Google vs. Facebook - Engineering Culture

Google and Facebook have very similar, yet very different software engineering cultures. In this video, I share some of the similarities and differences between Software Engineering at Google and Software Engineering at Facebook.
Prepping for coding interviews? Practice with 77 video explanations of popular interview questions and a full-fledged coding workspace on AlgoExpert: www.algoexpert.io (use "clem" promo code for a discount!)

[@praveenb9048]

Nuance is usually boring. This is one of the few channels where the nuance just compels you to keep watching.

[@clem]

Love this comment; thanks Praveen!

[@NicolaAmadio]

It would be cool to see videos on: -Comparing these cultures with that of other companies, like Amazon and Uber. -Career planning strategies: how long to stay in one company, what kinds of job shifts are good and which are bad, etc.

[@aseemsharan]

13:24 "Everything is tracked" Well, that was something expected from Facebook.

[@SajeelCodes]

Thumbnail: Twin brothers working at FANG companies

[@smokedpaprika691]

Dude you need to get over your rejection from google.

[@SajeelCodes]

@@smokedpaprika691 lol

[@Rich65501]

Anyone who can get a job at at both Facebook and Google is gifted. Thanks for this great comparison.

[@fwinfieldm]

It’d be great if you could also do a similar video but comparing other aspects such as work life balance, food, perks, office spaces, diversity, company events, etc. Thanks for the awesome content!

[@sohaibarif2835]

Can you invite someone to talk about Amazon and Microsoft as well?

[@clem]

I'll try!

[@grasstogains756]

@@clem What about Apple :p

[@JunJiePang]

Clément Mihailescu I’d hit a like button for that

[@mapachu6959]

@@clem Jorge Villalobos works in Amazon and he has a KZbin channel named Latincoder

[@oscarwong67]

@@clem I'm a former/returning Microsoft intern, and would be interested in discussing that topic on your channel if you're ever interested

[@JoeWong81]

Thanks for the insight Clem. You working at both companies makes you much more valuable than if you had just stuck with one company for 7+ years because you got to experience both cultures.

[@aritraroy4220]

You are providing insights which are relevant for many of us but may not have easy access to these otherwise. Keep up the good work

[@jonathanhanson1573]

Thumbs up if you would like to see Clément's wall get some decoration

[@clem]

😂 I just recently got something that I’m gonna add to it soon!

[@music82936]

@@clem ok i have a question. If i get a chance to interview in FAANG through referal or google competitions after 4-5 months of graduating (coz of last sem backlogs i didn't get a job on time , first have to clear backlogs then can apply anywhere ),and they see this that i have backlogs that's why unemployed ,will they reject me for this Very reason ??

[@oscarwong67]

@@music82936 what are backlogs?

[@music82936]

@@oscarwong67 backlog is when you are absent in exam or fail in exam , i was absent as i was in hospital

[@oscarwong67]

@@music82936 its fine as long as you can explain it; some ppl at Google trying to get internships get questioned on low GPA but if excuse is valid they're ok with it (hospital is fine)

[@KevinWuWon]

Totally agree with most of this! I'll pick one point of disagreement though: With regards to data driven product design, I think the two companies are very similar. If you had worked in ads or a big consumer product at Google like Search or Maps, you would've seen as heavy an emphasis on data and experimentation as on the Instagram UI.

[@clem]

Hello from the other side 🙋‍♂️And yeah, that's what I hinted at near the end of the video--I think I simply worked in a product area / on a specific product at Google that didn't have as much of it. This makes me wish I had experienced Ads at Google a bit; being a consumer of Google Ads right now, I can only imagine how data-driven it must be.

[@johnatwood1007]

Another great video. It's always nice to have an honest, realistic standard of comparison between your current situation and the rest of the tech world. You certainly know how to somewhat mitigate the "Is the grass greener?" and instead push for a, "What is life really like in city X or company Y?" and I appreciate that.

[@vegetto15]

Clement! Thank you for the amazing content! 😎 Could you share with us when do you plan make system design course available? Everyone is waiting! 🤔

[@amanbhardwaj5318]

Same question from me as well. Please let us know when is it going to be out?

[@clem]

We're working really hard on it; I don't want to give an exact date, but rest assured that you'll know when we release it! *soon.png*

[@aj9706]

Is System design asked in interviews for freshers?It's only for SDE-2 right?

[@amanbhardwaj5318]

Well as far as i know, companies like Amazon do test some design skills for the SDE-1 role as well if the guy is not a fresher and has some working experience. But yes they take problem solving more seriously for SDE-1 but also at the same time not knowing system design at all can put the guy on negative side.

[@ramizzeynalov]

Thanks for the video! 11:30 Sounds concerning. If you really care about the velocity of shipping your features you might want to be sure the code does not become a mess and thus the complexity of adding new features does not grow over time. But yeah, for shipping a new product to the market as quickly as possible, sometimes it might be feasible to sacrifice writing tests, but how often do companies like Google or Facebook have circumtances like that? Also you never want to jeopardize your credibility and don't ship anything of low quality - thus you would like to have everything covered with tests rather that getting feedback from your customer.

[@shortgamehistory]

Working with smaller companies that are product driven I would say unit tests everywhere is slower for sure especially if you are shipping fast. I would as an engineer in a culture that is product focused and shipping fast put more time with good regression / functional tests on features that are critical than unit testing everything (especially if it will change)

[@aareebjamil8929]

Wow, I am VERY early. Love your video, Clement. Keep it up!

[@clem]

Switched up the upload time, and thanks; really glad you liked it!

[@bhargavib.m6085]

Again a better video. Thanks clement 😍

[@ryvrdrgn16]

Google tests everything? How did they release Stadia? :))

[@SarahAndreaRoycesChannel]

Testing is one thing. Knowing what to test and how to read the metrics you collect is another, and with that much focus on process it falls behind bureaucracy.

[@chrtravels]

Great stuff Clément. Really enjoy all of the content you put out. Been learning programming for a bit now and going to do a bootcamp this year. Will be checking out your platform.

[@aadityagupta250]

You've just sold me on why I should focus on Facebook interviews instead of Google

[@rohithdsouza8]

I have seen a lot of Google products lacking many features as compared to other Third party products of the same type, i think this explains why.

[@SarahAndreaRoycesChannel]

Great video. There is a reason Facebook kept that culture. The Founder is still very influential who had that same velocity over process need of a small company at first like you do. He kept the "Move fast and brake things" motto alive in the company. Google on the other hand has gone the typical way where after a reliably monetizable business model was developed the business administratives took helm. Very process oriented people for whom calculated results are the most valuable thing they can get from the engineering department. I also once read that the "Google Friday" was one last ditch effort to keep the management off the back of developers and it was this less process oriented, overwatched and controlled time where the seeds for many innovative Google product started.

[@ElonMusk-ez5xz]

move fast, fix fast is far better than move fast, break things. Because goal shouldn't be to break stuff

[@ayushmehre]

Why do people leave these big tech companies in such a short amount of time? What do you do after quitting these companies?

[@Paine981]

You have an amazing talent of providing 0 information or close to none in such an overexpanded and overgeneralized way I had ever heard before. In around 6 minutes you managed to provide literally not a single similarity and immediately go to differences. You sound more like a preacher providing no specific examples or data than anything else. It is just unbelievable how much you can talk and describe things without actually describing them whatsoever

[@Qichar]

Your statement is factually inaccurate. He did provide at least 1 similarity: both Google and Facebook really value engineering. We might contrast this with companies that value advertising, or product design, or financial frugality. I do think he could be a little more concise with this statements, but you sound kind of pointed in your critique. Are you maybe... subconsciously envious that he was able to get a job at not one but two top tier tech companies and then had the courage to found his own company? Once again, he is a tiny bit guilty of taking a little longer than he might otherwise to state something, but your comment provides more information about you than it does about him. Was that *your* intent?

[@neeraj1bh]

This is a very odd time that you uploaded the video.

[@Alex155280]

On the measuring data part, it's definitely different for different products areas. In the Ads organization, every change to the ad serving architecture needs a before and after data comparison, and there's also an internal tool for quickly visualizing relevant metrics with Confidence intervals built in.

[@micaylaspencer9449]

It sounds like the design doc is similar to a project charter, a tool often used in project management. Having a clear charter can go a long way in making sure that the communication is clear and there are less hiccups along the way that could slow a project down or even the amount of time that would be required for corrections.

[@J0hn.R]

How about a video on all the card tricks!? Come on Clement! You know that video it’s overdue

[@jamesk3914]

Part of the difference in metrics you mention is almost certainly due to engagement not being such a great metric to optimize for in Cloud or b2b products, where customers come to accomplish specific work-related tasks, so spending less time having to spin something up or troubleshoot something is actually more valuable to the customer. If you had worked in Google plus (back when that was a thing) or even KZbin, I would bet you'd see a similar focus on engagement metrics.

[@clem]

Agreed-I think you’re right!

[@lynyrdrossalquiroz2029]

Does this mean that in this Big companies that Software engineers also do the role of Test engineer? Don’t they have a separate individual for testing activities?

[@jtsdeals]

He's likely taking about unit tests.

[@afjl.7170]

curious about percentage of engineers prefer one vs another.

[@plusRS]

This video was very insightful! Thanks :)

[@ThatBigGuyAl]

Your channel is growing quickly! That’s awesome!

[@clem]

Thanks to all of you!

[@jingen66]

Amazing Video I was always looking for. Thanks

[@alicebobson2868]

PLEEEEAAAAASE WEAR THE BLUE FACEBOOK SHIRT

[@yellowfungus3576]

So this is what it feels like to be first in line. I never felt so lone before.

[@clem]

😂

[@mageec1100]

hum i worked for ten years this is a question of vision and culture but are you sure you will take plan if you kenw that the sofware inside the plane was not well tested for shipping the plane more quickly?

[@LifelinegamingFilms]

TechLeads wife left him for a reason

[@TemplarKG]

stop it

[@cogs11]

To give him some peace of mind ?

[@TemplarKG]

not cool at all

[@shankysays]

(as a millionaire)

[@linglindaband]

Hater is going to hate

[@jackytaly]

I’ll be getting Algoexpert in a few years. Just gotta get to and through college first

[@joelvarghese3370]

Same here

[@iQuickest]

What language do you recommend people to start with? Because i jump from language to language as i have different goals for each , i want to make games, web apps,web pages, and such so i should be learning html,css,javascript/java? Also c## and c++ for unreal engine/unity But everyone else say to start with python, but when i think about python its mostly used for machine learning and data science, apps like instagram, im like all over the place lol, i need your opinion on what language i should be sticking with first and how long before i start trying to learn another language? Good videos by the way 👌

[@developandplay]

I passed all the technical interviews for an Internship at Google but I didn't get any host matching interview invitations in about 6 weeks... Is this normal at Google? Can someone provide me with some tips on how to deal with this situation?

[@arseniykucherenko4960]

How about deadline pressure? How much pressure you experienced from Google manager and Facebook one in terms of to get job done on time? Ho many extra hours in average software engineer in Google and Facebook work in overtime?

[@varanbby3738]

how much do you make a year? do you ever go to a therapy? have you self-checked for NPD?

[@occo5877]

Can we know more about the code navigation tool at google? Sounds cool

[@disyaboij123]

Clement are you/have you ever used Blind?

[@Rachman01]

disyaboij123 TC or GTFO.

[@cernejr]

How about the workplace? I have heard that engineers work in big noisy halls, with no privacy.

[@harishreddy3310]

Hey Clement, I have a question unrelated to the video. Having worked at top tech companies like FB, and Google, what do you think the impact of not having a CS degree in on being able to do work. In modern distributed systems, you can only go so far without understanding Computer Networks, Operating Systems etc. Deeper the knowledge in these areas, better the ability to design new systems, that can scale to 100 Million Users. What are your thoughts on this.

[@amitbalboul]

Hi Clement. Can you please share why you left Facebook after only 2 months?

[@braedenmatson-jones1071]

Haha ads manager is sooo demonstrative of what you said about their key difference.

[@mfkman]

If you got in to the situation where you had offers from both companies, which company would you choose?

[@MrPDTaylor]

Did you make a design doc for this video?

[@Yan-rv8mi]

in regards to not writing tests, does Facebook just look like a huge startup?

[@kimchi_taco]

I don't like over-engineering unittests, which are X times of lines of code of the implementation. I don't like to waste my time to write a design doc for perf. I may need to move to FB.

[@algorithmimplementer415]

Do you have the backlog of issues for changing product features in Facebook, which are picked up by anyone interested to contribute?

[@josemfcheo]

The difference between make or not tests is PHP...

[@magick2006]

CLEM GANG!

[@clem]

😂

[@AlexT-zd4yj]

Oh god how much stressful it should be to work for fb then? No tests means people are just afraid to touch the code, because you never know if you break something until the shit hits the fan :D And then you are screwed...

[@veryaev]

Ok, now I know where do the Facebook bugs come from

[@jlecampana]

I’ve heard that they don’t even unit Test at Facebook, is that True?

[@peekos]

They focus on integration testing. Source: I work there

[@codybythesea]

FB believe in testing in production. Source: I’m a Facebook user

[@tallfish8412]

Sir I mailed u asking something about algoexpert but u didn't reply.. it's been a week. Please could u look into it.

[@rkv88kanyan39]

can you tell me what stack/languages/frameworks you actually worked with (mern/ mean /or what)

[@omarzaifulizan3064]

what happened to algopro?

[@cinmay05]

Isn't the idea that you have to sacrifice quality for speed and myth tho? 🤔 I mean if you look at the work done around the book Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim it makes a pretty compelling case for not sacrificing quality for speed. I mean writing and pushing code is only a part of value stream.

[@aryanbhatia6992]

Man i just slam the like button as soon as i start the video..

[@gopalchaudhary677]

Good voices

[@danielvillanueva2859]

Algropro also works for data science interview?

[@harispapadopoulos4295]

I hate the fact that I’m here late but hey, I’m still here!

[@410491047]

I really like your content. But you might want to work on the background for the video. Just put a screen behind you with some nice wallpaper. I think that will help.

[@cbjueueiwyru7472]

We want the info, not nice wallpaper.

[@AndrewSmith-xc4cx]

Google's engineering process sounds verryyy similar to what I have experienced at Amazon

[@ProgramadorSagaz]

Awesome comparison! I worked on Google Search at BHZ office and I can say for sure: Google is very data-driven as well!

[@perumalsct]

Purely for KZbin Algorithm because still not suggesting clement videos....

[@JunJiePang]

But.... where do you enjoy more ?

[@drastik4110]

One thing I have yet to see is you give credit to Techlead for landing you a job in Facebook via referral

[@LyNguyen-wm8oo]

Nate Delong a referral makes up for like 1% of an engineer’s chances of landing an offer at companies like Facebook. The heavy lifting comes from preparation and their interview performance.

[@drastik4110]

@@LyNguyen-wm8oo a referral can sometimes make 100% the difference if a candidate even gets an interview.

[@LyNguyen-wm8oo]

Nate Delong Clements came from Google so he would've gotten the interview anyway. Techlead got a nice referral bonus from this without any more than five minutes of writing the referral so he benefitted nicely too.

[@parthvasoya3562]

"So you wannabe a software engineer at Google?!"

[@kevin8918]

google tends to downlevel candidate. What could be a good strategy?

[@FreeSpeechWarrior]

Can you tell me honestly, why you left Facebook after only two months?

[@darkwoodmovies]

Facebook isn't product driven, they're metrics driven. When your leader doesn't understand basic human behavior, it kinda makes sense that 100% of the work goes into padding some metric which may or may not be useful, as long as someone can get a better bonus for it.

[@TheWanderingSaint]

Thats because when Google goes down then the World ends, that does not happen when Facebook goes offline...

[@noa670]

Same same yet different.

[@dogma7911]

What would you consider the max age to get into a FANG?

[@clem]

Genuinely, I don't think there's such a thing as a max age to get into FANG.

[@cooldawg543]

no one: clement: fazebook

[@khanbangash1425]

sir may account was hacked so you can help me plzz

[@michaelrh490]

I never noticed how bouncy your hair is

[@mrswolls]

He must use mousse

[@clem]

😂I don't think I've ever heard it described as "bouncy" before; I'm going to wear describe my hair as "bouncy" with pride now.

[@gummydogs]

You didn't cover the most important thing of all - which one has better bathrooms?

[@clem]

😂I've always wondered if other people cared about that too! In NYC, Facebook had the better bathrooms, hands-down. It had a bunch of little disposable mouthwash bottles, flossing sticks, and generally nice bathrooms. Clear winner! But the Google NYC bathrooms weren't bad either.

[@rambalram2610]

"Software Development" can not happen with out robust tests !!

[@JDiculous1]

Which culture did you personally prefer? Would be interesting to hear your thoughts!

[@DunetsNM]

So, Google has design docs and all sorts of tests, Facebook doesn't and it ships products a lot faster. Check and mate TDD'ers! :-)

[@gloriam8493]

You are so cute and adorable in a masculine way :D lol.. Too bad programmers around me are all weird and non-talkative.. :/

[@ValeriiTepliakov]

Now I've understood why facebook products so bad

[@SupGhostly]

Great information but your video are so boring. cutting each frame at the begging of each sentence is so boring. Add some graphics, change the background, something to stop me from stoping the video. sorry if this was rude 😒

[@csuporj]

With all that testing, Google Photos was full of bugs one year ago, when I uploaded photos from my Android tablet last time. I ran into 5 bugs in 3 minutes.

[@adjusted-bunny]

When you are speaking I hear a lot shhh sounds. Why? If it is the teeth then have your teeth fixed. As an overachiever as you are this shouldn't be an issue.

[@Alexander-dt2eq]

thats why Facebook literally gets lots of shit done :D

[@shreyanshsingh2627]

I feel like my way of coding is more like Facebook's coding culture after this video. Maybe because I go by Mark's "Move fast and break stuff" ideology

[@Worldtimes1]

MAGA

[@januariopinto_]

I smashed the dislike button right after the plug because of the arrogant attitude of "I'm the best and I did it so good". Try not to look so much like Jomma brother, you can do so much better than that.

[@kardashevr]

yes, milk these "corporate" buzz topics as long as they get views

[@abhaytiwari6411]

blessing for you in pubg style !!! Impressive

[@chigoziea.991]

Am I first?

[@clem]

Very possible, but there's no way to tell at this point 👀

[@toomuchpoop450]

is system design available on algoexpert?