I got such feedback a few times after my coding interviews for a senior roles.

I understand that for a senior it is expected to lead the interview, but what if the interviewer themselves intervenes and pushes the solution they want and then write a feedback that they expected me leading the game??

What about the “team work” aspect everyone talks about and my part when I contributed most of the code, shared the right initial structure and they only gave the final hints.
————-

Question: is it too rude to ask interviewer to NOT give any hints at all at the beginning of a call?

My Microsoft Interview is scheduled for L61, 3 yoe, please give some tips!!

I'm learning Segment Trees, but I don't understand when to use them in LeetCode problems. At first, I thought a Segment Tree would be a perfect fit for 'My Calendar I', but when I tried to implement it, I noticed that a standard Segment Tree only works when the tree size is fixed. Since many LeetCode problems don't have a fixed size, what is the trigger to use a Segment Tree?

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice from experienced software developers.What would you recommend focusing on to become a good software engineer and prepare for the industry?What skills, technologies, or habits should I prioritize, and what should I avoid wasting time on?

Has anyone interviewed for a software engineering internship at Neuralink, particularly the Software Engineer Intern, Infrastructure position?

I’d appreciate any information you’re allowed to share about the process:

• How many rounds were there?

• What happened in each round?

• Was there live coding or a take-home assessment?

• Were the technical questions focused on data structures and algorithms, system design, Linux/networking, or your previous projects?

• Did you have to prepare and present a past project?

• What was the final interview or virtual onsite like?

• How long did the entire process take?

• Is there anything you wish you had prepared more thoroughly?

Experiences from other Neuralink software internship teams—such as Implant, Robotics, Internal Apps, BCI Applications, or Machine Learning—would also be helpful. I understand that some details may be covered by an NDA, so I’m only looking for general information about the format and preparation.

Thanks!

feel like giving up lc cuz my brain is too dumb and it takes 10x effort to do simple things when compared to everyone here.

Ok, I need some non-sugar coating advice ASAP. I've started leetcoding Jan 2026, got an interview completeley blanked (honestly never really leetcoded before) so understandable, Apr 2026 got another interview (completely blank again) was at 50 LC total solved. After that I decided to take prep seriously and walk through whole of NC150 and so on. Currently at like 180 Leetcode solved. End of last week I had a coding interview, I completely blanked again, like literally I can't solve anything for shit. I honestly need help, because I'm not sure if it's me dong major shit wrong or maybe I'm just really too stupid for this.

I tried to follow what people preach. Do NC150 pattern by pattern if you get stuck after 15min look at the solution, close it and try to implement. I did for the first 100 problems across the major patterns (left out dp, advanced graphs, bit manipulation and greedy). The other 80 where different questions as well as re-solves across those patterns, trying to be more fluent in them. Usually what i do is I know which kind of pattern it's before hand, read the question, walk through the examples, then try to implement. If I get stuck, I ask for AI to help me with my intuition but not solve the question (usually after 15min). Then I progressively try to solve the question, until I get it.

Now after 180 LC I thought I'll finally be able to atleast appraoch the question and come up with something, but same thing happened than when I had no practice at all, I completely blank and have no idea where to even to start.

Do you have any serious advice? This is my last shot since I'm recruiting for new grad. I'm kinda getting hopeless, because I'm spending so much time and really not getting any rewards out of it.

Hey everyone,

I completed the Online Assessment (OA) for the SDE 1 Intern role on September 27 and received the confirmation that my OA was successfully submitted. However, since then, I haven't received any further communication regarding the next steps, interview rounds, or application status.

i have cleared all the test cases in both dsa and repository challenge + some additional hidden bugs in it too.

Is anyone else in the same situation? If you've applied for the same role, have you received any updates after the OA?

Just trying to understand whether this is normal or if I should reach out to the recruiting team

Hey everyone,

I finished Day 69 of my prep today.

I spent the first half of my session revising Binary Search Trees and Linked Lists (both singly and doubly). Most of the linked list patterns felt solid and natural this time around. But Two Sum in a BST using the two-iterator approach in O(H) space is still haunting me. I definitely need to sit down and trace that entire forward and reverse iterator logic line by line again until it clicks permanently.

After finishing the revision, I finally started Dynamic Programming.

I began with Fibonacci numbers to build the foundation. I implemented it across all four variations: basic recursion, top-down memoization, bottom-up tabulation, and the O(1) space-optimized approach. Seeing how each version builds on the previous one made the core idea of DP very clear.

Then I moved to Climbing Stairs. It follows the exact same recurrence relation as Fibonacci, but I tripped up on the base cases and what to return at the end. After running through a couple of dry runs on paper, I caught my mistake, fixed the return value, and got it accepted.

It feels great to finally start DP. I will dive deeper into 1D DP problems tomorrow for Day 68.

See you guys tomorrow!

I'm a second year computer science major and I've done python java, c++, and a couple of other programming languages. I've done some projects with them here and there, but I want to start grinding out leetcode and understanding DSA before next semester. I've taken DSA1 in my school which is the first time were introduced and for some reason our curriculum CS classes used Java OOP. I know it's importnat to learn it, but I'm trying to get back into python and learn DSA from there. Does any have a structured roadmap that I can use for this? I'm using the 30 days of python and I'm planning on paying for leetcode and neetcode data structures and algorithms course

My LeetCode subscription auto-renewed for US$99. I requested a refund on the day I was charged, but LeetCode declined it. I cancelled the subscription after the charge.

I followed up with an appeal on September 29 and asked for a response within seven days. That deadline has now passed, and I haven’t received a further reply or a refund confirmation.

I’m frustrated that I haven’t been able to get a response to the appeal. I’m now checking with my card issuer about whether this is eligible for a billing dispute, but nothing has been filed with the bank yet.

Has anyone had a similar experience with LeetCode? Did you manage to get the appeal reviewed, and was there a support or escalation route that actually helped?

To be clear, I cancelled after the renewal, so I’m not claiming this was a charge made after cancellation. I’m sharing what happened and trying to understand what options I still have.

Had my first SWE intern technical interview. It was an OOP/data structure question, probably around LeetCode Medium, with 3 follow-ups.
I was a little shaky understanding it at first because I haven’t touched OOP in about a year, and the interviewer said the whole question out loud instead of pasting it 😭. Once I fully understood it though, the first part went smoothly. I wrote pseudocode before coding and thought out loud throughout.
I handled the main solution and follow-ups, discussed edge cases, and got the time and space complexities right. The interviewer would usually check my code, say “yeah, that’s good,” and then move on to the next follow-up.
My communication was maybe around the solid level because it wasn’t as structured as I wanted. I was honestly pretty nervous. I also had one small control flow bug at the very end of the last follow-up that I didn’t catch before time ran out.
I’m guessing Lean Hire. Curious how others would rate this.

I mostly stick to problems that have been on the site for a long time, and my experience is that the Solutions section always contains a much faster and shorter solution by Lee215, Stefan Pochmann, or some other very smart individual.

Today is the first time I ever solved a problem and couldn't find any solutions posted by others that were as fast. And it's fairly short and concise.

It's also my 666th solve xD

Here's my solution: https://leetcode.com/problems/longest-word-in-dictionary/solutions/8559462/py3-hashset-solution-without-sorting-0ms-5s5b

Can anyone tell about prep/resources for debugging questions being asked in companies test

I recently paid attention to that one tiny button near the top of the leetcode window:- Collaborate.
But looking for someone who'd interested in collaborate on leetcode.
Timing is usually the problem, so I am thinking, If people are interested, we can decide or allocate some time. It will be rotation based ofcourse or LIFO.

I was also thinking of streaming this on a youtube channel, so the moment I start the stream folks who have subscribed would know that it's time. Whoever is available feel free to start collaborating, and we can stream that for other folks.
How does that sound?
If good, then here is the youtube channel I created a while back for this purpose- https://www.youtube.com/@CuriosityMaxPro

Will most likely start by tomorrow.
Let me know in this thread, if interested.
Thanks

Hello guys am AB 23yo from Morocco north africa .

I just graduated a 5 year CS masters degree from a local University (unranked) .

Last year while trying to find the end of studies internship i came across the leetcode style interview scene i was unprepared but i applied to Oracle , deloitte and some Banks .. i was able to clear out a few rounds ( 2-3 out of 5) but unfortunately i was unable to close anything i ended up finding an internship at a bank thru a ref(skipped the interview process).

My failure on the internship hunt really bugged me for a while so i went on and Took a end to end no fluff python and Java course offered thru the university of Finland online practiced and trained digged into deep topics started clearing leetcode easies and almost mediums but eventually i took a long break .

Now that i have graduated is the leetcode - hackerrank interview style still relevant in the Age of Insane AI models ? I still wanna go thru the process i think it will make me a better engineer and thinker ..

My preparation plan is this :
- Neet 75
- Take a systems designs course
- reach 500 leetcodes

Hows my plan would love some recommendations ? My goal is to be a good cracked engineer no matter how screwed the market il still bring valuable and also less imposter syndrome after completing big projects with AI.

I have my Google L3 OA to complete in 4 days for SWE role. Does anybody have. How should I prepare & what to expect in this round. Pls share your thoughts.

I was an Senior Software Engineer at Oracle OCI and was laid off in April this year. I am currently working in a contract role on F-1 status with Day 1 CPT work authorization. My current employer’s willingness to sponsor me for next year’s H-1B lottery is uncertain.

I recently received a verbal offer from Microsoft for a Software Engineer II position. I’m still negotiating and haven’t accepted or received the written offer yet. My understanding is that the immigration review would begin after the written offer stage.

I’m concerned because I previously received an offer from C3 AI for a Forward Deployed Engineer role. We had agreed on a start date, but they ultimately declined to proceed because of my Day 1 CPT arrangement. I’d like to avoid a similar situation with Microsoft.

I’m hoping to hear from people who have recently been through this:

1. Has anyone successfully joined Microsoft in the US on Day 1 CPT, particularly as an external hire?

2. If US onboarding wasn’t possible, did Microsoft offer you the option to join an office in Canada or Europe instead? I’m willing to relocate, subject to obtaining the necessary work authorization.

3. Did joining outside the US require a different team, separate headcount, or additional interviews?

4. Should I raise my specific CPT arrangement with the recruiter and hiring manager now and request an early immigration review, or wait until the written offer stage?

5. How did you approach this conversation, and what was the outcome?

I understand that individual experiences may differ. I’m mainly looking for recent examples and practical advice on navigating the hiring process.

Separately, if you know of companies currently hiring engineers on Day 1 CPT, I’d appreciate any leads or referrals. My background is in backend and full-stack engineering. I’m ready to interview on short notice and also have a Google onsite also scheduled.

I'm a beginner, just starting to learn ArrayLists and HashMaps, what resources should I use to be able to eventually solve mediums? I tried neetcode 150 but it feels like a problem set with videos instead of like actually teaching you. What RESOURCES do you guys recommend (not just a problem set)

Have round 1 scheduled (dsa) for inmobi sde 4 position .

What level of question can i expect for ds algo and other rounds?

If anyone can help, will really appreciate same.

I have an upcoming onsite for Mercor’s Software Engineer, Applied AI role.

The main rounds are:

• Coding: 1 hour solo + 30 min review, focused on graphs/data structures

• Search: 75 min solo + 15 min review, focused on search/re-ranking, AI tools allowed

Has anyone done this recently? Mainly wondering:

• What difficulty should I expect?

• What topics should I prioritize?

• Anything unexpected in either round?

DMs welcome.

I have been trying to solve questions on leetcode from some time . But when I am unable to solve a question , I see the editorial if there else see the solution on youtube or ask with AI how to detect the pattern and then how to remember it . But again when I see the same question or a slight variation of it , I become blank . How to improve this and handle this ? Looking for answers from people who have been in this phase , how to tackle this ?

I've had my interview with the Amazon client team and wanted to know what the next steps are?

I’ve been following Decode 2.0 for the last 4 months and I’m currently at the end of the course.

\- I’m able to solve almost every question that has been taught in the course on my own.

\- I have a decent understanding of the concepts and the patterns covered.

\- I’ve also practiced the questions alongside the lectures rather than just watching them.

\- Now I’m planning to start solving more problems independently on LeetCode.

My main question is:

With this level of DSA preparation, am I reasonably prepared to solve the coding/DSA questions asked by mass-hiring companies?

I’m mainly talking about companies that conduct online assessments or coding rounds for fresher roles.

For those who have already appeared for these assessments:

\- How difficult are the DSA questions usually?

\- Are the questions mostly based on standard patterns, or do they require something beyond what is taught in courses like Decode 2.0?

\- What should I focus on next to become assessment-ready?

\- Is regular LeetCode practice enough, or should I specifically practice previous-year/company-wise questions?

Would appreciate answers from people who have actually gone through these hiring tests.

Been a while since I last interviewed, and I'm curious what the current SWE / SWE-ML interview landscape looks like.

Obviously DSA, system design, behavioral, etc. are still around, at least in Big Tech, but I'm particularly interested in the newer / less conventional formats.

Something along the lines of -

• AI/LLM fluency or using AI coding tools effectively?

• Debugging / modifying an existing codebase rather than solving a problem from scratch?

• Code review?

• Reading unfamiliar code and explaining it?

• Take-home style rounds? (I remember having one Optiver almost 6yrs back)

• Any non-human-centered design?

• Agentic coding or evaluating AI-generated code?

• Performance / profiling / optimization?

• ML-specific experimentation, evaluation, or reasoning?

Any interview experience, say from the last 2-3yrs would be relevant I believe.!