the attention span of a fly, I thought the length of this was fine

[@SweatySockGaming]

I found the length of the video short compared to how much information / story telling was put in.

[@mrman880]

Just speed the video up