Why Coding Interviews Are STILL Broken

🔍 Here's a sneak peek at what we'll cover:
Coding interviews are broken. They have been broken for a long time. No interview process is perfect but in tech - the gap is too large, and its only getting worse. Let's look at the four reasons why coding interviews are broken and what this means for people trying to get tech jobs (especially in FAANG)
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[@MelkeyDev]

I hope you all enjoyed this video! Let me know what you all think. Do you agree with any of these points, and have you faced any of them in your interview process?

[@Kane0123]

In most cases the salary range is the same as a SaaS product is “contact us for pricing” All about that pipeline baby…

[@hanes2]

Always reminds me of how broken it is when the creator of Brew package manager, used by most of Google staff, couldn't pass the coding challenge at Google interview because he couldn't invert a binary tree and didn't get the job... yet he created tools that is so valuable for a company. It just shows how bad this practice is since, it's not the hard coding challenges that makes u a good asset to the company.

[@mdesnica]

So much tallk about teamwork, and that "communication with stakeholders and customers is more important than codig skills", and yet they want you to code solo on a made up problem.

[@TomNook.]

I can't remember who said it on Twitter, but someone said she applied for a Silicon Valley (not Big Tech) company and her interview was split into two main parts - 1) explain complex section(s) of code from her own portfolio (basically whiteboarding but with her own project, not a set question) 2) branch off from an existing company repo and work on a small task, to replicate her day to day work I felt this approach is far more preferable to the algo obsession, which in turn has led to leetcode level 1337 exercises

[@dandogamer]

If I'm doing company work then I want to be compensated for it. Too many companies would see this as an opportunity to get free labour

[@asagiai4965]

I kind of like the first one. The second is bit of an issue, Like example company abusing applicants work. If the second is like. Here's a sample of data (not company data) we are working on. I want to see if you can do this etc etc. (But it should be near to what the job actually been doing)

[@Poohbify]

Thank you for being realistic. I feel so overwhelmed right now looking for a job. I've been developing professionally for over 5 years and I'm struggling finding a role. This sucks.

[@MelkeyDev]

It sucks. No one is going to lie. It absolutely sucks but you cant give up

[@Poohbify]

@@MelkeyDev :) Good news! APTYTH

[@zevo92]

I had a great experience interviewing with a company that had a multi layer interview process similar to Big Tech. After the screening with the recruiter (that was really nice, no bs, just straight up information that I needed to go further) I had an interview with an engineering manager that consisted of a code reviewing process of an awfully written piece of code. The second interview was a pair programming style interview, they gave me a problem and 4 different implementations of it. I had to re-write each into a better version. The last one was a system design interview, where they gave me a task that was strongly related to the company's scope. Sadly, I messed up the last one, but I would interview there again.

[@MelkeyDev]

This looks like a great place. Glad you have a pleasant experience in this

[@jalbers3150]

It’s the gamification of the interview process. It’s a standardized way for these companies to control exactly who they hire. With these methods they can make up a work force of whatever demographics they like.

[@jakeleone8944]

And this is because most jobs are waiting to be handed out to friends. And the interview process is just a way to fail the candidate you don't know or trust personally. This is even more important now, in the face of job uncertainty, than ever. Conceptual questions are good, but ask yourself, is it a concept critical for the job? If not, then the interviewer is probably a trojan trying to eliminate competition. But interviewers are never asked this (or but rarely).

[@pif5023]

What I hate about the process is that it looks like some kind of spiritual process. It seems companies wants prophets and prodigies only that have figured out life already. It doesn’t seem a process grounded to Earth anymore. Being just a “normal” professional is not enough.

[@pandathedeveloper6660]

Yup, getting ghosted when applying for a job is the worst. I have applied to about more than 50 jobs but most of them don't even reply.

[@MelkeyDev]

Its absolutely the worst

[@KeepItFresh02]

My best interview experience was probably interviewing at Rivian. They asked me to build a todo app in vanilla javascript, I was unable to finish but I talked through my process and what I was thinking. I just could not remember the syntax to finish. I could easily look it up and re -remember how to do it for the 100th time. I got the job.Ive done similar and also did an interview where I built a project and finished to end up NOT getting the job.

[@MyCodingDiarie]

Your explanations are always on point. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

[@MelkeyDev]

I am glad you liked it :)

[@amaduddin1995]

I'm crying on the inside because I've been in the interview process for almost a year now.

[@asagiai4965]

Technically depressing fact. Programming and Software Engineering are some of the only jobs that belittle your experience. But at same time Gives you one of the hardest experience.

[@MelkeyDev]

Yeah, exactly. Thank you

[@DeltaXML_Ltd]

Interesting video! Look forward to seeing more

[@daltonyon]

I already see great leetcode engineers fail in daily job, but I think is really important the basic of algorithms that many courses skip and the problem is that you correctly said, the obsession that they have! Great video btw

[@ameer6168]

True they simply avoid development as a whole then after that we have to deal with that

[@MelkeyDev]

Great point!

[@jakeleone8944]

Racism is the reason why U.S. citizens are unable to find software jobs, in the U.S. right now. We know this from DOJ vs. Facebook (2020). Information in that indictment came from Facebook's own HR personal. Facebook committed 2600+ cases of discrimination against better qualified local STEM workers, over just a 1.5 year period. Preferring to hire lesser qualified (by Facebook's own admission to Federal Investigators) foreign workers doing similar jobs. Facebook's motivation was that foreign workers get stuck at the company, for decades, during OPT, H-1b, and Green Card process. This meets the de-facto definition of job discrimination in the United States. Nationality cannot be a factor in hiring these engineers.

[@jakeleone8944]

We also know that this year, at a time when 350,000 tech workers have been laid off. U.S. companies applied for 400,000, legitimate, H-1b visas (and another 400,000 illegal applications were also made). Every legitimate H-1b application, occurred because of a job offer by a company operating in the United States, all at a time (Early April) when there were a couple of hundred thousand computer science workers looking for a job. Demand for H-1b workers, should have abated, but it was not abated, in fact it increased massively. Many of those laid off at our tech companies were highly skilled computer science workers (Example: Facebook laid off hundreds of local AI Engineers). In past decades, when the economy slowed down, the pace of H-1b demand also slowed. But, if you look closely, the cessation in demand in the early 2000 recession, was greater than the cessation in demand during the Great Recession. And now, there has been no cessation in demand. Again, despite massive layoffs, of highly skilled (and easily retrainable) local computer science majors. This points out an alarming trend, local U.S. workers are being, systematically, discriminated against by entrenched and bigoted middle management at our tech companies.

[@jakeleone8944]

This points out an alarming trend, local U.S. workers are being, systematically, discriminated against by entrenched and bigoted middle management at our tech companies.

[@alexaneals8194]

I think one of the big issues with recruiters is the abstract they get from the hiring managers. A lot of hiring managers don't really know what they need. I have been scheduled numerous times for an interview for jobs that don't match my skill set or what I am looking for. Most of the time the hiring manager will say we need someone who can program in this or that language and then when I get to the interview, I find out that they really don't need someone who can program in that language. It's hard to blame the recruiter when the hiring manager doesn't know what the team needs. The other issue is taking too long to decide when you are interviewing candidates. If you have several candidates that your still wanting to evaluate then let the applicant know. I have companies contact me two or three weeks later saying they would like to hire me and I have to tell them sorry, but I have already accepted a different offer. If they had let me know earlier or had let me know that they needed a little more time because they had a couple of more candidates to consider, I may have waited for their offer.

[@RicardoSilvaTripcall]

I think it was James Gosling, the creator of the Java programming language that said something along those lines, if he had to have a job interview like this today, he wouldn't pass ...

[@emil_l889]

Fiiiire video!!!

[@delikanzorbeygokyildiz4598]

once, I passed a technical interview in a medium size company, in total interviewed with 6 people, in the final culture fit round, one guy decided I didn't fit in the culture, he could just like that override the opinions of the other 5 people in the process.. Literally, wtf.. and I know a guy who literally can not code, but due to his connections, got into microsoft and then google on a non-technical path. some things are beyond our control..

[@pif5023]

For me has been culture fit vagueness and I would add idiotic requirements a lot of the times. It feels like they are looking for a hot replace part which just shows they don’t understand engineering.

[@younesmdarhrialaoui643]

Awesome video

[@MelkeyDev]

Thank you

[@emil_l889]

Netflix b like: “your salary expectations are somewhere between 100k and 700k give or take”

[@Kane0123]

Wasn’t this in response to the salary transparency laws?

[@MelkeyDev]

LMAO

[@IvanRandomDude]

Everything about coding in broken in 2023 tbh

[@MelkeyDev]

Not my love for Golang

[@headlights-go-up]

I know it's a topic that's been saturated and is tedious, but have you given your thoughts on the whole "AI taking junior dev jobs" droll? I'm a noob and would like to hear the honest view of someone experienced.

[@MelkeyDev]

It is a bit of a saturated video i cant lie to you

[@andrewdddo]

Coding interviews are arduous - sometimes doesn’t even teach you how to build things but to study for a new test haha

[@Ctrl_Alt_Elite]

Might have to link this to the next recruiter that ghosts me 😂😂

[@MelkeyDev]

BROO DO IT LOL

[@jakeleone8944]

We need to convert the 15% tax break we give to hire a foreign student, over a local. Into a national apprenticeship program for all students and the unemployed. In order to encourage companies to retrain (instead of layoff) workers. If you leave early (say before 3 years) you (the employee) pay back the Federal Government the tax break money.

[@christopherlucas1475]

This actually happened to me this week. Recruiter thinks I'm a good fit (I assume she looked at my resume). Then during the prescreen she says "so... I see you worked at ABC company in the past, yeah we had a bad experience with an employee from ABC company so they may pass you over" WTF?!? 1st, you looked at resume before this call right? 2nd, Was this after ABC company had layoffs last year... Recruiter answer "yes, I think he was part of the that layoff" 😶 .... 🤦‍♂️

[@MelkeyDev]

Terrible man. Just Terrible

[@charleschen4093]

Yeh I just got ghosted, at the last job that I applied a month ago lmao

[@ohgin12345]

Even the attitude of those recruiters stinks

[@rickdg]

How would you interview people for some developer position?

[@MelkeyDev]

Give them an actual problem/Jira ticket and see how they handle it

[@emil_l889]

All shits and giggles till they ask u to do Towers of Hanoi

[@thewhiteoaktree]

How much PHP could a PHP PHP if a PHP could PHP PHP?

[@bumpy_lumps]

I've come up against all 4 of the big ones in this vid lol

[@bilbobeutlin3405]

I never did leetcode once in my life, but always was lucky (i guess) and had a easy time finding a job. But hearing all these stories makes me a little anxious.

[@MelkeyDev]

I am happy for you!

[@bilbobeutlin3405]

@@MelkeyDev broo I jinxed it, they fired me ahaha

[@braiinworms]

You know what's not broken? My lvoe 4 u

[@MelkeyDev]

you are the reason i keep GOING

[@CIBI]

In india if you don't have a degree you don't get software job😂

[@ameer6168]

I don't have a degree and I'm currently working as a web developer in india

[@IvanRandomDude]

So? The only reason it was not needed before is due to the fact that there was a shortage of developers while the market was expanding. As the market gets saturated the entry barrier will become higher and higher. I wouldn't be surprised if in 5 years masters degree is required. It's just how it is. As the industry matures and stabilizes it becomes harder to break into. In some fields you need 10 years of education to even start (medicine for example)

[@BboyKeny]

​@@IvanRandomDudeThen I would assume that at that point new tech companies would spawn pretty quickly. Since many great developers are often self taught and there is still a whole lot of innovation to be made. At that point I hope for the existing companies that they are actually taking in the best devs with their higher standards. It's just that having worked with both university computer scientists and programmers self taught with 10 years of experience. That the experience self-taught can navigate novel problems way better. They can pick up a new code base, complex or messy, and solve issue without reading 99.99% of the code base.

[@swedishpsychopath8795]

I'm an interviewer and YES we are obsessed with riddles, iq-tests and algorithms. BUT I always end my interviews with this question: Do you think I should lose some weight. And mind you I'm 300lb. I have no problem about being called fat - and if the candidate doesn't say "YES" then there won't be another interview.

[@ramfattah211]

Keep crying... solving DSA has became the easiest hobby for me... I can pretty much company hop whenever and wherever I want around the world. People who dont have problem solving skills will keep crying and keep making videos like this 🤣

[@markhentges2]

Exaclty lmfao. Leetcode type questions are actually great because they don't get you trapped a in a niche. These people are too lazy to sit and do some leetcode

[@ramfattah211]

​@@markhentges2 Agreed, i would rather get asked infinite number of consistent problem solving skills than finite number of inconsistent STAR method behavior questions

[@ROCKMAGIC15]

Hey! Any guidelines on how to get better at solving leetcode/problem solving skills? DSA is fine for me, but I’m finding it difficult for leetcode style questions.

[@ramfattah211]

@@ROCKMAGIC15 leetcode questions are DSA questions bro... but yes i do have a guideline that has worked for me... and that is to identify patterns of the problem. Dont get misled by the wording of the problem.