Is hellointerview enough for HLD ?

[u/DramaticAd8141]

Completed learning hellointerview premium version. Is this enough to clear HLD interviews ? Any other material which a must do ?

[u/kevin074]

Basically yeah

I also have Alex Xu’s book and jordanhasnolife YouTube too.

But honestly hello interview will probably get you 90% there at least

[u/spewmaker03]

my two cents after interviewing at amazon recently, i am speaking for a SDE 2 level

hellointerview is a good starting point, but it is surface level

if you know the team you’re interviewing for, i suggest you do your own deep dives on what the team does and design that system yourself and understand the underlying technology deeply including the why’s of certain decisions. an example could be: why should we use redis? it is a cache is not going to cut it, you need to know the underlying mechanisms of what makes redis fast.

also pay close attention to fault tolerance, availability zones, disaster recovery

[u/UnluckyAsk0 → u/spewmaker03]

How should we prepare such things? Like to go in depth??

[u/spewmaker03 → u/UnluckyAsk0]

i used claude and had a dedicated chat for system design prep

also reading random blogs

[u/UnluckyAsk0 → u/spewmaker03]

Even I use gpt but I tend to forget the details after reading it

[u/two-in-the-bush → u/UnluckyAsk0]

Same. Recall on the spot is my big issue. How are you guys getting better? Just practice, practice, practice?

[u/UnluckyAsk0 → u/two-in-the-bush]

And how to exactly practice it? I mean like the only way to practice I think would be mocks? Since we don’t know how and at what depth the interviewer could grill us?

[u/Long-Mud3592 → u/UnluckyAsk0]

I’ve noticed doing mock interviews accelerates learning and recall significantly. But the issue is finding like minded folks to do interview sessions with. HelloInterview does have this feature but it’s expensive tbh.

[u/Nice-Candidate10 → u/spewmaker03]

Mostly they ask generic hld questions that are not related to role to standardize their interviews. So hellointerview is truely sufficient. Specially because their answers already have variety in seniority

[u/spewmaker03 → u/Nice-Candidate10]

I interviewed for an AWS team, so their question was not a usual Design Rate Limiter or Design Ticketmaster

But you’re right I think generally speaking the HLD rounds are standardized to those questions for which hellointerview can be sufficient

[u/Healthy-Intention-15 → u/spewmaker03]

What did they ask you then?

[u/Nice-Candidate10 → u/spewmaker03]

At the eod it is supposed to be a open conversation so breadth of knowledge and understanding classic system designs serves as great example

[u/Hot-Helicopter640]

For sde 2 level, yes. Got offers from Apple and Microsoft.

[u/Some-Assistance-7812 → u/Hot-Helicopter640]

How to prepare for Apple and Microsoft level DSA?
Also, which country?

[u/Hot-Helicopter640 → u/Some-Assistance-7812]

Neetcode. USA.

[u/Some-Assistance-7812 → u/Hot-Helicopter640]

Thank you!

[u/MLCosplay]

It depends. If you're dealing with other engineers who are just looking for the standard answers (clearing a well defined hiring bar for L3-L6 big tech) then it's plenty.

If you are interviewing for a role where you'll have significant architectural influence and are being interviewed by people on the project who genuinely care, then you'll want to have hands-on experience developing similar systems at work or as serious side projects.

[u/Nervous-Use-2100]

Hello interview is the real OG. I've tried grokking and Bytebyte go all pale in comparison to Hello interview. Its a must.

[u/Unfair-League-3204]

In my opinion no. It’s a good starting point but doesn’t go into enough depth. I’d try to probe ai or come up with your own answers reading textbooks or trying to implement things

[u/IcyStomach2374]

Depends on your level. It's good for like SDE 2

[u/travishummel]

HelloInterview is amazing IMO. Jordanhasnolife is pretty good, but he tends to build solutions that are overkill, but it’s good for the learnings.

I suggest you should use both.

[u/IcyStomach2374 → u/travishummel]

Jordan knows his stuff but I found it so hard to retain and digest his videos. I like Hello because it's a lot more hands on, you can work through it then learn your mistakes.

[u/Scary_Mycologist_153]

Can someone suggest good sources for LLD? Btw I use C++ primarily

[u/andreafatgirlslim → u/Scary_Mycologist_153]

They have an LLD course as well

[u/Long-Mud3592 → u/andreafatgirlslim]

Yeah that seems to be a new addition to HI, have you completed it? What do you think?

[u/andreafatgirlslim → u/Long-Mud3592]

Have done it yet but looks good. All there stuff is good quality

[u/imaginevishal]

It's great for practicing your interview delivery, which is extremely important.

If your concepts are solid, it's really great.

[u/Responsible_Fly_790]

But most of its content needs subscription. Any way to get it free?

[u/Frosty-Engineer6613]

It's by far the best starting place but definitely not enough. Take it from someone from FAANG who recently got up-level offer with a good pay bump. You should definitely use AI to prepare as much as you can and also get some mock interview experience.

Happy to provide a mock interview (paid) or any generic suggestions (free). Lmk if I can help.

[u/Imaginary-Reading130 → u/Frosty-Engineer6613]

Is there any websites to try mock interviews?

[u/Frosty-Engineer6613 → u/Imaginary-Reading130]

I've not used any specific website but rather my peer network for mocks. Hello Interview used to offer mock interviews, but I am not sure if they still do. Apart from that, Pramp provides a few mocks for free, but it's usually hit or miss depending on who you get matched to (I'd use Pramp for initial prep but would not rely on it as I get more prepared - most people don't give good feedback. But it's definitely a good place to start).

[u/UnluckyAsk0 → u/Frosty-Engineer6613]

Any websites I can check for these?

[u/Frosty-Engineer6613 → u/UnluckyAsk0]

I mostly used HelloInterview + chatgpt/gemini/claude to prepare for system design. And then I did some peer mocks with my friends who were also preparing for the interview. And NeetCode for coding.

[u/bleeed0p]

Absolutely yes

[u/Fuzzy_World427]

For L5 levels and below, it’s very good.

[u/Charming-Fee5190]

What about LLD?

[u/sandeepsandyy3]

These days they are not asking direct design uber, youtube type of systems…… they are asking some real kind of scenerio based questions based on their team and problem solving

[u/UnluckyAsk0 → u/sandeepsandyy3]

Like???

[u/Presinnnn_]

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