8 things I learned from a dozen technical interviews

I interviewed at a bunch of tech companies this year, and here is what I learned.
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
00:40 Background to this video
01:06 Preparation
03.08 Interview a lot, and organize
05:00 No data structures, no go!
05:37 Don't worry about advance data structures & algo
07:10 Mock, mock, mock!
08:31 System Design resources are scarce
12:24 System Design interviews are deceiving
14:20 Practice negotiation
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DISCLAIMERS
This video is sponsored by Educative.io
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Also, all opinions are my own and not my employer's.
#engineeringwithutsav #softwareengineeringwithutsav #softwareengineering #utsavized

[@CollegeFootballNerds]

The frustrating thing about this is its illustration of how broken the interview process is. Here we have an established engineer from a major tech company who had significant contributions and impact - but because he didn't spend months prepping DSA for that first interview, he "bombed." Interviewers are reading from a "cheat sheet" of expected systems design answers, what questions to ask e.g. they don't know the answers either, but expect the candidate to know literally any system in great detail. That's insane to me. We've got to figure out a way to do better.

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

It's not broken. It's actually pretty effective at evaluating candidates within a limited amount of time. In an ideal world, everyone would get an internship to prove themselves, but that's obviously not possible. No one should get any entitlement because of their position. Sure, I have more experience, but I should know everything that a fresh graduate does, and if I don't I think it's fair to expect me to prep.

[@davidowens9597]

@@EngineeringwithUtsav I don't know. It seems like your experience should count for something. They're treating you as if you're lying about it and have to prove yourself during some crazy coding test that isn't anything like day-to-day development. I don't think other professionals have to go through this.

[@DeGoya]

@@davidowens9597 totally agree with you

[@dsinghr]

i am in relatively senior role in tech. when i started prepping for an interview after years, i was shocked at the process they have these days. Firstly, we have to clear the data structures coding challenges. Second round is super tough technical interview where a bunch of engineers ask you left righ and center about devOps, infra setup, security and data engineering. Once i managed to clear these, the third round was supposed to be behavioural. But I met two senior engineers who took 1.5 hours of tech interview again on the projects that i worked on and on data structure and ultimately I was rejected. I was fairly confident of answering all the questions they asked (most of them). I think more than technology, it is about the culture of the organization. If the people there think you are not a good fit in the sense they dont see catching up with you over beer on Friday, they most probably will reject you. Likeability is a big factor.

[@davidowens9597]

I did developer interviews back in the 90's, and they didn't treat candidates like this, even ones fresh out of college.

[@adityatyagi4430]

The mentor I never had. Thanks, Utsav!

[@sudaminis1302]

I love your videos. You are so honest and straightforward in terms of sharing your experiences and thought processes. Thank you so much for taking time to help others!

[@niladribhusandalai6129]

Your contents are supremely transparent. I just love it. Hoping to watch many more videos like this. And wish you all the best in your upcoming job interviews.

[@fleitnerfischer]

As a hiring manager, I really can't overstate the importance of mock interviews. You can be the best candidate out there but if you are too nervous during the interview you might run into problems. Practicing this in mock interviews before really helps you to come across more natural.

[@gozieene8880]

Are you on LinkedIn? Would want to connect with you.

[@sanskargupta1870]

You're videos are always brings a good light to our knowledge!!

[@SuvoHossain]

I like the honesty and real things u presented so easily.

[@mukesh4169]

Dai, your videos are amazing quality!! I sometimes watch it just for how crisp everything is (intro, background, audio/video, presentation)

[@himanshurawat6736]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Most underrated youtube channel in techie background. I am damn sure your channel going explode in few months.

[@iuripires7285]

Said the same things a couple of months ago.

[@yamogebrewold8620]

I'm glad I found your channel. Awesome content 🔥

[@alexrosu29]

Your channel is underated my friend. Good content and quality. Keep up the good work

[@ErikMurt444]

Thank You for your videos, very informative. I wish you luck with growing your channel, it deserves more subscribers.

[@arpitc98]

Great Video, as always. Thanks for sharing

[@pablohernandez4305]

Always looking forward to the new video

[@WittyGeek]

Nice talk Utsav! You covered almost everything. Thanks for reminding me that System Design should also be an important part of preparation. I thought I knew systems but after your video, I think I'll go back to understanding things again from thee basics.

[@saiabhi9918]

hai utsav i feel good when i watch your videos and gives me the different kind of motivation.thanks a lot man

[@jasgarcha4783]

Learn from those who have been before. Super advice for all, regardless of background. Thank you 😊🙏

[@AntoineJacques]

Always giving us gems. Thank you.

[@krishanuchakraborty3500]

Thanks Utsav for sharing your invaluable true experience

[@shibbidibop]

Straight shooter. Says it as it is in a way that is real and palatable. These are more life lessons than IT guidance. Keep up the good work. Much appreciated.

[@jalabi99]

Such a great channel. I am glad I came across it today. You have a new subscriber!

[@rahulpandey3815]

This channel is highly underrated. Your content is gold!

[@harshdobariya3858]

Your content is 🔥🔥 So happy to find you channel

[@maxnix9256]

Great Video. Currently I am doing some interview prep just to be more flexible and refresh some of the basics. I was shocked how fast I forgot details about data structures or algorithms I did not need. The theory is there, but when doing leetcode I find myself thinking "a priority queue/heap should make it easy, but how exaclty do I use it?" The same also happens with some algorithms. At least for me it interrupted the flow, I was not really able to track how long a coding problem took and just checked the API/algorithm to just finish the current problem. It gets questions done, but is not really time efficient. So I agree 100% agree, first theory then the problems.

[@adarshshinde4969]

Thank you so much this was very helpful 😁

[@ranitsinha1941]

Great Stuff! It would be great if you can start a series on Data Structure & Algorithm concepts.

[@bmonish]

The much awaited video🔥💯

[@zelikris]

I definitely fell into the "design interviews are easy" trap and I almost never spent any time preparing for them. It is intimidating to know that I probably need 3-6 months of prep for them

[@bidhanbhattarai8863]

Thank you for this utsav dai.

[@erwinrodriguez8057]

Awesome Content Utsav

[@maheshmhatre6642]

I liked donne martins github collection of system design topics. It gave me an overview of topics that exist and some good examples. Once I read that I started diving deep into each topic.

[@satyabratanayak4974]

Can you give link for that 🙂

[@anshulgolu123]

Nice Talk man !! BTW where are you landing up next :)

[@WithTheHarsh]

Thats how successful may be look like...even with this much of experience.... You can't stop learning... keep going and going...life is about struggle...

[@apall2764]

Software Engineering is about struggle (but wait any good challenge is about struggle -> bigger struggle === bigger reward)

[@akalrove4834]

Solid advice dai.

[@evergreen7781]

One of the best mentors ever ❤️❤️❤️

[@nikhilgohil8808]

System Designs are really nightmares for freshers. But on the other hand they also help in differentiating the best candidates from the good ones. No better way to put it out there apart from your video :) Cheers! :)

[@andriyleliv4608]

tnx a lot!

[@suvobrotopal2024]

Thank you very much for sharing your highly valuable experience , very encouraging for me , from Kolkata City , India 🙏

[@kamil4151]

Very relatable video. I am a freelancer for a long time, I usually do contracts that are under a year in length. I mix my projects and switch between development and consulting, so once in every two years I do coding interviews. And I half intentionally always bomb the first one. I found out about myself some time ago that the biggest driver for me, to catch up with latest tech, practice algorithms and problem solving is failure. Positive motivation like working for a big name or big $ no longer does it for me. Or did it ever?

[@abinvarghese4153]

Very nice content and correct suggestions for reading materials, except the promotion :)

[@subhadeepsamantaray4220]

Thanks for the great content. Could you give us a tour of your house in your other channel ?

[@yashaparik]

Ur vids r really cool & info at the same time ;)

[@neetugreat2002]

What to you suggest, whether we should prepare everything and start giving interview . I know we cannot cover every aspects. or other way do 50% prep and start giving interviews and learn from mistakes and go on until cracked.

[@ramielkady938]

Is it really practical to take time off so one can be a full time interviewee ? I think it is better if one applies for jobs that are already in his technical or work sphere ...

[@Raj-mb8ew]

Great content, are you planning to share a system design experience and your thought process to resolve it

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

Just did

[@theElectrASiAN]

Thanks for sharing your experience! Just curious: what are the companies you interviewed with? :O

[@therocketmanprince682]

you are amazing

[@jean-paulboga8189]

Good job

[@swirlyboi8484]

I'm curious, where would you or anyone else for that matter rate college students who just got out of college? While web development might not seem like a 'software' field because it's niche and borderline software/application development to some people, what would be a great salary or hourly range? While I want to be optimistic, the unfortunate thing is that my current situation doesn't allow me to have a salary less than 50k, which to some is a deal breaker.

[@willoyd]

Very insightful, Utsav. I wonder if it could be possible to somehow measure or quantify a candidate preparedness level. We all agree thorough preparation is paramount to increase the chances to land the job, but how much is enough? Some people like to measure with time, like Sam from "Keep on Coding" who stated that if he was to start interviewing he would need "3 months of coding challenge practicing". Other people like Joma from "Joma Tech" like to measure by the difficulty of the problems you can solve, and others like Clément Mihailescu from "AlgoExpert" measure by quantity, or the number of problems you solve in his platform. Personally, I think all of these dimensions can't measure the level of preparedness because each candidate is different, with different learning speeds and different cognitive abilities, and the companies being targeted are also different, each evaluating candidates differently. A good hint of the candidate preparedness can be acquired in mock interview services, but even there the measurement isn't standardized and has an ample variation degree. I wonder if it could be a set of 5 or 6 scripted mock interviews with very specific topics being asked, paced, and with specific coding challenges that are representative of the major concepts asked in coding interviews in general, then a candidate can go through these "master mock interviews" and then see how it goes and compare his performance against others, and infer conclusions like "hmm, 80% of candidates that took these tests and landed a job at Google performed better than me, I am probably not ready yet, I need more preparation".

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

False competence is a common pitfall during tech interviews. I doubt there is a standard way to measure preparedness. I have my method that worked for me, I’ll be sharing that in the next video :)

[@saurabhkumarchoudhary1795]

@@EngineeringwithUtsav wil be waiting for that video

[@TheDoubleMvp]

In your experience, at roughly what level of experience should I expect system design questions? If I’m applying for a SWE2 at a FAANG for example, is it worth deep diving into system design prep?

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

No need to see dive too much as SDE2. Understand requirements, basic QPS math, trade offs in CAP and how/when to chose one over another, known common tech around typical SD areas. That should be good enough. I think the grokking course and KZbin resources are just in par with level 2.

[@TheDoubleMvp]

@@EngineeringwithUtsav Great, thanks! Keep up the great work, I think your channel is going to blow up in no time!

[@hamzanasirr]

I wish you make an affordable course on System Design.

[@hussainmustafa172]

Utsav can please start making videos about data structures and algorithms, probably a crash course that could help us in cracking interview, something similar to your video related to interviews problems would be appreciated.

[@Tyler-bj2br]

Would love to see this!

[@piyushmahapatra5402]

What's written on your right arm ? Thanks

[@mycricketpassion]

since Sep last I had 20 interview I am still struggling to get a role as azure devops (non developer) in toronto

[@indiansoftwareengineer4899]

which position do you apply for? sde-4?

[@Abhishek-fw7oo]

video on how to negotiate pls

[@qwarlockz8017]

Truly it does seem like the interview process in software jobs is very very broken. Definitely all your advice is GREAT! But, man... getting in is almost a random process. I hear all the time that people get questions that simply can not be answered unless you actually knew the question upfront. It is like a leetcode crap shoot. Truly the process seems broken. BEST of luck and hope you land a GREAT job soon! Would love some more idea of the specific questions you get asked in the process. (I am looking to get back in after a year off (covid!) as well. Wish us all luck!

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

Coding interviews aren't perfect, but there are also not many other objective ways to evaluate candidates in a short amount of time. It's a function of time, cost and objectivity.

[@davidowens9597]

@@EngineeringwithUtsav Why can't they look at what you've done in past jobs? Developers in the past didn't have to go through hours of "Spanish Inquisition" interviews, and the companies seemed to find good employees anyway.

[@kennethcarvalho3684]

Which book would you recommend for learning algorithms? Thanks.

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

Start with Grokking Algorithms.

[@abhaytiwari6411]

From 13.4 to 13.13 I heard👂 some Fancy 🔥😁 word...

[@rohan1765]

How can we know which comes under advance DS? , If you have any resource which has proper distribution between advance and normal DS , then please do share it.

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

Anything that is not taught in university.

[@GuRuGeorge03]

I am an aspiring junior and went through a lot of interviews myself recently too and it's crazy how different the interviews are even tho they all were for the exact same title "junior php web developer". For example for one interview i just had 1 hour of talking and then 7 hours for designing an API. Another one was 2 hours of talking and 2 hour coding interview with a complicated algorithm. Another one was 1 hour talking and then an on-premise interview (other ones were online) where I had to solve a real world problem within 5 hours which can only really be solved in that time if u are very familiar with both the repository and visitor pattern (which i wasnt). So yea, it's really different each time and also the people were super different each time. it's really really fascinating how big the differences are between each job even when the title is exactly the same. Before all these interviews I only had experience working with laravel and so I kind of thought everything would be similar to that, but so far the interviews have shown me that I know nothing, lol :D Now I am learning a lot about design patterns and "clean code" from uncle bob and others. (I did get an actual offer for the job that wanted me to do the api design, the 2 hour coding interview told me immediately that im not good enough and the other ones haven't told me yet)

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

Keep at it. Interviews are also just luck sometimes. You got this!

[@_taxman_]

Shouldn't system design interviews only be for architects or staff engineers or at startups?

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

Nope. Anyone that’s not fresh out of college can get them. The depth may vary by experience.

[@user-or7ji5hv8y]

What is system design?

[@siddhantkhare1659]

In My Recent SWE Intern Interview at Hackerrank, I cleared round 1 with CTO and then the second round seems to be a system design interview like he asked me about "how can we make a thing similar to gitpod without using containers?" this should be considered as a Sys. design interview Q? btw, I am in a sophomore year of my B.Tech Degree.

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

Companies can ask whatever they want to ... this seems more of a domain knowledge question than a system design

[@viditmathur8437]

Any suggested resource for practising mock interviews?

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

Anyplace is fine as long as interviewers are not just fellow interview candidates but folks that can provide good feedback

[@maneeshrockx667]

This video made me think , that I'm dumb.. cause I want to be a full stack web developer ( a lot of skills to learn ) + the system design.. things getting scary and complicated

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

You’re not dumb. Time effort will fix most things :)

[@sampathrajaraghupathikagup8723]

Suggestion me frameworks of java for beginners

[@deepikavootla5150]

Hai sir i have to know about jobs based on operating system

[@abhinavjha9231]

Where can we give mock interviews. Is leetcode Mock interview fine, please guide me as my placement season will start in 3-4 months.

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

Find people you know. Mentors. Friends. Make sure they are used to interviewing. Watch videos to practice - I have one as an example. I may do some as an example.

[@StarRoseAngelic]

Pramp. Interview Cake.

[@vendetta3953]

Those leetcode style questions are a real pain in the a** and impractical for the most part in the real world. Pair programming is a much better alternative.

[@santoshsohani215]

Hey sir which is your native place...

[@KillerKingdom]

What's your origin?

[@TheCricketChap]

Hope you have got an offer in your hand right now 😃👍

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

I do, a few :)

[@TheCricketChap]

@@EngineeringwithUtsav Awesome 👍

[@yashkb9130]

When can we expect System Design Course?

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

Soon :)

[@codenchill732]

Sir talk something about competitive programming..

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

I don’t do or enjoy competitive programming. It’s not a big thing in the US.

[@MiketheCoder]

@@EngineeringwithUtsav :( :(

[@swagatochatterjee7104]

That question I guess was either LRU or LFU cache.

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

It wasn’t. Those are pretty straight forward. It was about the longest increasing sequence, with a slight constraint on the differences between numbers.

[@swagatochatterjee7104]

@@EngineeringwithUtsav hmm, interesting, I wonder where do you need deque there like even when you need to skip because you have memoization on your side.

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

That was the trick. It looked like a DP problem, but it wasn’t. Don’t want to disclose the question due to NDA but I couldn’t find it on LeetCode. Cheers! :)

[@swagatochatterjee7104]

@@EngineeringwithUtsav sure no pressure. I guess I'll pound my head for few days trying to derive the question :)

[@Deepz007]

you have 5 guitars?

[@VISHVANATHSINHSOLANKI]

Well informative. But you didn't mentioned that which Company's offer you have and you said yes to that Company. We all curious to know that in which company you will be joining.

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

In due time :) most likely a candidate for Instagram story instead of a KZbin video.

[@akashshrestha01]

great

[@leanhnguyet71]

Everyone might be considering their " best time " for some " best buy " while tech engineers are concerned about their " best interview " for the " best pay " ....

[@zuzu.hallak]

I think sometimes the technical interview is waste of time. Especially, They might tell you there is 2 more interviews after the Technical interview.

[@tsenkov]

Tech interviews have become this weird, almost ritualistic, type of ordeal that they don't even make sense anymore. Hire fast based on resume and personal interviews and fire even quicker when you see that you don't have a match.

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

The result of trying to standardize and quantify hiring. It’s got it’s pros and cons for sure.

[@airplane8023]

I like that Gayatri Mantra Tattoo on your right hand 😅

[@kaushikrishi01]

its not it. he has nothing to do with india

[@airplane8023]

@@kaushikrishi01 Not India but somewhere else

[@nirajkhatiwada6696]

@@kaushikrishi01 He is from Nepal.

[@airplane8023]

@@nirajkhatiwada6696 yup 🇳🇵💪

[@onimekyo7633]

Let me guess, your side project and some of hobbies include guitar & keyboard? We are the same man... So it means you can take some time off to learn to play rachmaninov, dream theater, or John coltrane

[@jwenting]

in my experience interviewers are looking for a single excuse to reject you, as a candidate you have to be perfect for the duration of the interview according to a standard you don't know which is nearly impossible. Yes, the job of the interviewer is trivial in comparison with that of the candidate.

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

It’s actually the opposite in most cases. It’s a waste of time and resources to interview and reject candidates. Interviewers are on your side and they want you to succeed, even if it feels otherwise.

[@jwenting]

@@EngineeringwithUtsav not in my experience. May be cultural depending on country but here in most cases they're trying to find an excuse to reject you. And especially if on entering the room they find you're not a 25 year old fresh graduate with 20 years of professional experience but a 50 year old seasoned veteran.

[@cmdv42]

💯

[@yashsolanki069]

You didn't tell us about your favourite one's you wanna join😁

[@melk48111]

Did you get any offer?

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

A few :)

[@melk48111]

@@EngineeringwithUtsav cool. Congrats

[@Pankajkumar-dw1fu]

is that Gaytri Mantra tattooed on your arm ?

[@cdude996]

What?! Don’t tell us which offer you accepted at the end? 😀

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

:)

[@melvinkimathi8924]

wow, today i'm early

[@nyplace1]

A small hint, go for IAM Engineering, create a lab with inter-connected systems, and present a diagram and working demo of your lab, once you are done with the presentation most questions will already be answered. Diagrams and working demos go a long way instead of letting the interviewer torture you with questions. What I have found out, having a sweet and positive personality goes a long way. Smile and be positive. Most importantly remember, people often don't want competition, being too smart sometimes works against you.

[@steveq6626]

How do you know your worth tho? Because it depends on the market

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

Research, find what others with your experience are getting paid, understand how salary ranges work

[@poulticegeist]

@@EngineeringwithUtsav can you go more into this, especially since I thought levels.fyi was the closest thing to research based on role and level, but you seemed to suggest that that was not quite there.

[@hardy2175]

I leanred????

[@MrNitisharya]

Good that you share your experiences. However, your key problem is you are not trying to move up the technical hierarchy like lead or archirect

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

Lol, my key problem :) and you know that, how? Just curious 😅🤔

[@adamday5045]

do you regret quitting?

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

I miss working with people, but no regrets. But then again, it also wasn’t a permanent thing.

[@pranjalagnihotri6072]

My rules here: 1- Like the video 2- Then Watch the video

[@PrashantSharma-mt1bf]

Utsav are you borned in India? 😅😅

[@EngineeringwithUtsav]

No I’m not