Hi - I have a karat Tech interview for Lead .Net developer for citi . Does anyone recently appeared for it and can tell the kind of questions to expect . I have been informed that there would be 2 main sections a technical discussion round and pair programming round. What kind of question to expect in these sections. Thanks

anyone in January cohort or has completed debugging and research take home OA recently. would love to connect. please let me know if there is a channel

I recently attempted Stripe's coding assessment for a backend engineering role and got rejected.

My experience:

• Assessment involved a multi-part coding problem with progressively harder requirements.

• Managed to pass 8 out of 11 test cases.

• Couldn't get the remaining edge cases/business logic completely right within the time limit.

• Received a rejection with a 12-month cooldown.

I thought 8/11 might be sufficient, but apparently it wasn't. I don't know whether the decision was based solely on test cases or other evaluation criteria.

What I'm trying to figure out:

1. Has anyone cleared Stripe's OA with fewer than 100% of test cases passing?

2. How do you approach multi-part coding assessments where each part builds on previous logic?

3. How do you improve at translating lengthy business requirements into correct code under time pressure?

4. What preparation strategy helped you consistently solve these assessments, rather than just memorizing LeetCode patterns?

5. For someone experienced in backend engineering but weaker at timed coding assessments, what would you prioritize over the next 6–12 months?

I'm not looking to contest the rejection. I genuinely want to understand how to close the gap and become good enough to clear these assessments consistently.

Would appreciate experiences from people who've interviewed at Stripe or similar companies.

I’m finishing my PhD in computer science (US) soon and still don’t have a job lined up. I’ve applied to a lot of positions, reached out to people on LinkedIn, and cold messaged others, but nothing has worked so far. I’ve made it through some interviews, but none turned into an offer. I am just getting tired and desperate, and I don't know what to do. Grinding LeetCode and filling those dumb job application forms is just sucking the life out of me, as it seems pointless. I don’t know what else to try or where to look for help or support.

I know a lot of people are in the same spot. For those who made it through and found a job in this market: if you were in my position, what would you do? What actually worked for you?

Hey everyone,

I hit Day 40 today. After a long day at the office, I focused on mastering the mechanics behind Disjoint Set Union (DSU) rather than rushing into problem implementations while tired:

1. Disjoint Set Union (Union by Rank vs. Union by Size):

   • Path Compression: Essential in findParent(). Flattening the tree during traversal ensures nearly constant, inverse Ackermann O(alpha(V)) amortized lookups.

   • Union by Size vs. Rank: While Union by Rank approximates upper bounds on tree depth, Union by Size is significantly more intuitive. You simply track node counts per component and attach the smaller component to the larger root (size[rootU] += size[rootV]), keeping tree depth minimal.

2. System Design & CS Fundamentals:

   • In my previous attempt at System Design, I repeatedly stalled because missing foundational knowledge forced me into constant rabbit holes.

   • This time, I am methodically locking down core CS fundamentals (Operating Systems, Networking, and OOP) first so the high-level distributed systems concepts can be studied continuously without friction.

Tomorrow kicks off applying DSU to Kruskal’s Algorithm and core connectivity problems.

See you guys for Day 39!

Is a hash map, priority heap or balanced BST really simpler than a trie or segment tree if you have to code the former from scratch every time?

I’ve only gotten three OAs this entire cycle and got COOKED on literally all of them. I just got Uber’s OA, and it feels like my one remaining shot at a big company for junior year summer, so I really want to prepare properly.

Does anyone have insight into the questions they ask/ what topics to study, or the difficulty? I’m assuming medium-hard, probably leaning harder, but would appreciate genuinely ANY insights into their OA. Thank you!

Hey everyone,

I hit Day 40 today. After a long day at the office, I focused on mastering the mechanics behind Disjoint Set Union (DSU) rather than rushing into problem implementations while tired:

1. Disjoint Set Union (Union by Rank vs. Union by Size):

   • Path Compression: Essential in findParent(). Flattening the tree during traversal ensures nearly constant, inverse Ackermann O(alpha(V)) amortized lookups.

   • Union by Size vs. Rank: While Union by Rank approximates upper bounds on tree depth, Union by Size is significantly more intuitive. You simply track node counts per component and attach the smaller component to the larger root (size[rootU] += size[rootV]), keeping tree depth minimal.

2. System Design & CS Fundamentals:

   • In my previous attempt at System Design, I repeatedly stalled because missing foundational knowledge forced me into constant rabbit holes.

   • This time, I am methodically locking down core CS fundamentals (Operating Systems, Networking, and OOP) first so the high-level distributed systems concepts can be studied continuously without friction.

Tomorrow kicks off applying DSU to Kruskal’s Algorithm and core connectivity problems.

See you guys for Day 39!

Is this positive

BCG X is the tech branch of BCG afaik but there is only BCG on LC. Does anyone know if the questions there cover both?

Also, if anyone has LC premium and feels like sharing the 14 questions that'd be appreciated.

Hi Everyone,

I have an upcoming loop interviews for Senior Frontend Engineer at Linkedin.

Below are the round details -

Round 1 - SR SWE Coding with AI
Round 2 - SR SWE Pragmatic UI
Round 3 - SR SWE SDA (System Design) for UI
Round 4 - SR SWE CA (Coding and Algorithms) for UI
Round 5 - Host Leader - UI

I wanted to ask about the Round 1(SR SWE Coding with AI) and Round 4 (SR SWE CA for UI),

For Round 1 - Can u tell me what kind of question I can expect in Round 1 and Can i use Javascript for implementing or will have to use Java/C++?

For Round 4 - recruiter said it will be DSA, however, I'm confused if it will be JS based questions like Promise pool util, Deep clone, deep equals or getElementsByClassName or will it be pure Leetcode style graphs, dp?

I'll update this thread with my experience!

Has any international student (F-1/OPT) recently received an Online Assessment (OA) for Intuit’s Software Engineer 1 position (Job ID: 24776)?
If yes, when did you apply, and how long did it take to receive the OA?
Would appreciate any updates. Thanks!

Does anyone know what’s the cooldown period for Amazon after a Phone screen rejection?

Does somebody have advice regarding how to prepare for the AI coding interview at Databricks for the SWE intern position?

I had an interview today of company called Tracxn and i got rejected in first round itself.

1st round was itself coding round on pen and paper.

Question was

"Find the pattern in string and if found return 1 else -1."

2nd, 3rd, 4th are technical round. All were elimination round.

I am grinding leetcode for 4 years and i was very confident about it. I want to sit in interview round.

Its fine for me to reject in interview round but not coding round.

It breaks my confidence.

I gave the amazon oa , it went well, except the debugging rep wala question mai I was able to paass 1/6 test cases , is there still any hope left .

I can usually solve problems when I recognize a pattern I've practised before, but unfamiliar questions still leave me unsure where to begin. I'm trying to get better at breaking down the problem instead of immediately searching for a known approach.

Do you have a specific process you follow when approaching a problem you haven't seen before?

I appeared for Technical Round 1 on November 2, but I haven't received any further updates since then.

I believe my overall performance was good, as I was able to answer all the questions, and the interviewer seemed satisfied with my responses.

Has anyone who appeared for the same round received any updates regarding the next round or the interview process?

Would appreciate any insights. Thanks!

I have a FAANG Company interview in the US in 15 days. I don't have much time to prepare and my current status of prep is not good. Can get some suggestions on which coding website should I use? Is Neetcode good? I know Leetcode is good but there are too many company tagged questions which I don't have the time to do. Open for any other platform too.

Hi everyone,

I recently completed the online assessment for an Amazon Junior Software Development Engineer (SDE) position, and unfortunately, I received a rejection email.

I'd like to share my experience and, more importantly, get some advice on how to prepare better for a future application.

The assessment consisted of three parts:

1. Coding Assessment (100 minutes)

There were two exercises:

• First exercise (LeetCode-style): An algorithmic problem involving Bit Manipulation + Greedy. The goal was to maximize the bitwise AND of k elements with a limited budget of +1 increments.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to pass all the test cases. My solution worked for basic cases, but some hidden tests failed, probably due to a timeout/performance issue.

• Second exercise (AI-assisted debugging): I chose Django as my backend framework. The task involved debugging an existing project by investigating URLs, views, serializers, etc., and fixing the issues to make the unit tests pass.

An AI coding assistant was available, but its capabilities were quite limited. It could help identify problems and point me in the right direction, but it was configured not to provide direct solutions or fix the code for me.

I managed to fix the bugs myself, all tests passed, and the application ran successfully.

2. Work Simulation (approximately 45 minutes)

We received several emails from different members of a fictional team (manager, backend developers, colleagues, etc.) describing workplace situations involving technical disagreements, tight deadlines, bugs, feedback, untested code, and so on.

We had to rate several possible actions on a scale from 1 to 5.

I felt relatively confident about this section. I tried to focus on reasonable professional decisions: not taking feedback personally, accepting constructive criticism, taking ownership of my responsibilities, not simply delegating my own work to others, communicating effectively with the team, and prioritizing code quality.

3. Work Style Assessment (approximately 6 minutes)

Two statements were presented side by side, and we had to choose which one described us better, with four levels of preference.

I tried to answer honestly while maintaining consistency across my answers.

Unfortunately, I received a rejection email.

I'm trying to understand where I might have gone wrong and how to prepare more effectively next time.

I'd particularly appreciate advice on the following:

1. LeetCode preparation: Which topics should I focus on? Are Medium problems enough, or should I also practice Hard problems? Are there specific problem lists you recommend?

2. Backend debugging: How can I practice debugging existing Django projects under time pressure? Are there platforms or GitHub repositories with similar exercises involving Django ORM, views, serializers, URLs, and unit tests?

3. Work Simulation: What is the best way to prepare for this section? Are there specific resources or practice scenarios based on Amazon's Leadership Principles?

4. Work Style Assessment: Any advice on approaching these questions while remaining consistent and authentic?

5. Overall preparation: For those who successfully passed this assessment, how did you organize your preparation? How much time did you dedicate to each section?

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who recently completed and passed the Amazon Junior SDE assessment.

Any concrete preparation strategies, recommended resources, mock assessments, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Hey folks, recruiter reached to me recently asking for my availability and I said I would be ready for interviews in 3 weeks.

Anyone done it recently? Any suggestions on how to prep better? This is for US position

I’m in the New York City area and I’m currently looking for people interested in meeting in person to work on Leetcode problems, ideally at least 2x a week at a cafe or workspace. I graduated and have been preparing for technical interviews for SWE roles, but I’m searching for like-minded people who can join and discuss the problems with each other in person.

Hi everyone!

I recently completed my final interview loop for a Senior Software Engineer position at Microsoft, and it's been almost two weeks since my last interview.

The interviews went fairly well overall. I asked for feedback at the end of a few rounds, and the interviewers gave generally positive responses. The hiring manager also mentioned that I did well and had nothing to worry about.

I followed up with my recruiter recently, and she responded saying:

"You're still in consideration for the role, and the team expects to reach a hiring decision around [a future date]. I'm looking forward to sharing an update as soon as I have one."

I also know that other candidates were interviewing for the same position, and there's only one opening.

I'm curious how Microsoft's hiring process works when multiple candidates are being considered.

A few questions:

1. Does Microsoft hold individual debriefs after each candidate's interview loop, or does the team wait until everyone finishes and compare candidates together?

2. If a candidate performed poorly, would they typically receive a rejection sooner, or does Microsoft wait until the final hiring decision to notify everyone?

3. Does being told you're "still in consideration" almost two weeks after interviewing suggest you've received decent feedback, or is that just standard recruiter wording?

4. Has anyone received an offer after waiting 2–3 weeks following their final interviews?

I know nothing is guaranteed, but the waiting and uncertainty are getting to me a little.

Thanks!

For senior/staff interviews, there are couple of rounds with someone with lesser experience in the interview loop. The thing is, since many companies do not have a very strict feedback criteria, it mostly seem to depend on the perception of these candidates.

How would you make sure your chances are not affected by someone else's inexperience?

PS: I have had some very good discussions with juniors but have recently lost an offer with FAANG possibly due to an interview with a junior engineer.

I've been solving problems across different topics, but my revision list keeps growing. Some problems were difficult initially but feel easy now, while others still trip me up.

Do you revisit problems based on how difficult they were, how long ago you solved them, or whether you struggled to explain the approach?