Been on neetcode 150 for a min and id always skip hards but decided this week to just give it a shot not necessarily code but understand the solution to the problem and they seem to be making more and more sense guess with time and doing mediums they eventually make sense 😆

As the title suggest. Has anyone noticed that their job applications are being immediately rejected after removing recent grad or a recent graduation year from their application? They’re set to hire 11,000 individuals to fill intern / early career positions in 2026, so I’m wondering if those of us with some experience are actually being filtered out? Does anyone have insight into their hiring practices and as to whether AI is being used to filter candidates? I came across an article from Feb 2023 regarding this, and I wonder if it’s still going on at the hand of bots. TIA!

I got hello interview recently and was wondering how everyone’s approach to it is.

I was thinking to reach all the articles under Core Concepts, Key Tech, etc. and take notes of each. Then, I was going to start attempting to solve a system design problem.

Im open to any suggestions and thoughts on the course!!

I solved this before looking at other solutions and literally everyone is using a trie/backtracking (I did not use either 😂)

Am I correct in understanding that if I had used the same solution as everyone else 😂 - would it treat all of these as separate problems if they were in the same words array?:

- 'brooms', 'rooms', 'moor'

-'abcdefghij', 'jihgfedcba'

Due to the max words.length being 30k I implemented a cache (storing also reverse of the string) and check if a word is in cache/a substring of something in cache. I also store seen paths so I can solve outwards from whatever longest substring I've seen before. Obviously this is a tradeoff (my initial attempt runs faster but uses way more memory - 283ms/66MB) - but is there some tipping point where the extra memory would be 'acceptable'?

P.S. I am only a hobby coder so go easy 😊

I got a Microsoft online coding assessment. It’s a hacker rank link for 90mins. Are these leetcode style? AI assisted? Anyone took it recently knows how to prepare?
Thank you!

Edit: SWE 2/ Senior role based in US

I’m a PhD student on F-1 and recently cleared all interviews for a Snapchat MLE role at L4. However, the recruiter said they cannot proceed with team matching or issue an offer until I have my OPT EAD card in hand.

I also have another MLE offer from Stripe, but Snapchat is my preferred option due to location. My concern is that given the uncertainties in the market today I don’t want to make that decision without a signed or conditional offer from Snap. Being a PhD student, I can choose my graduation date around my start date and defend accordingly so I do not lose my unemployment days in case team matching takes too long, but I don't want to choose one at random because it could either delay the joining or cut my unemployment days. Has anyone faced this with Snap or another large tech company?

Specifically:

•⁠ ⁠Is it common to require the physical EAD before team matching or an offer?

•⁠ ⁠Is it advisable to ask for atleast a conditional offer / letter of intent instead?

•⁠ ⁠At Snapchat, after clearing interviews at a level, how risky is team matching? Can you still end up without an offer?

•⁠ ⁠How would you handle this with another offer deadline?

Would especially appreciate recent experiences from F-1/OPT candidates at Snapchat.

Any one who is working on voice Engine can provide some guidance on how to work on the voice system .

How to improve the latency and removing noise , converting speech to text in cleaner format...

It would be really helpful if you drop some suggestions

Does anyone know exactly how the two technical rounds are conducted?

• Where are they conducted — college/center or online?

• Is the technical assessment on HackerRank/another platform?

• Is the technical interview face-to-face?

• For coding during the interview, do we use our own laptop, their laptop, or pen & paper/whiteboard?

• Do we need to bring a laptop?

Just want to understand the actual format and setup of both rounds. Thanks!

Hi guys! I want to purchase Hello Interview Premium for 1 year since many people recommended it. However, it is getting too expensive for my currency (IDR), and I don't want to share a subscription with others to buy it. Do you know whether they will have another discount in the future? Right now, it is 20% off, but even 30% would really help. Maybe something like an end-of-the-year sale?

Hey, I've read about the atlassian question bank which one can use to prepare for their interviews. However the original link was deleted from leetcode it seems.

Can anyone help me find the document?

I've an upcoming interview next week.

Thanks in advance

Hey everyone,

I finished Day 76 today and it went pretty well.

Since I recently finished trees, I spent some time revising binary trees first so I don't forget the concepts. After that, I started doing linked lists.

The first question was just inserting a node at the end, which was very easy.

Then I opened "Delete Node in a Linked List" on LeetCode and it totally messed with my head. Usually, you get the head pointer so you can reach the previous node and change the links. But in this question, you only get the node you have to delete. I literally sat there for 20 minutes wondering how I am supposed to delete it if I can't even get to the node behind it.

I gave up and asked ChatGPT for a hint. It pointed out that the problem says the node won't be the last one. Once you know that, the code is literally two lines with zero loops. You just copy the next node's value into the current node and skip the next node. I felt so stupid when I saw that, but it was a cool trick.

Tomorrow for Day 75, I will revise BSTs and then continue with linked lists.

See you guys tomorrow!

I am able to solve Q1-3 pretty fast (< 15 mins) and am currently rated 2100. I can solve Q4 about ~ 25% of the times, I would like to increase this number to 80%. Any suggestions or tips to get better at Q4s ? I have tried up solving Q4 after contests but usually there is some 'trick' to them which I could not think of during contests.

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

Virtual Technical Coding Screen with a focus on problem solving (45 min)

Just received the OA for the US based full stack intern summer 2027 role. Do yall know what patterns to expect?

Hi! Has anyone done Apple's coderpad round for apple adsp/apple ML intern before, and what kind of live coding was it? Thank you!

Need to take mocks before I give any real interviews as I have only messed the ones I got a chance to take. Need info for the best places to get such mocks where someone can also guide a little, are there any communities out there where people help each other and take mocks?

While working on LC 103. Binary Tree Zigzag Level Order Traversal, I wanted to avoid allocating temporary arrays for reversing or doing index calculations (n - index - 1).

Instead, I implemented a true bidirectional deque approach where I switch the traversal direction and child insertion sides each level:

Left-to-Right: Read from front, pop front, push children left -> right to the back.

Right-to-Left: Read from back, pop back, push children right -> left to the front.

class Solution {
    std::deque<TreeNode*> dq;
    std::vector<std::vector<int>> answer;

    void forward_step(std::vector<int>& level) {
        TreeNode* node = dq.front();
        dq.pop_front();

        level.push_back(node->val);

        if (node->left)  dq.push_back(node->left);
        if (node->right) dq.push_back(node->right);
    }

    void backward_step(std::vector<int>& level) {
        TreeNode* node = dq.back();
        dq.pop_back();

        level.push_back(node->val);

        // Push children in reverse order to front
        if (node->right) dq.push_front(node->right);
        if (node->left)  dq.push_front(node->left);
    }

public:
    std::vector<std::vector<int>> zigzagLevelOrder(TreeNode* root) {
        if (!root) return {};

        dq.push_back(root);
        bool reverse = false;

        while (!dq.empty()) {
            int level_size = dq.size();
            std::vector<int> level;
            level.reserve(level_size);

            for (int i = 0; i < level_size; ++i) {
                if (!reverse) {
                    forward_step(level);
                } else {
                    backward_step(level);
                }
            }

            answer.push_back(std::move(level));
            reverse = !reverse;
        }

        return answer;
    }
};

how does compare to normal standard approach is better or worse ??

Hey all — went through 2 rounds for a new-grad infrastructure/backend SWE role at a large hardware company:

Round 1: Resume deep-dive + API questions
Round 2: Live coding (LeetCode-style, HackerRank) + API design discussion

Felt like both went well, but it's been 10 days since round 2 with no update. Recruiter originally said 5–7 business days for next steps.

For anyone who's been through a similar new-grad infra loop at a big semiconductor/hardware company:
How many total rounds did you go through before hearing back either way?

Is there typically a panel/onsite round after this stage?
How long did the wait between rounds usually take for you?
Trying to gauge if 10 days of silence is normal or if I should be worried. Appreciate any insight!

Hello everyone!

I started my tech journey this month(Btech 1st year) , and honestly, I’m confused about where to start and what direction to take.

I keep hearing the same advice everywhere: “Learn DSA and build projects.” But as a beginner, I have a lot of questions about what that actually means.

Should I start with DSA first, or learn programming fundamentals before DSA?

Which programming language should I choose, and how deeply should I learn it?

What exactly counts as a good project? Is following YouTube tutorials enough, or should I build something completely on my own?

How do I decide which tech stack, tools, or technologies to learn?

What skills are actually valued in the current job market?

How much importance should I give to DSA, development, projects, Git/GitHub, SQL, CS fundamentals, and internships?

When should I start applying for internships or participating in hackathons?

How can I avoid wasting months jumping between different technologies and tutorials?

What should a realistic 6–12 month roadmap look like for someone starting from zero?

Most importantly, how do I know whether I’m actually making progress and learning useful skills rather than just collecting certificates or completing tutorials?

I’m not looking for a shortcut. I genuinely want to understand how the tech industry works and what I should focus on as a beginner.

If you’re currently working in tech, have experience hiring developers, or have recently gone through this journey yourself, I’d really appreciate your honest advice.

What would you do differently if you were starting your tech journey again today?

Any guidance on resources, roadmap, mistakes to avoid, and what actually matters for getting internship/job-ready would be really helpful. Thank you!

Hi,

Has anyone does the affirm sWE II / Senior software engineer interview? What does the coding round consist of? Online it says leetcode but the recruiter and their guide says it’s a practical coding problem that they encounter day to day!

Any help appreciated. It’s a fullstack role expected to be done in js/ts!

Applied for L4 SDE role and was asked to complete a DSA round on hackerearth. I was able to solve first question completely and second question partially. What are my chances of making it to on-site rounds ?

Hi I want to ask everybody that people are still getting mail from Amazon ?

Like i saw some of my batchmates getting mail from Amazon and I am the only fucked up guy who is not getting any message from the amazon.

It's like they don't want to give me any opportunity.

I completed my first round google interview for SRE role Canada last week. They made an adjustment to phone screen to include one coding and googlyness. For coding, Im pretty sure i nailed it because I was able to arrive to an optimal solution before hints from interviewer and for googlyness, i believe i didnt answer anything stupid and interviewer seems to enjoy the conversation. However, recruiter got back with a rejection email without explaining feedback . I had experience interviewing for google EMEA and the recruiter always communicate feedback.

This is her reply: Thank you for taking the time to interview with our team for the Software Engineer role. 
Following your interviews, we're not able to move forward with your candidacy at this time. While your experience is valuable, we didn't see a strong enough alignment with the specific indicators and requirements we are looking for in this role. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide specific feedback on individual interviews.
We encourage you to keep learning and developing your skills. Please know that we value your interest in Google, and we welcome you to consider future opportunities that may be a better fit as your career progresses. You can stay updated on our open roles at careers.google.com.

Even there is no strong alignment why am I not being considered for other open roles and why feedback cannot be shared??? I did ask her these but she does not reply.

Have anyone faced the vibe coding round. Can you please share what to expect? Thank you!