EX-Google Recruiter Reveals Secrets To Never Failing A Tech Interview

🔥 Need help getting started in your job search? Start here: stan.store/far...
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Looking to land a junior, senior or staff software engineering role at a FAANG company or a startup? While many KZbin videos focus on entry-level interview prep, this video offers proven strategies for taking your interview skills to the next level.
As a former software engineer and an active technical recruiter, I've seen countless candidates struggle to stand out in competitive interviews. In this video, I share my tips and techniques for acing the toughest FAANG interviews, covering everything from behavioral questions to technical challenges.
Whether you're a seasoned engineer or just starting out, you'll learn how to master every aspect of the interview process and land your dream job.
NOTE: I'm not affiliated with the following resources. Only providing information to help you with your interviews.
LeetCode: leetcode.com/
LeetCode is the best platform to help you enhance your skills, expand your knowledge and prepare for technical interviews.
The System Design Primer: github.com/don...
Tech Interview Handbook: www.techinterv...
Free curated interview preparation materials for busy people.
CRACKING the CODING INTERVIEW: www.crackingth...
Cracking the Coding Interview, is here to help you through this process, teaching you what you need to know and enabling you to perform at your very best.
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ABOUT ME
I'm Farah, I create "no fluff" content to help you get a job you love and to help you get paid your value. I'm a Silicon Valley technical recruiter who has worked at Google, Lyft, Uber, TikTok so I know how and what top companies look for in candidates they hire.
CONNECT WITH ME:
Website: www.farahsharg...
Instagram: / farahsharghi
LinkedIn: / fsharghi
TikTok: / farahsharghi
*Free Resume Template & Job Search Spreadsheet: stan.store/far...
I wouldn't be here without my incredible editor, Sabaree (he has edited all my videos) he's the kindest person and does amazing work. Thanks Sabaree! You can reach him at: [e-mail]

[@CreatorMatch]

Easily the best video you’ve made to date! And love the new format and editing styles. Keep it up!

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed the video. Definitely put a lot of my prior experience into it since I've spent a lot of years prepping software engineers for their interviews.

[@vkoiti]

This video doesn't show me only how to pass a software engineer interview. It shows me HOW TO BEHAVE as a software engineer as well. Pitch-perfect!

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Cheers! Glad you like the video and found it pitch-perfect :)

[@semenivanoff8615]

Yeah, exactly. How to act like software engineer, not to be one. I've seen many of those on interviews, who dont think but trying to find a right template to answer the question.

[@125521killer]

Such an underrated channel! Thanks for the help! You deserve more subscribers

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Your welcome! I’m working on new long form videos. Appreciate your support 🙏🏼

[@dudeabideth4428]

Very crisp points . I am a senior at one of the faang and I really appreciate the points . Monitoring and not just qa was the one I need to constantly remind myself .

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Thanks for your comment! I’ve worked with FAANG and Unicorn engineers over the years and people always wonder what can set them apart. Appreciate your validation 😀

[@vinaykumarmasane455]

Consistent Content and covering all the Interview Phases especially the Expectations from Senior Roles.... Certainly Deserves More Likes.... Thank You so Much....

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Glad you like it! Hope folks share it with others 😀

[@aishwaryapauskar32]

Hey Sarah , I want to personally thank you for the tip , on how to approach a problem and thinking that the interviewer is actually a colleague and I don’t have to impress them . This really eased me out , they were able to understand me better and I was able to ace a few interviews since then

[@Farah_Sharghi]

You are very welcome! Glad you found it helpful :)

[@OkeyPlus]

Good video, and the tip about treating the interviewer as a coworker is a great one! I do have to say that as I've been interviewing for senior, I've been asked both a LeetCode Hard problem, and specifically about the details of the Quicksort partition algorithm. Sadly tech interviews these days seem to be an arms race, where it feels like you have to become some puzzle master (regardless of having years of experience shipping quality products).

[@RiderInHell]

Hey. Thanks for the tips. A while ago I had coding interview for a database position and I ended up not getting the position because, even though I aced the answers, I got nervous on the actual coding part and ended up failing some exercises I would do on a daily basis without giving it much thought. It really is true that acing interviews is a skill in itself!

[@humorbender754]

I smell a valuable content right here! 😊 Very well put video in my opinion, straight to the point and with non-obvious tips. That's the kind of insight I was expecting to hear from a recruiter's POV. Thanks!

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Your welcome! 🙏🏼

[@robainscough]

If you walk into an interview and they want to test you on syntax, walk out immediately!! These types of companies you DO NOT want to work for. A software engineer’s performance is not how much syntax he/she remembers but the concepts of logic and structure. Companies that run syntax tests either remotely or at some designated location are only interested in lines of code per day code monkeys.

[@halim7725]

Thanks a lot. Living and working in France but I plan on applying for big tech companies abroad soon. This was very useful.

[@monkeyshinserman]

Thanks for the helpful content! I’m a Staff Engineer, 11 YOE. Been interviewing since the tech recession (Nov 2022) and haven’t been able to land any offers and am no longer getting any interviews at all. Before 2022, every job I applied to called me back, and I made it to final rounds about 1/10th of the time, getting an offer from there about 2/3 of the time. The difference is night and day, and I hear stories of friends of friends who are in the same situation and have ended up homeless after a layoff. I’ve been lucky enough to keep my job all this time, but it’s terrifying. Would love a video that talks about this!

[@aaronk9740]

Same in Poland. This recruitment advices are worthless. If companies want to hire and there is reasonable amount of candidates they don’t ask you CAP theorem for frontend role nor binary tree reversal for backend. They hire you if you are more or less ok. But if they don’t hire but pretend they will build some crazy castings and candidate pipelines. It seems if it will continue like now it is not worth the hustle to stay in programming.

[@haha-eg8fj]

In Australia multiple hundreds or a thousand applications for a mid-senior role building simple websites for a law firm. The market is crazy now.

[@MrMikomi]

This is a great video. Thank you. I take issue with grinding leetcode because of the opportunity cost, and the sheer unlikelihood of ever using on the job anything learnt whilst doing it. There's just so much to know if one wants to be a truly capable, effective and productive software engineer. And hardly any of it involves leetcode. Time and human constraints are not our friends. However, of course the game is what it is - leetcode-type problems are used as a filtering mechanism, albeit perhaps for more junior positions.

[@mysticseven6578]

“If you are seeing this, it is probably because I sent it to you.” It started appearing on the algorithm so I bet you’ve had a busy month!

[@charantechgeek]

Shared the channel to all my friends, excellent job keep going

[@crekev]

Great advice! Exactly what I needed. Thank you!

[@ShobhitDhanyakumarDiggikar]

I am so happy, I spent 13 minutes. on a valuable video, thank you very much for this 🙏🙏

[@satviknaren9681]

Love the way you speak ! Thank you so much ! can you please throw some light on Data Science interview

[@Impeccable_content]

Thanks for making this clean and simple content for interview awareness

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Your welcome 🤗

[@ansar2137]

Thanks!! Video was very insightful. Treating interviewers like colleagues is spot on and definitely helps with stress.

[@nicolaswolyniec1354]

Thank you! Currently im a mid swe and this is gold!

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Good luck! Let me know how it goes 😀

[@prathameshgurav5827]

Thank you for guidance and tips...this channel deserve more subscribers

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Thank you! Glad you like the video and appreciate your kind words 😀

[@knpchicago9054]

hey, great interviewing tips to the community, definitely useful for all the software engineers.Also I like your youtube shorts :-)

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Thanks and you’re welcome!

[@peggyng7289]

I am not a SWE but my husband is. I am a TPM. I find this video very very informational, not just to for preparing an interview but how to think to solve my day to day problem overall. Farah, can you do a similar video on TPM (Technical Program Management)?

[@thetechnocrack]

You've amazing content - i hope you create more videos

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Thank you! I’m working on it. Had a personal issue come up so dealing with that and that’s created a few delays but I’ve got a spreadsheet full of videos ready to film!

[@jaackiye]

@@Farah_Sharghi You are awesome

[@romanlab888]

Very insightful and practical ! Thank you for sharing!

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Your welcome! Glad you like it

[@dawitz362]

Best point of view and advice.

[@hassansyed6087]

Imagine the interviewer is a colleague. That's a big one. It simulates what a day to day would be like which would definitely consist of LOTS of interaction with peers.

[@emjizone]

5:13 It's a trap! Every true engineer knows that it is mathematically impossible to get the best of runtime efficiency, energy efficiency, cost efficiency and scalability at the same time, and that *you will necessarily end up making trade-offs* between the different metrics you are asked to optimise. (writes someone who isn't even an engineer, at least officially, and whose main language isn't even English, but who started dealing with this problem in the 90s instead of looking for diplomas) Alas, sometimes the client or the company can't even tell their priorities, or don't realize how bad their official priorities are for themselves and for you. In any case, always *ASK THEM* , either to find out what they want, or to check, before it's too late, that they don't actually know what they want. Don't assume without a clue.

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Great tip. Thank you! I’m sure people will find this incredibly helpful

[@robainscough]

It is possible, but there is cost to benefit ratio … if you’re building software for aircraft (like say Boeing) then yes, all the boxes will be checked and it needs to be perfect and go thru the process of making it perfect … because if you don’t, people die. Now if it’s some CRUD app for social media, then so what, be relaxed in efficiency.

[@ishimweemmanuel1607]

Stumbled upon this after failing an interview only to find out all the mistakes I made are talked about.

[@raim-jh7hg]

Watching videos like this reminds me how little I know. I have a 4yr degree in IT, have worked on many software projects but am not a Developer by trade. I'm nearing 50 and realize that if I ever ger laid off, I'm hosed. I didn't understand half the terminology used in this video.

[@DrunkenUFOPilot]

I didn't understand *any* of the terminology in this video after "graphics programmer" working with images only a minute in - that's what I do for a living! After that it was all downhill. I think the concept of "Five Worlds" of software development from Joel Spolsky is relevant, if obsolete due to the "worlds" shifting over the years. She's talking about big corporate enterprise systems and huge commercial web sites and stuff like that, while I only pay attention to electronics, embedded, signal and imaging processing, graphics, and scientific number-crunching. Job hunting in those areas doesn't involve the same nonsense, but different nonsense.

[@yuvrajtripathi4481]

Very insightful will apply the tips as going for my first interview this upcoming week. Thanks ❤

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Good luck! Let me know how it goes!

[@takeuchi5760]

Really helpful, I had been obsessed about just doing leetcode questions, but this helps put it into perspective, and what should I work on to imrpove beyond just being able to solve leetcode questions.

[@deadsippy]

great video! i've already saved it to a playlist to come back to your tips later

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Uh I dunno 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@InProgressIO]

Just found this channel. And yes this is a follower…..🎉

[@TerminalJoshua]

#GMG 🦅 alumni here! I have a call with a Google recruiter for a L3 role next week & this is great material.

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Congrats and Go Mean Green! Good luck!

[@TerminalJoshua]

@@Farah_Sharghi I passed the assessment now the Phone screen is next!

[@Farah_Sharghi]

@@TerminalJoshua YYYAAAYYY!!! Congrats! Watch my other video on how to answer Tell Me About Yourself and the secrets one. You got this!

[@nadiaguarracino6910]

Golden video. Thanks!

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Your welcome!

[@i_youtube_]

Your content is great. We need more stuff about interviews.

[@Farah_Sharghi]

I agree! I have a bunch on my TikTok channel and I'm working on new content for my KZbin channel. It's on its way!

[@MBXD001]

Subscribed!

[@electronsauce]

Pro tip from personal experience 2x. If you see code that is obviously not optimal (from a test in their system), don't shit on it, especially if its a smaller company. More than likely, you're shitting on the person interviewing you or after you get the job, insulting your boss lol.

[@just_a_viewer5]

very useful video, thank you!

[@alirezatavs]

بسیار مفید بود فرح عزیز

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Tashakoram! Glad you enjoyed the video 😀

[@ACT4UCF]

There are so many technical terms that are nearly identical, I am not sure zeroing in on a jargon term would tell me anything about a candidate other than their ability to steer the convo to the similar terms. For example, you appear to use AWS catch words as examples. A dev hiding behind catchy jargon does not equate to senior in my world.

[@ACT4UCF]

To elaborate, someone lucky enough to know the catch word perfectly from some flashcard will not be the same as someone who picks up many architectures extremely quickly due to their broad grasp of theories and then behaviorally very good at translating that into adapting to specifics quickly.

[@prakashd139]

such a valuable video ❣

[@alexpex]

Excellent video! Do you have the same but for the recruiter? Some useful advices to build an efficient recruitment process? Some typical question or topics?

[@umarsayyad1900]

I am more curious on why you went form engineering to recruiting?

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Engineering -> finance -> recruiting. I could have gone back to engineering but I didn’t love it & I love building teams

[@d-shiri]

very informative, thanks :)

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Glad it was helpful!

[@sameerprajapati8978]

Nobody is asking leetcode medium questions nowadays. All big tech companies are asking Leet code hard and its variations

[@anjalbinayakadhikari]

1 min: I liked the video 5 min: subscribed to channel

[@McDane]

Hello Farah. I have a specific question: if I want to apply for L4 SWE at Google, do you still think I should mainly focus on medium coding questions? And not so much on the hard ones? Thanks

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Medium & hard

[@officialfightlite3367]

This is insane. Thank you so much!

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Your welcome! I’ve watched a lot of YT videos helping software engineers with their job interviews and I found that they weren’t in-depth enough. Hope this helps!

[@officialfightlite3367]

@@Farah_Sharghi I really appreciate that 👏

[@amirlatifim]

متشکرم! مفید و گیرا!

[@quirkyquester]

Great video

[@Rambabu-lx5iy]

Thank you🌹❤

[@phoneix24886]

Leetcode hards are very common here in India.

[@davithov]

Solving 25 medium questions would be enough for the interviewee who is already very good at solving such problems, but if you want to become good at it, I think at least 150 mediums should be solved. Personally, I have solved about 150 easy solutions and then 100 mediums, but still it is quite possible that I won't solve another medium problem which might be given during the interview and it is not a fact that I can figure it out during the interview process, because usually you're much more stressed during the interview. Shortly I think that number of problems is clearly depend on the skills and how the confident the interviewee is: someone needs 25, someone 100 and another one more than 200. I am still scared of applying for, e.g., Microsoft which is dream company for me. There is also system design interview stage which is the hardest stage IMO.

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Great advice!

[@funicon3689]

mastering underlying patterns is more important than grinding a specific number of questions.

[@sindhal6250]

Yeah, that is what I always did. And it works _except_ lately. Why? Because _most_ companies turned to a mechanical interview method where the candidate has no room to ask. If the candidate makes to the end - then there is some room for asking. I usually stand up from a talk where no equals are discussing and I know that regardless the huge layoffs the problem of finding the right person is not solved. And other funny story: I was asked to do some coding challenge during interview session. I had beginning flu and I performed miserably. At the end I addressed the interviewer (architect): okay, I failed, not my best day. BUT: can you explain me the relevance of this test to the real life? Like code architecture, data model, performance indicators, etc? He started to laugh and said: I know now where you come from. I was offered the next day.

[@HolidayInGuantanamo]

I had an interview once where I asked them how the whiteboard problem was relevant and one person from the 4-person panel said in a mocking tone, "We want to make it hard for you!" Should have just walked out at that point.

[@vakman9497]

You kinda popped off w this video good shi

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Thanks for noticing! 😄

[@yomamasofat413]

Treat interviewer like colleague. Me: Wassup bro? hi 5. Farts

[@seekingpurpose]

The only true way to guarantee to never fail an interview is to never apply for the job...

[@mohamedgabr5623]

Exactly

[@AnilKumarAmbati-fc3gq]

😂

[@bmiller949]

Programmers are so great at dealing with people and emotional issues. Their analysis of , "that a-hole on the 5th floor is why my code broke." will resolve any software issue. Incorporate this logic in your interview process. You will fail the interview and I can get the job so I can pay my mortgage.

[@sailisurve4603]

6:37 yeah i have liked and subscribed😊

[@stephaneg.8142]

Do we live in the same software engineering world? All the technical interviews I have had are just stupid scholar questions or stupid algorithm tests or stuff like that. All my professional seniors developers colleagues agree with that. Indeed technical interviews show that you're going to work with a tech leader and a team BA, architect, product owner and so on who have most of the time the skills of 20 years ago. So the question to interviewers. You want the BEST software engineer, but are you able to handle them? Most of the time it's not the case. It's like having a Ferrari to get the bread at the backer next to the street. Useless but I've got a Ferrari.

[@TheReamsal]

Well put content. But strongly disagree on Hard level leetcode questions are not asked. In fact my interviews have been full of it across top tech companies. I am not interviewing for last 3-4 years. At the same time due to current market conditions i have heard my friends telling the interview are even harder by these companies. There would be people who would get mostly medium level questions, but there are many who don't.

[@haroonmansi]

Agree. Datbricks asked me hard leetcode in one hour phone screen interview.

[@viniciusrolandcrisci272]

I received 3 hard leetcode questions from 3 different companies They are definitely asking hard questions

[@MikkoOnBass]

I wonder if the interviewer would be impressed if I demonstrated my knowledge of sharding by doing so during the interview 🤔

[@delltuff]

Those who watch this video is struggling with getting a job at Google. Am I right?

[@ESCAcarlos]

After months of preparation you landed the job and 3 months later you are laid off😅

[@wileycoyote9688]

The few big companies I’ve interviewed at recently were certainly fans of IQ tests lol

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Interesting I haven’t come across this yet

[@wileycoyote9688]

@@Farah_Sharghi Sorry not a literal IQ test - just crazy difficult and random tests from companies like Amazon, P&G, and some agencies. Math quizzes, puzzles, work simulations, memory tests, etc.

[@tolgacan_]

Good advices, however if you cannot come up with a brute force solution at least, they are not proud of you because you have asked beautiful questions or acted perfect. Most important part is the result or running code. So first become a leetcode guru and then you can start learning how to act… sorry this is the real world…

[@rudya.hernandez7238]

Impostor syndrome flaring up. Great vid tho, thank you.

[@Farah_Sharghi]

You got this!

[@fredio54]

Oh, she used to write code! And oh, the slightly messy hair and more natural look than the more recent videos, especially combined with the confident tech talk, super attractive, which probably wasn't your goal, and I apologise for saying it at all, but had to be said. Paused half way through to discuss with my wife, ha ha. Also brunette with epic eyes. Don't worry, you're safe. It's not often a random woman melts me these days, but you managed in this one. :-o

[@randomtech5929]

this is where recruiters fail to get the best person for a role.

[@prabhatkantipandit9801]

How can I join Google? I have web and mobile application development both. As a software Engineer 6years experience. I didn't get any help to join or apply Google

[@dev.robert]

Nice vídeo. First time getting to your channel and already subscribing! It's been 2 years since I've done an interview, but starting to feel that I'm gonna need it pretty soon hahaha Let me get more subscribers and we will do a collab one day :D

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Thanks, and yes a collab would be fun!

[@alexschievink]

If the interviewer asks questions to which they already know rhe answer: run!

[@nishantg7840]

i have one in 30 minutes

[@Peeveish]

All of this preparing, learning in the evenings, doing useless exercices on leetcode that slowly becoms irrelevant with AI just to have a lower salary compare to some scrum master and mangament who are having a beer while you work.

[@BelarusianInUk]

Maybe in India. In UK good developers earn more than any scrum masters or managers

[@noora.4320]

im only a bunny

[@morteza.saaedi]

فرح شرقی؟ ایرانی هستین درسته؟😍

[@Farah_Sharghi]

I am!

[@morteza.saaedi]

@@Farah_Sharghi can any one get employed at Google from iran? I mean without leaving Iran for interview

[@morteza.saaedi]

As a php-developer who currently works remotely for an American company, seeing you gives me hope for the future ❤️

[@Farah_Sharghi]

@@morteza.saaedi no because of sanctions but you might be able to IF you have a PhD in a very specialized field that you got from a top school like Sharif and even then you'd need to transfer to a top US university like Stanford, get your visa and then you might be able to work for Google

[@CantPickTheNameIwant]

At the very beginning of the vid I thought recruiters suck, at the end I can say not all

[@Farah_Sharghi]

Some of us are kinda cool 😎

[@SapiPlays]

Intro isn't quantified, Many years?? I'm sorry you are rejected.