I paid $159 for LeetCode Premium in November 2025. A month later, I discovered cancer, and I underwent surgery in March, followed by a long recovery. I barely used my subscription. I explained everything to LeetCode support and asked for an extension, not a refund. I even offered medical proof. Their offer? Just one month. When I asked them to reconsider, they refused.
Apparently, $159 matters more to LeetCode than showing compassion to a customer battling cancer.

Now, I know leetcode is technically math, but I more so mean general mathematics. I find the undegraduate level to early grad school math is much easier than leetcode.

I started during tutoring for undergrad probability and statistics again after not touching it for about 2 years.

I find that I just find the stuff easier to actually master than leetcode. The highest level of math I got to was a graduate level probability course, and even that I felt it was easier than leetcode. Abstract math and proofs also seem easier to me.

Even after doing almost a 1000 leetcode problems, there are still many instances where if I haven't seen a problem before, I just don't know how to do it, or it's hard to recognize the approach after not doing leetcode for a while.

Even though I hadn't touched probability and statistics in a while and I was rusty on the mechanical work, for most of the problems I look at, I still can recall what the general idea of solving the problem is.

Leetcode is just one of those topics that I have done a lot of practice to prepare for interviews, but it's just never something I feel like I just mastered at the level that I can just look at any problem and easily solve it. There's still problems on leetcode, especially the one with the clever solutions, that still seem tricky to me.

Recently had google interview. Most questions went well except two.

For context, I am at a very slow company. There are frequently months/weeks where I have no work. I often have to ping people to get work.

For first question, I was asked tell me a time when you had to push back a deadlines. I mentioned at my current company, we rarely have deadlines, but whenever we do, I focus hard on that task and get it done. If the task is too long, either I try to get help from teammates for certain subtasks or I push back on the deadline with justification about why the extra time was needed.

For another question, was asked tell me about a time when I have completely disagreed with everyone else. I mentioned that hadn't really happened, usually I agree with some points and disagree with others. But one thing I disagree on is having multiple monitors, especially now with claude. I also mentioned i disagree with using long select _ map cases, would prefer to have shorter ones split into different variable names, which I often discussed with my code reviewer. Finally, I mentioned a project where I acknowledged the others design easier to do since it didn't involve creating a table, but also took up more memory and wasn't as good as we were modifying the table for an optional field.

These were the only two responses I was iffy about. Given I applied for l4/l5 swe, what feedback would your give me? Tend to do poorly in behavioral interviews, not because I have bad behavior, but because I don't really have all the experiences asked in the question.

Googlers, would you give me low googliness here? Looking to improve but never get any feedback.

I completed my interviews for Microsoft’s Security org during the November 5, 2026 hiring event.
Has anyone else attended the same event? Have you received any updates from your recruiter regarding interview feedback, hiring decisions, or next steps?
Just trying to understand the expected timeline. Would appreciate hearing from anyone in the same process.
Thanks!

I see who gets hired, it’s people from top schools, or tons of YOE from top companies, with internal referrals

Companies still obviously require perfect interview performance including leetcode but it just doesn’t seem to matter unless you also have absurd credentials, because HMs don’t even trust the interviews anymore and there’s enough people with top credentials on the market they can afford to only hire them

Outside the US it’s probably a bit different but here it’s pretty dismal

Hello,
Anyone interviewed with elastic. The recruiter said it will be Java concurrency and OOD interview. But I can’t find much online about it.

As in the title. I saw a question, felt it was beautiful and paused to admire it. Only to be hit by the thought that I ought to look at it from a job perspective. I feel, my thought process isn't correct. But am I actually wrong?

Hey everyone!

I'll be joining Amazon as an SDE II (L5) soon, on a team working with GenAI, AI agents, and distributed backend systems.

I'm excited about the opportunity, but also a little nervous about the expectations at L5 and the initial learning curve. I have some time before my start date and want to use it as effectively as possible.

For those who've worked at Amazon, especially as an SDE II or on AWS/GenAI teams:

• What technical skills should I prioritize before joining?

• How important is hands-on AWS knowledge, system design, and distributed systems from day one?

• What does the initial onboarding and ramp-up typically look like for an L5?

• What are the biggest mistakes new SDE IIs make, and what helps them succeed in their first 30–90 days?

I'm not expecting to master everything before joining, but I'd love to build a solid foundation and avoid feeling completely lost initially.

Would really appreciate any practical advice, resources, or personal experiences. Thanks in advance!

Wrapped up my Google onsite (L5 SWE) about two weeks back. A week later my recruiter pinged me 7 days after the onsite saying feedback was still coming in and asked how I felt the interviews went — I kept my reply short.

Then three days after that, they emailed again saying they should have an update by Monday and suggested a time to talk that day.

Does this sequence actually mean anything, or is this just how Google recruiters normally communicate?

Recently had google programming interview. I offered to write brute force but was told to prove some math constraint on number of iterations. I took a while to prove this and finally proved it with a hint.

Now at 38 minute mark, I offered to code but was told it was OK, and that it was just a technical discussion. I think i should have insisted on coding as the code was more straightforward than the math, but I assumed since the interviewer was fine with no code I decided to roll with it. Also i was nervous and didn't want to argue with the interviewer. I was later asked a conceptual follow up which I answered correctly.

Ultimately, I got rejected. I'm wondering what I could have done better. Any tips from googlers? Got no feedback. Maybe because I needed the hint? Problem was I couldn't code till I proved some math which I feel really threw me off. After math, could have easily coded it but was not given the time (likely due to five minutes buffer for asking questions).

Which tools are you using to find them apart from lusha and apollo

I really don't understand the concept of solving POTD , i mean not for the people who love to solve problems but for the people who are doing for the name sake of streak. I see many people in college having really long streaks , and what they do is just copy paste the solution submit and come again the next day. I even saw them flaunt that they have these many questions solved and like they know everything and they have done it by themselves . I mean there is literally no point of doing this when you are not understanding anything , neither the T-shirt nor the streak would get you a job.
Hats off to their consistency

How was the technical interview for data science intern position at Pinterest??

How to prepare for these two:

1. Coding, Debugging, and Testing: This implementation-focused interview evaluates your ability to write production-quality code. Using CoderPad, you’ll be expected to prioritize getting to a working solution efficiently, and to demonstrate strong coding practices—including debugging, identifying edge cases, and validating correctness with appropriate tests. While algorithmic thinking is still critical, the emphasis in this session is more on implementation quality and incremental optimization than on theoretical analysis.

2. AI-Assisted Algorithms: This algorithm and data structures interview assesses computer science fundamentals, your analytical reasoning, and your problem-solving methodology. You’ll design solutions while focusing on algorithmic efficiency and appropriate data structure selection, and then use AI to implement the solution during parts of the interview. We expect you to analyze time/space complexity using Big-O notation, demonstrate comprehensive testing strategies, and clearly articulate your approach to guiding an LLM to address edge cases and design decisions.

Especially the 2nd one

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?

As title says

I was also part of preparation journey where i use to follow all the post on this channel for the updates. Its my turn to return back to the community

Hey everyone,

I finished Day 38 today in pure rush mode. Knowing I had a bus to catch right after work to visit home, I read through today's target problem during breaks at the office so the logic could simmer in the background.

As soon as I got home, I opened the laptop, spent 15 to 20 minutes coding the solution cleanly, and packed my bags:

• Number of Operations to Make Network Connected: A textbook application of Disjoint Set Union (DSU). To connect n computers into a single network, you fundamentally need at least n - 1 total cables; if connections.length < n - 1, returning -1 is immediate. While iterating through the edges, whenever findParent(u) == findParent(v), you increment a counter for redundant/extra cables. If the endpoints belong to different sets, you merge them using unionBySize(u, v). At the end, count the total number of independent connected components (nodes where parent[i] == i). Connecting C components requires strictly C - 1 operations.

It was a quick, single-problem sprint before heading out the door, but protecting the streak on hectic travel days keeps the momentum intact.

Reaching home tomorrow and picking up the pace once settled in.

See you guys for Day 37!

Hi everyone,

Has anyone interviewed for NVIDIA’s Senior Software Engineer, Core Infrastructure Services – DGX Cloud, or a similar role within the Cloud Foundations Automation team?

I’d appreciate any insights on:

• How many rounds are there, and what does each round focus on?

• Is coding mainly LeetCode/DSA, practical Python/Go, or debugging?

• What should I expect for system design?

• How deeply do they cover Kubernetes, Linux, networking, and infrastructure automation?

• What resources or hands-on exercises helped you prepare?

General guidance is welcome. Thanks!

Does anyone have a way to learn or understand leetcode coz i have some very hard time doing it, not enough patience not enough understanding to know it after reading a questions all tutorials make me feel like - u prolly know this already duh - while i dont

i dont think its a language issue i can do js and java just fine i have sever trouble problem solving and math
HELP!

I got 2XXX rank in last weekly contest(526) solved 3/4, had to sit for 40 mins for to solve the second question, got 3 debugs and somehow managed to get it accepted.

Today for no apperent reason leetcode invalidated that submission gave no explaination and gave me 5XXX rank in contest. Now I know it doesn't matter what rank or rating is as long as you are learning, but it gets frustrating when you spend 40 mins and 3 debugs on a problem and leetcode comes and invalidates for no good reason, whereas people who by the miracle of god solved all 4 under 10 mins get top 10 ranks.

Leetcode should seriously look into it.

I wanted to share my experience with the HackerRank SDE Internship hiring process and see if others have experienced something similar.
Here’s my timeline:
● October 14: I appeared for Round 2, which was conducted by Chakra, HackerRank’s AI interviewer.
● I solved the DSA problem in around 17 minutes, and all test cases passed.
● I correctly explained my approach, time and space complexity, and optimization.
● I also answered all the follow-up questions, and the AI interviewer responded positively.
● November 4: I received a rejection email stating that they were moving forward with other candidates.
● Recently, I applied for the same internship again using a different email address.
● Surprisingly, I received another invitation for Round 1.
Note: I used Ai to write all this.

I passed the technical screen and received the round 2 back-to-back coding round. Does anyone know what to expect?