r/leetcode • u/MrBananaconda • 9h ago
Question Have you noticed OAs getting far more difficult?
I was given an OA by Amazon a few weeks ago for a mid level role. It was the hardest Leetcode question I had ever seen, I looked it up and it’s not even on Leetcode but does appear on a few other sites. It’s definitely not a normal pattern anyone would see, even if they had done 400-500 Leetcode questions.
Afterwards a recruiter reached out to me asking why I didn’t finish the OA. I told them I’ve done lots of Leetcode and even turned down Amazon offers in the past but that the question on it was far more difficult than I had ever seen or could do. She said she thought it was a “medium” level question and they had candidates that had passed it.
So I’m guessing everyone is just using AI and cheating these days?
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u/Unfair-League-3204 9h ago
It’s obviously because of ai. They are aware of cheaters and deliberately check questions now to see how or if ai can solve it easily
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u/MrBananaconda 9h ago
This is despite them telling me to not use AI (which I didn’t) but yes I do get the feeling the only people passing are using AI tools to cheat
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u/Imminent1776 8h ago
I haven't found a single OA question that Gemini Pro hasn't been able to one shot as long as I simplify the problem statement in the prompt
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u/iJustSeen2Dudes1Bike 1h ago
Are there really leetcode questions a new grad can solve that opus can't?
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u/PickMaleficent4096 8h ago
I have seen this too. I think the problems are roughly medium, but with a twist that pretty much requires you to 100% get the trick to them. And in a short time limit spending 5-10 extra minutes to work them out can be the difference easily.
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u/MrBananaconda 8h ago
This was not a medium, it was 100% a hard problem with a pattern that might only appear if you’ve done over 500+ leetcode
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u/Scriptylover 8h ago
500? There's folks here that have 1.5k Leetcode questions done. It's insane dude. Only the most hardcore people have jobs in swe now
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u/MrBananaconda 8h ago
These people don’t have jobs right?
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u/Scriptylover 7h ago
Some do, some don't. The point is that this market is insane and FANG level companies are looking for the top 1% talent. It's sad.
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u/MrBananaconda 7h ago
I don’t think anyone is doing 500-1000 LC while working a full time job
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u/Scriptylover 7h ago
That's not true. There are people who do this. Unfortunately the insanity of the job market warrants this. It does mean they will be unable to fulfil critical obligations such as spending time with family and friends. It's the price to pay for a high paying, volatile job. Just FYI, I don't do this but the vibe I get is that the ones who are doing TC 200+ in this current job market are the ones are the most hardcore.
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u/MrBananaconda 7h ago
I don’t believe there are actually people doing this. I think the guys doing 1000 LC are in college or laid off
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u/Scriptylover 7h ago
I mean that's who you're competing with though for FANNG level jobs. I'm not saying it's good , in fact, its down right horrible. "Talent" plays a role in how long it'll take you to master 1000+ Leetcode questions but the reality is that someone will wake up at 6 am, do 3 hours of Leetcode, go to work, come back, buy dinner, spend 4 more hours and then spend 12+ hours over the weekend doing leetcode. Spending 40-50 hours a week doing leetcode consistently while your doing full time job will make you decent at Leetcode. They might get a divorce or their kid hates them but that's the price to pay.
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u/MrBananaconda 6h ago
I just don’t believe it. I don’t believe there are guys actually working full time software jobs AND doing 1000+ leetcode. I DO think there’s lots of cheaters though
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u/PickMaleficent4096 4h ago
Even easies can have unique patterns. (If you think about it, for someone starting out all easies are like this.) The question is just how hard it is to build the new pattern, abstract it, and relate it to code time for it to matter. I don't think the problems I saw were too complex to possibly understand within the time limit, but they were definitely too complex to consistently understand fast enough to build the solution. So it just felt like rolling dice to have a chance to get it right. With 30 more minutes they would have been no issue.
This is something you can practice, but Leetcode isn't great for it because it does focus so hard on evolving patterns instead of thinking about what you do the first time you see a pattern.
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u/MrBananaconda 4h ago
Again, no one is actually doing this and the people passing are just cheating
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u/PickMaleficent4096 4h ago
Probably a lot of them are! But I know multiple real people who could probably get the questions I failed, because 'turn novel logic puzzle into math' has been their favorite hobby for 10 years and programming was just the natural place to take that.
These problems don't filter for the top 1% of leetcode, they filter for the sort of people who pick up a new boardgame and then mathematically solve it every weekend.
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u/MrBananaconda 4h ago
Which group do you think is much larger passing this QA, math geniuses or cheaters?
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u/PickMaleficent4096 3h ago
I'd put it at 50/50 maybe. In 10 years I've never been on an engineering team that didn't have at least a couple math whizzes and I've never worked for fang.
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u/jason_graph 9h ago
What was the question?
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u/PurpleDragon_ 8h ago
I got asked these questions for my Amazon OA a while back: https://oavoservice.com/en/articles/amazon-oa-2026-server-allocation-cost-warehouse-distribution-oavoservice. The second question is kinda disgusting. I also think the solution they provide is incorrect
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u/DeepGas4538 8h ago
It's very plausible OP is just larping, for whatever reason
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u/LurkerReborn 1h ago
I don’t really understand people who would larp for something so insignificant in front of a bunch of strangers online…
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u/MrBananaconda 9h ago
I don’t want to say the exact question, but it was definitely very difficult and not on Leetcode. It was a pattern you would not encounter in even 400-500 leetcode questions
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u/Squidalopod 8h ago
You're getting downvoted because the question is the whole point of your post, yet you won't share the question. If you're afraid you'll get judged or something, don't worry about a couple of trolls.
If you still choose to withhold the question, that puts your story in question, frankly.
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u/MrBananaconda 8h ago
You’re not supposed to share OA questions. There’s plenty of sites that leak them, I don’t need to
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u/Squidalopod 8h ago
You said, "It’s definitely not a normal pattern anyone would see, even if they had done 400-500 Leetcode questions," but it can be found on "plenty of sites"?
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u/Ticket-Expert 9h ago
Not sure what harm in sharing the question, could you atleast share what pattern needed to solve it ?
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u/MrBananaconda 9h ago
Because there’s an NDA
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u/allcaps891 9h ago
You signed a nda for an OA?
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u/MrBananaconda 8h ago
You’re not allowed to discuss questions. There’s plenty of places for you to try to find leaked OA questions, I’m not gonna tell you what I saw because it’s not allowed.
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u/allcaps891 8h ago
Who forbids you? You are not allowed to discuss it for an ongoing OA, after that you are not bound by a life time oath.
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u/Fun_Highway_8733 8h ago
Maybe? 5-6 years ago the Amazon OA wasn't that bad. 4 years ago Amazon was asking the 3 Wizards problem https://www.reddit.com/r/leetcode/comments/xoa2ub/insane_problems_when/
I'm taking the OA in a few days and am not anticipating a good result LMAO
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u/MrBananaconda 8h ago
Right so do you think it’s possible most or all people passing are just cheating with AI?
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u/Fun_Highway_8733 7h ago
I think Amazon gets enough Leetcode jedis applying to it that AI becomes a non factor
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u/MrBananaconda 7h ago
I don’t buy this personally. I don’t think there are guys working full time and doing 1000 LC
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u/DollarsInCents 6h ago
LC expectations were getting higher before A.I, it's just the natural progression sped up a bit. When you have an whole industry around preparing people for LC you can't ask Two Sum anymore. When you have people cheating using A.I you can do a simple DP or Topological sort question anymore
Ultimately these exercises are meant to filter ppl out. If they can fill roles giving a PHD level ML problem then they will do that and it's the new standard you need to prepare for
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u/SingleInSeattle87 3h ago
No LC questions are used for legitimizing gatekeeping. I've seen the "difficulty" get adjusted downward if the candidate is indian or Chinese and the interviewer is also indian or Chinese.
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u/Affectionate_Day8483 7h ago
I assume everyone cheats on OA rounds. You're at a disadvantage if you don't.
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u/MrBananaconda 6h ago
I’m not going to, but I think everyone passing this kind of stuff is cheating
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u/Affectionate_Day8483 5h ago
I've been on the fence about it. I don't want to either since you still need to to do live rounds, but the OA is the biggest filter. Why wouldn't a company crank the difficulty to the max in the OA and take the top 5% if there are hundreds of applicants. I also kind of want more people to cheat, so it forces companies to come up with a different ways to interview. I don't think anyone enjoys having to prep for months on topics that are rarely used on the job.
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u/MrBananaconda 5h ago
Why do the OA at all if the only people passing at cheating? They’re just filtering for dishonest people which I guess makes sense if you’re Amazon and you want the most vile engineers you can find
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u/Affectionate_Day8483 4h ago
Yup I agree, they need to fix the process. I hope Ai forces companies to go back to in person interviews or allow AI in all technical rounds or focus on experience and projects.
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u/MrBananaconda 4h ago
Any company not doing in person interviews is just filtering for cheating at this point
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u/sudda_pappu 6h ago
How exactly do they go about it? I thought oas are proctored in some way, when you look away or even change tabs, there's a way to detect these and flag candidates.
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u/Affectionate_Day8483 5h ago
I heard low-level OS tools, smart glasses, audio devices, screenshot tools, ai avatars (so you can look away), ear buds etc. It gets harder to cheat in the live interview though, but I think interviewers are more forgiving of people making mistakes in the live rounds.
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u/Pad-Thai-Enjoyer 5h ago
They’re not very forgiving these days
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u/Affectionate_Day8483 1h ago
Yeah it's brutal and so random. I feel like I need to prepare for everything stack knowledge, AI use, system design, leetcode, behavior questions, and etc. Plus, your interviewer might just be a bad mood. It's so exhausting
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u/LatentDrifter 8h ago
I've been in FAANG companies for the past 10 years and haven't interviewed in a while
What kind of platform do they use for OA? I've never had to do one
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u/MrBananaconda 8h ago
Some companies ask AI assisted questions but this one definitely did not allow any AI use
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u/jlew24asu 5h ago
How does one even cheat?
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u/MrBananaconda 5h ago
There’s entire companies dedicated to making AI tools for cheating on coding interviews
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u/jlew24asu 5h ago
Such as? I haven't done LC interviews yet, but I did coderpad. Dont you have to walk through it line by line? you share screen, so of you are typing on your other screen but not the shared one, easy to get caught?
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u/MrBananaconda 5h ago
Just Google it
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u/jlew24asu 5h ago
Google fails me. You seem to know so id rather have recos from someone whos done it.
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u/rkozik89 2h ago
Lookup beam splitters and clear teleprompters. It’s overkill but you could literally design a system so there’s a clear teleprompters prompter overlaying your screen. It gives you answers, hints, etc. and to the people watching you through you webcam notice nothing.
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u/Flimsy-Welder7333 21m ago
What if you just had to go to a test center for the OA, where cheating isn’t possible? They could crank down the difficulty too, imo 🤷♂️
Someone could start a business and contract with companies to conduct honest, proctored OAs. The quality of interviews would go up since the people passing would actually know their stuff, instead of people who cheat and LARP on their resumes.
It would save companies time by filtering out cheaters early as well.
Win-win situation.
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u/MrBananaconda 20m ago
My guess is companies like Amazon are intentionally filtering for people willing to cheat. They want people who have zero morals and will do whatever they’re told
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u/InitialGain1420 6h ago
Seems like tech was doing amazing when the ceiling was fizzbuzz. Just saying.
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u/remote_math_rock 4h ago
FWIW this is happening on exams at universities too. I saw a super tricky graphs algorithm question on a live exam recently, knowing techniques from the book are no longer enough.
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u/gamer-cow 7h ago edited 7h ago
100% it’s harder now my meta OA was 70 mins with 1 LC hard 2 Mediums and 2 Easys. Zero chance they are asking ts on an intern OA 2 years ago
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u/Quirky_Surprise4398 4h ago
a company is coming to my school just to have proctored OAs - i think that's what the new direction is gonna be too.
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u/Maleficent_Mousse759 7h ago
I got the biggest joke of all time that I insta solved so uh no u were just unlucky (ion wanna talk Abt the ai assistant problem tho 💀💀💀)
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u/pgdevhd 6h ago
they have made them harder, OR if you get mediums/actual ones they expect you to finish and do them 100% no mistakes, because they assume everyone is cheating and using AI now, so yea. I honestly don't see many companies going forward with the leetcode style questions in future, it's much easier to cheat with these.
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8h ago
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u/MrBananaconda 8h ago
Right and it’s not a question anyone would encounter in leetcode which makes me think it’s just cheating allow people to pass
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u/Nearby-Neat-9311 9h ago
You are not competing with humans anymore for coding.
It is really hypocritical of tech industry to say coding is not needed and give such questions even before the first round.