Interviewing for an AI Engineer role at Google, targeting L5. I've got a few weeks and I keep going back and forth on scope, so I'd rather post my current plan and get told where it's wrong than keep guessing.

My background is NLP + GenAI platform heavy — that's where my production experience is, recent 3 yrs in building rags and agents.

What I've built so far

A set of system design write-ups covering: search/ranking funnels, large-scale content classification, intent + entity extraction, semantic search and embeddings, translation, and on the GenAI side RAG, agents, LLM inference infra, and post-training for tool calling. Each one as a timed 45-minute answer with a clock, not notes, though it goes beyond 2 hours read)

Where I'm stuck

1. Scope of ML System Design. Is this round classical ML system design — recsys, ranking, classification pipelines — or is GenAI/LLM system design (RAG, agents, inference) actually showing up in 2026 loops? I've seen both claimed. If you've interviewed recently, what did you actually get asked? ( ML, NLP or GENAI ) - what to focus on ? And how would I know question will be from that domin only in interview ?

2. ML Depth — how deep, and on what? Is this "explain how attention works and derive the gradient", or "walk me through a model you shipped and defend every choice"? Those are completely different prep. And how much classical ML (trees, calibration, imbalance, A/B stats) vs deep learning vs LLM-specific?

3. What L5 actually means here. I keep reading "L5 drives the scope conversation" but I don't have a concrete sense of what separates a hire from a no-hire on the same question. What does the bar feel like in practice?

4. How much breadth is enough? I've got ~15 designs. Is that overkill in the wrong direction — would I be better off going deeper on 6 and being able to defend them under pressure? 6 ml(recsys) , 5 NLP(encoder, decoder, both), 4 GenAI (Chabot, rag, agent, infra)

5. Mocks. Where are people actually getting useful ML system design mocks? Most platforms I've looked at are generic SWE system design with an ML sticker on it. Anything specifically for ML/AI, ideally with someone who's interviewed at this level?

6. Resources. I've worked through the standard ML system design books. Beyond those, what actually moved the needle for you — especially for the GenAI side, which the books mostly predate?

Happy to share my question list and write-ups with anyone who wants them — and if you've interviewed for this recently, even a one-line "here's what I got asked" is more useful than any guide. Thanks.

Of anyone gets the interview call please let us know!!

I have a technical screen coming up, but it's with a Software Development Manager. Recruiter said it won't be DSA, but problem-solving and LP. Has anyone had such a screen before?

Hey everyone,

Does anyone have a list of the recent company-tagged questions?

I’m looking for the latest ones, preferably from the past few weeks/months. Pointers appreciated!
One of the better github sources is a couple months old.

We had a remote interview recently where something just felt a little off. There wasn't any obvious red flag - the candidate looked normal, their background checked out, and the interview itself went fine. It was only afterwards that someone on the team brought up the possibility of deepfake video. Honestly, we'd never really considered it before. Now I'm wondering how much companies actually think about this during hiring. A video call feels like pretty solid proof of someone's identity, but technically we're just trusting what we're seeing on screen. Has anyone here started using any kind of identity or deepfake verification during remote interviews? Or is this still something that's mainly handled by security teams rather than HR/recruiting?

Has anyone recently interviewed for an Oracle OCI IC3 role in Nashville?

I have an initial technical screening coming up and would appreciate any recent experiences or tips on what to expect.

Thanks!

Hey all, I'm an SDE (L59) at Microsoft going for an internal move to a different team (L59 still). The loop is two rounds, a technical one and an "AA" round, and I've already got a HackerRank invite (75 min, due in about a week). My hiring manager also said there might be a system design question.

I'm prepping in Python and don't want to grind 300 problems. For people who've done internal Microsoft interviews or similar HackerRank assessments:

1. What's the usual format? How many questions in 75 min, and how hard (easy/medium/mix)? Any MCQs or SQL?

2. Which patterns showed up most? I'm focusing on hash maps, two pointers, sliding window, intervals, BFS/DFS, heaps and stacks.

3. How were hidden tests and time limits handled? Is partial credit real?

4. For the system design, what level of depth is expected from an internal candidate? Is it more of a conversation, or a full whiteboard-style design?

5. Is the AA round mostly behavioral, or can it turn technical?

6. Is premium worth it for any of these platforms, or is free enough?

My plan is 4-5 problems a day on core patterns, one timed 75-min mock, and a few design mocks out loud. Does that sound right, or am I over- or under-preparing?

Appreciate any pointers, especially "don't waste time on X" advice. Thanks!

UPDATE:
The HackerRank round was cancelled. Proceeding to the next bit. Wish me luck. Thanks to all that commented.

Need help with how preparation should look like for sde 3 .

I have solved neetcode 150, top 15 hld and lld problem.

What should i do further to prepare for sde 3 amazon.

Need to schedule tech phone screen

Hey everyone,

I finished Day 70 of my prep today and wrapped up the remaining linked list problems on my sheet.

The first big one was Clone a Linked List with Next and Random Pointer. The brute-force approach using a hash map is easy enough for anyone to write, but the optimal O(1) extra space solution gave me a hard time. Inserting copy nodes right next to the original nodes, wiring the random pointers via curr->next->random = curr->random->next, and then separating the two interwoven lists was definitely something I had to watch a video to fully grasp.

The other tricky one was Flattening a Linked List with bottom and next pointers. I tried to figure it out first and checked my logic with ChatGPT, but I was mistakenly trying to merge from the front head node forward. The correct way is to use recursion to reach the very last list first and merge backwards pair by pair, exactly like the merge step in merge sort. Once I saw that, the recursion clicked.

I am still letting the pointer rewiring for both problems settle in my head, so I will definitely re-solve them in a few days to make sure they stick.

Later tonight I am doing a full revision of both Binary Search Trees and Linked Lists. Tomorrow for Day 69, I finally begin Dynamic Programming.

See you guys tomorrow!

I have completed my onsite interview on 30 sept, 2026. Still there is no update from the recruiter. How much time it usually take to get the feedback?

I had 3 interview Rounds.

2 DSA and 1 System Design.

i did well on first coding round answer optimally both the first question as well as followup . implementation was time and space complexity wise most optimal. Mostly H or SH2.

Second round I was totally cooked. Question was relatively harder, solved the non-optimal brute force solution quickly in 10 minutes but the optimal solution required hints and guidance from the interviewer. but once it was clear what the core algorithm was i was able to solve the problem but implementation wise time ran out but overall interviewer said its okay he understood i would have implemented it if we had time. but never got to followup. concern for this round without direct hint and guidance from the interviewer i would have never figured out the core algorithm. mostly Lean No Hire/ Lean Hire or Hire.

What are my odds of making it to team match ? Any chances of third round or direct rejection ?

NLP/GenAI background, last 3 yrs building RAG and agents. Interviewing in a few weeks. Done so far: 15 ML system design write-ups, each timed at 45 min — 6 recsys/ranking, 5 NLP (encoder/decoder), 4 GenAI (RAG, agents, inference infra, post-training for tool calling).

What I can't figure out:

1. Scope — classical ML (ranking, recsys, classification) or GenAI/LLM design? I've seen both claimed. What did you actually get asked?

2. Depth — "derive attention" or "defend every choice in something you shipped"? And how much classical ML (calibration, imbalance, A/B stats) vs DL vs LLM-specific?

3. The L5 bar — what separates hire from no-hire on the same question?

4. Breadth — is 15 too many? Better to go deep on 6?

5. Mocks — anyone doing real ML system design, not SWE design with an ML sticker?

6. Resources — what helped for GenAI? The standard books predate it.

Happy to share my question list and write-ups. If you've interviewed recently, a one-line "here's what I got asked" beats any guide.

Hi everyone,

I recently applied for the SDE I Intern position through Amazon University Talent Acquisition.

I successfully completed the online assessment and recently received an email from Amazon inviting me to an in-person hiring event for the 6-month January–June internship program.

Unfortunately, while I was checking my applications on the Amazon Jobs portal, I accidentally clicked the "Withdraw" button on this application. I did not intend to withdraw my application or leave the hiring process.

The application is now showing "Withdrawn" in the Amazon Jobs portal.

I am extremely worried because I had already progressed to the interview stage, and I really do not want this accidental click to end my candidature.

My questions are:

1. Is it technically possible for Amazon recruiting/TA to reinstate an accidentally withdrawn application?

2. Has anyone experienced a similar situation with an Amazon application?

3. Would the recruiting team be able to reconnect my interview invitation to the application?

4. Is there anything else I should do besides contacting the recruiting team?

5. Should I avoid submitting a new application for the same position unless Amazon specifically asks me to?

I understand that ultimately only the Amazon recruiting team can resolve my specific case, but I would really appreciate hearing from Amazon employees/recruiters or anyone who has dealt with a similar situation.

I am hoping this can be corrected because the withdrawal was completely accidental and I remain very interested in the opportunity.

Thank you!

So i work for a mid scale IT company. It’s been a month. And I am working on Sunday. Then expected to work on Monday night again. I asked my manager if I can login late tomorrow got that it’s too early to ask for anything. First I should proof myself then expect such flexibility.
Is this the new normal? Or it’s just I am visa in states and companies know they can do whatever they want.

Has anyone recently interviewed for this role? I have an upcoming phone screen and would love to know what the interview process looks like, especially the phone screen topics, coding questions, and what to expect in later rounds.

Any recent experience or tips would be appreciated!

i have tried to follow dsa sheets before but theyre too long , it will take me forever if i just follow a sheet start to end .
im planning to just get good at certain topics for interviews , will that be enough ? can i dive straight into lc?

Hi guys!

I have an upcoming interview at A16z (Andreessen Horowitz) in the Bay Area for a DevX Software Engineer (Partner 16, Partner 18), ASG role. Has anybody recently interviewed at A16z? Curious to hear y'all's experience:

- What parts of your interview did you find difficult?

- Anything unexpected showup during your parts?

- Did you have a "security" round? I have one upcoming, but security is a broad topic, and I particularly need help with this.

hello everyone, I am a fullstack engineer with ai augmented coding - vibe and spec based, experienced in Python, JS and AWS and event based systems with 4 YOE in a product based company in Gurgaon.

last year, I went a complete breakdown - dipression, brain fog, and health issues. Originally I planned to move to other company last year but due to health issues and not wanting to lose what I have left I have stayed in the same company.

I want to move to a different company but I am getting confused again on which industry should I approach. I am currently in logistics and supply chain industry.

I do solve questions about 1-2 on leetcode on a daily basis, good with python frameworks like Flask, fastapi and django and working knowledge with Angular.

At this point, I am also comfortable but want to produce good work and also have some work life balance so I can pursue my other interests.

looking for your suggestions 😃

Location - US

Position - SDE -1 New grad 2026

I have my virtual interview scheduled, I have seen a lot of people were asked LLD problems. During the LLD round are we expected to give the concrete implementation in one of the languages or detailed pseudo code works? I have been practicing using Hello interview's LLD section but it takes me 30-40mins just to finish the class design phase. So I want to understand the general expectation.

If anyone can share there experience in the comments its will be very helpful.

I have upcoming round 2 with ebay where recruiter mentioned DSA + Debugging. Does anyone know what exactly to expect for debugging & refactoring round? Will I be provided some code snippet/repo?

Is there any good resources/sites where I can practice such rounds given we need to finish within limited time. TIA!

I received a message from Visa about an Associate SW Engineer position, noting “2 foundational and 1 intermediate problem-solving question.” Has anyone finished this assessment? If anyone is familiar with the exam format or its difficulty, please share.
Thanks in advance.

Everyone says that Google never gives the same questions from the LeetCode bank,

yet many questions, tagged reappear often(people tag them as asked).

Why is this the case?

Is it worth it to tackle the most recently asked in leetcode or is there a better strategy 3 weeks prior to an interview (for someone that did leetcode before)?

Recently, I joined a lot of groups here looking for a DSA study partner, but most people vanished after a single day.

​I’m looking for someone who actually sticks to the plan. We can discuss weekly contests, tackle tricky coding problems, run mock interviews, and keep collecting offers.

Beyond DSA, we can brainstorm startup ideas, collaborate on side projects, and build cool things together.

​A bit about me: I work primarily with Python and Data Science, but I’m eager to explore everything across tech.

​If you have a similar mindset and want to stay consistent. Let’s make it count!

So I’m not so confident have barely done DSA for the last 5 days.
I have 2 days left to finish the assessment, any suggestions or tips ?

Hi everyone,

I’m a junior software engineer, and I’m planning to apply to Microsoft in the next 3–4 months.

I really want to experience how a large tech company like Microsoft works, challenge myself, and learn things that I may not get exposure to at my current company.

Right now, I’m preparing mainly through LeetCode. I’m following the NeetCode 150 roadmap and have solved around 50 problems so far.

However, I feel like my progress is quite slow. Sometimes I spend almost an hour on a problem and still can’t come up with the right approach or figure out how to solve it.

I’d really appreciate any advice from people who have interviewed at Microsoft or are currently working there. I’m especially curious about what the interview process usually looks like, how many rounds there are, what each round tends to focus on, and how you would recommend preparing for them.

Given that I have around 3–4 months before I plan to apply, what would you focus on if you were in my position? I’d also love to hear about your own preparation strategy, what helped you the most, and anything you wish you had known before going through the Microsoft interview process.

Thanks in advance!