How common is leetcode/hacker rank at FAANGMULA companies and startups for initial tech screen?
How common is leetcode/hacker rank at FAANGMULA companies and startups for initial tech screen?
How common is it that there are companies that interview similar to Imbue (another YC backed company, whose technical interviewing process I posted below) and SourceGrap h where you actually instead are asked to code on the fly with your actual environment (this to me feels way more comfortable than having folks throw out random questions at me)?
https://imbue.com/company/2023-09-06-our-technical-hiring-process/
https://sourcegraph.notion.site/Engineering-Interview-Process-b3fe1e0992f54b8ea3dd343fe1faed2d
Interview Process length - I've seen rounds go for 8 for some companies (for even Google non-technical a million years ago I've seen it followed a similar format without technical at least like 5 rounds. If someone can post how long their average interview rounds were (how many interviews, how many technical screens, easy to hard, and how long did it take until you got an offer / knew you were rejected - a month, 6 months etc.?). I've head so many stories ranging far and wide over the years and wonder what the average is during this market, which feels longer than a year some people, even those who were laid off at FAANGMULA companies.
Interview #1) Recruiter Reach Out, Resume Submission, and Behavioral
Interview #2) Tech Screen #1
Interview #3) Behavioral with Team Member 2 Years Your Senior / Tech Screen
Interview #4) Behavioral with Team Member that is your director/higher up manager by at least 2 levels or something / Tech Screen #2
Interview #5) Behavioral with Team Member that is your actual position (peer / Tech Screen #3)
Interview #6) Vote by Committee / Group Interview / Panel or something
Any insights into the interview process more in detail will be helpful! Thanks!
![Senior Software Engineer [E5] at Meta company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fmeta.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Da7a5bcc0-e178-4b5b-b71e-09bf6c6aefae&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
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Discussion
(3 comments)- 34 months agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
Timed coding assessments are common, but let me tell you a secret: You might be able to avoid them by simply asking!
The purpose of the async coding assessments is for companies to quickly filter out a bunch of candidates without wasting their precious human time (no recruiters or engineers need to spend time with the candidate). If you have 1,000 faceless candidates, this approach of just taking the top 10% from HackerRank makes sense.
However, as a candidate, your goal is to talk to a human from the company as quickly as possible (and ideally skip the coding assessment). You can only form a connection with the interviewer, ask thoughtful questions, or collect feedback about your performance if you have human interaction.
If the company has reason to believe that you are already one of the better candidates in their pipeline, there's a good chance they'll let you bypass the HackerRank. The common ways this happens:
- You have a strong referral
- You have a demonstrated expertise/history with the company's tech/product area
- You have some exceptional characteristic
My advice is to figure out how you might be considered an above-average candidate and ask the recruiter. Something like this:
I would love to consider your company, I think I'm an especially good fit for X reason. However, I have limited time available for interviewing and I'd strongly prefer a technical screen with an engineer rather than a HackerRank. This lets us both get more information earlier in the process. Is this something you could consider?
There's no harm in asking, but there's a lot to gain since you'd get to skip the initial tech screen and make a connection with another engineer. If the company thinks you have strong potential, they'll make exceptions for you.
- 14 months agoSenior Software Engineer [OP]Taro Community
Omg this is the best advice ever and makes me feel so much better!!! I’ll try that. Thank you Rahul!
- 1
4 months agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroLeetCode/HackerRank type rounds are very common for FAANGMULA and Big Tech overall, especially Meta/Google. They're effectively the standard.
Startups are different. I have seen some DSA LeetCode/HackerRank from them in the initial round, but startups tend to have more practical coding as you mentioned where you write code in your actual dev environment. This can either manifest through a take-home where you need to build some side-project-ey type of app/service/endpoint/whatever or a live coding round (or both).
My job searching course goes through the differences between Big Tech and startup interviews across these 2 lessons:
