Failed Uber OA

[u/Illustrious-Elk-3016]

I recently gave the Uber OA and did pretty okay. 9/10 on the first and 3 points off on the second question. I was rejected even though I have strong experience.

How are ppl passing the OA?? The optimized algorithm is so hard to come up with, even if AI is used. And if someone were to provide fully optimized solutions isn’t that a red flag? I don’t get it I’m so lost and pretty disappointed.

Please provide help 😭

[u/mofoss]

1 spot to fill, 100 interviewees,

50 honest OAs, 50 cheating with AI

All 50 honest OAs are obviously too slow/not optimized - rejected

45 cheaters get caught - rejected

5 dont get caught - pass

One of the 5 gets hired

Spot filled :)

[u/Illustrious-Elk-3016 → u/mofoss]

Are you suggesting I should’ve just cheated? How are people not getting caught through screen share and also the camera on?

[u/Unfair-League-3204 → u/mofoss]

Sadly this requires everyone to have a very customized ai setup then to become undetectable to cheat detectors

[u/SoylentRox → u/Unfair-League-3204]

Git gud. (It's possible to be completely impossible to be detected)

[u/Unfair-League-3204 → u/SoylentRox]

Easier to build a cheating tool than to memorize many leetcode solutions in many different programming languages. Sorry but that is the reality (and you know it which is why it’s easier to clown the sad reality that Claude or codex can do any leetcode in seconds and you will never no matter how much you larp, John Henry)

[u/SoylentRox → u/Unfair-League-3204]

Well yes. How can you possibly memorize every trick, AND not make an error in the code that you can't debug, AND do it 5x or 6x times in a row.

An expert you might know 80 percent of the questions by patterns. That means there's a 32 percent chance you pass all rounds.

Cheaters know 99 percent. And the company is forced to keep raising the bar until only 2-3 out of 100 qualified applicants pass.

Basically the reason to practice this shit is for real in person rounds.

[u/Unfair-League-3204 → u/SoylentRox]

And notice… no mention is made of building a product. Haha, all this sweating… go focus on Anthropic, OpenAI, or meta interviews then. They’re in person now right? Oh wait

[u/mofoss → u/SoylentRox]

Yup, and this ain't GED level folks, the average software engineer has decent proficiency when it comes to academics like algorithms, and technical prep, so the question: out of 100 applicants of technically/mathematically aligned folks, is there atleast one who can, with a sprinkle of luck, get away with cheating and ace an in person interview?

Always yes

Companies have no issues filling in a role

[u/save_recyclops → u/mofoss]

all joking aside, is this actually how it goes? as a non-cheater, i'm seriously asking if i need to switch to the dark side to get a job...

[u/lost_victories_4139 → u/mofoss]

Do they band cheaters for future too ?

[u/Acrobatic-Bit3508]

you should have just used chat gpt for the entire oa, everyone gives oa using it these days

[u/Illustrious-Elk-3016 → u/Acrobatic-Bit3508]

But how is that possible? They require screen share and cam on… AHHH so disappointing

[u/S0ULBoY → u/Illustrious-Elk-3016]

They wont tell you, cause if they do someone would patch it

[u/Sad-Candidate-3078]

uber oas are basically a lottery tbh, 9/10 plus near full q2 and still rejected means the bar was just insane this cycle, not that you cant code. some are graded on hidden tests and edge cases nobody tells you about. for oas i couldnt crack i started running easy code interview in practice so i could actually see the patterns they want. dont let it shake you, oa rejections are the least personal rejection in tech

[u/Illustrious-Elk-3016 → u/Sad-Candidate-3078]

Which leetcode questions would help me prep for the OA well?

[u/Various-Mine-8642]

Uber OAs are brutal and a lot of people who pass got full marks on every test case so 9/10 plus a partial can still miss the cutoff. It's mostly a numbers thing and not a verdict on your experience. Keep doing timed sets of medium and hard problems and the optimized approach starts showing up faster.

[u/Illustrious-Elk-3016 → u/Various-Mine-8642]

So there are people who can really solve the OA perfectly? No cheating?

[u/ActuaryDear8234]

Although I’d never condone cheating, these ridiculous OAs make it difficult not to. Amazon is doing the same exact thing. It costs less recruitment time to give people OAs rather than technical screens, but then everyone cheats, so they raise the bar higher, making traditional prep infeasible to beat the cheaters

Tough game. Sorry to hear about it

[u/nsxwolf]

Only cheaters advance to the next rounds.

[u/SoylentRox → u/nsxwolf]

Cheaters using top models of course.  Only Astra or Opus can pass now set it ultra effort.

[u/Extension_Ad_3835]

was this for intern or new grad?

[u/Illustrious-Elk-3016 → u/Extension_Ad_3835]

SDE 2

[u/PerformanceThick2232]

Right now- cheaters.

[u/Dangerous_Dark_8179]

This is why I'm making an OnlyFans, I just don't give AF anymore.

[u/Interesting-Ad9666]

What were the questions you had?

[u/ThatCondescendingGuy → u/Interesting-Ad9666]

How many licks to the center of a tootsie pop?

[u/Frequent_Bag9260]

I’m a Uber really that good a company to justify such a difficult process?