I totally agree that the interview process should not just be focused on leetcoding interviews - especially for Sr+ engineers, but from recent experience with FAANG as an engineer with 25+ yrs experience, what I found was ... screening calls .. 100% leetcode (HARD in my case) .. so if you can't pull leetcode hard Q's out of your backside (perfectly) in 25 mins you don't even get to the 'onsites', where, you get another THREE leetcode HARD interviews, followed by a System Design and a behavioral ... this was the pattern across the board. The focus, no matter what your seniority, seems to be leetcode .. which is what takes 90% of the prep time going in .... as I Sr guy I can do Sys Design all day long, because it's closer to what I actually do as a Sr engineer .. but the leetcode stuff.. well that's never been part of the dayjob and requires practice..and luck! Such a terrible and contrived way to evaluate Sr engineers IMHO

The irony of most of the interview prep courses out there is that they were almost all created by ex FAANG engineers who turned out to be much better at creating KZfaq videos that they were at being software engineers.

Video: stop doing leetcode Me after watching the video: Guess I better go do some leetcode

Lovely what you said, and thank you for that. I worked at Amazon, an according to my buddy I was expected to code like him, design like him and think like him because I started in a L5 role (as him). Language was not a barrier because we both speak Spanish. In fact after one week working on a project he stopped joining any meeting because I was supposed to answer all questions (no writing documentation exist because he worked alone, in fact I must say SIM tickets were poorly documented if you try to find out why some technical decisions were done that way). I recall once my manager told me to get more info about a process and when I asked my "buddy and mentor", he says that it was not my work and I need to spend more time coding. I ended up quitting, because you could be a good technical developer (I am not consider myself the best but I do my best) but the lack of business info and the lack of support was a nightmare. In fact, in the starting training sessions when they tell you you must rely on your team in order the avoid that feeling of the impostor syndrome, well my lovely buddy made feel that way. My big advice, those companies (FAANG) like any other companies have their pros and cons (like any other job). Do not idolatry them (in my case the salary was not that high, a 10% raise in compare to my previous job, so it did not pay off the nightmare I experienced). And I am the kind of person that do not mind working extra hours as long as I am learning (in fact the project was quite interesting). Try what you think it is best for your career (and probably you realize these kind of companies are not meant for you, and you know what.... It is OK)

The fact that this guy keeps talking about firing every 3rd sentence is a give away about amazon culture :)

It would be great if "Senior Role" was also mentioned in the Thumbnail.

This video is a godsend. Thanks for explaining the proper context, and how to use that context in prep.

Thank you so much for your content. Just with this video alone I have learned plenty. Definitely following your channel since within the next 5 years I hope to be able to reach senior or (hopefully) a principal level :).

Thanks for squashing the notion of leetcode..i was so anxious around it. Cant wait for more prep on senior engineers

Generally speaking this video is spot-on, however, for FAANG, the level evaluated for the coding sections at ANY level (specially for Google) is tremendously high, hence the need (for most candidates) to over-prepare for that part alone. And just like you mention in the video, the baseline or minimal test that you need to pass in order to be considered for a position will always be an Algo & DS exercise. But overall good advice to not skip System Design and Behavioral for those of us who are more experienced. Great video!

This was an excellent video. I would point out that a lot of senior/principal engineers focus on coding so much because the LC game has come up while they were busy building things over a decade+ career. It's the hardest thing for them to do because it's the most removed from their actual job. LC interview questions have you draw on DSA concepts you may not have seen for two decades, while behavioral and system design questions often draw from your actual experience.

I appreciate the thoughtfulness and clarity of your content. I like the perspective you take on using proxies to help make a decision to hire with very little time. I'm wondering if you have advice on proxies that candidates can employ to gauge if a potential employer is the right place for them? Awesome channel, thank you for the advice!

On system design: "These questions are easiest to answer if you have the experience, if you don't, it will be exceedingly apparent". So all senior engineers have experience actually scaling systems to millions/billions of users? I think not.

Hey Steve, I really like your videos thanks a lot for the good work! I am not an Engineer that has a dream company to work at, so I find myself in a situation where I need to find which is the right company for me, and during the interview process I am switching roles between being the interviewee and being the interviewer. Therefore, it would be really nice to see a video with tips on how to find a good company, and how asset if the engineering environment is suitable for me, if the code-base is healthy, if the coding mentality and practices overlaps with my preferences, etc. Obviously, everyone has different goals and ambitions when it comes to picking a work place, but I believe that there is a common layer that covers most Engineers (at least for Staff/Principal level). Just an idea..!

Great content, really helpful tips for more senior candidates. Thanks a lot for making this video!

Lots of good information here, thanks! I have 14 years of experience as an engineer, of which 5 as a senior, 1 as a software architect, and overall during these periods the last 2 years I've been a tech lead. My last 6 years have all been at a well known tech company too. That said, if I got a question like "Tell me about a time you strongly disagreed with your team" I probably wouldn't know what to say as I feel that in all my experience I have NEVER seriously disagreed with any of my teammates - in all the teams I've been I always had a surprisingly good rapport with my teammates and the things we did disagree on were small and inconsequential, hardly worth mentioning. However I have disagreed with engineering managers and even our head of engineering, and in some of those disagreements I was able to make a compelling case and get what I and the team wanted, whereas in other situation my opinions were acknowledged but the course of action set. I left the company recently and I've been interviewing. I found that I am very bad at interviewing, because I was often stumped by behavioural questions such as that one - where my immediate answer was "never disagreed", or I just couldn't tell them of a time I did X because I just couldn't remember specifics. To the point where somebody told me they thought I was a beginner. Cool, but if I'm such a beginner then how was it that I have all these achievements - managed to lead teams, run critical projects, deal with stakeholders and deliver things that were loved by our customers? Well it's because I wasn't prepared for these types of interview questions. Now I am prepared, I have identified a set of stories that I can tell these people, but now I feel like this is also disingenuous, because anyone can prepare and give good sounding stories during an interview, yet that doesn't mean they will actually be good at doing the job.

Thank you so much for the video. Still just a beginner in coding, but it really shed some light on what you might need to succeed, going down the path!

Thank You! This information was so helpful for me. I have a big interview for an engineer role later today. Glad I found you!

it's cool to find someone who gives advice that isn't for "COMPLETE BEGINNERS". I enjoy the senior/principle mindset.

Thanks, man! First time on your channel Very concise and clear!

Really great explanation and I just got the offer for principal. I wish I would see this video a month earlier. Thank you very much. Even now it is good to know for the future. Just want to add a little to the topic, in majority of interviews companies not smart enough to compare adequately all three aspects for desired position. They expect you should spend 100% preparation for coding, 100% preparation time for behavioral and 100% for situational parts. If you demonstrated good coding knowledge but did not solve the problem, no matter how good you are in system design or leadership you're most probably rejected. And as far as coding challenge is most difficult in terms of completing in time (not solving the problem), we still need to spend majority of time preparing for it. And in reality they may see how good I am in preparing for coding but not for coding itself. Obviously new graduates are better in preparation.

Great stuff! I’d be interested in more system design questions and how to approach and formulate an exceptional type of answer. 👍🏽

This is probably the best description of the recruiting and interview process AND the expectations of the staff+ engineering roles. Or at least what they should be. Bravo.

I am completely in agreement with the content, this is helping me change my mindset for sr position preperation

I could not disagree more. System design and behavioral interviews are easy if you are already a good senior engineer. I have 10 YOE and I barely need to prep for these to be moderately successful in most interviews. Coding problems, on the other hand, require countless hours of study time. If you can solve "Leetcode #4 - Median of Two Sorted Arrays" optimally with no study time, you deserve a Nobel Prize (and yes, Amazon asks this in interviews).

This is great. It's about time someone with real-world principal-level experience at FAANG disrupted the scammy coding prep resources. Wishing for a product manager to make a similar channel 🙏

bloody good. many thanks, mata. Could you please make more about how you as principal handle different situations in your daily work: handle difficult persons (include other principals:), have visibility at senior level, manage to get the work having biggest impact etc.

Extremely helpful breakdown. Whenever I study for coding interviews, I tend to go a bit too deep and spend too much time there. I am in the middle of studying for a few interviews, and often spend hours learning about more obscure algorithms and data structures that likely wont be seen in the coding interview. For instance, I spent hours studying and building suffix arrays and LCP arrays in linear time using the DC3 algorithm, so I could use this for almost any string related question seen in the interview. I tend to just want to know the fastest way to solve every problem, regardless of if the solution is unexpected in a typical coding interview. It was a good thing I watched this today. Love the content!

this was really good, as a principal engineer i totally agree on your clearly described points. subscribed!

Thanks a lot! This talk is pure gold!!! And it's available for everyone. Super detailed and knowledgeful. Thanks a lot for sharing,

Your wig game is strong 😂 Would love to see more system design videos!

Thanks for sharing, the last section about how answer shows your seniority really makes me rethink about my answer before.

This video is really great. Not only if I want to apply for a new job as a Senior/Principal level but also to interview candidates for senior levels or mentor engineers to get to the next level.

Hey meta, thanks for providing this awesome content and it is sorely needed in this space.

Thank you for this video. Good advices that everyone looking to become a senior should follow. Meta, Can you recommend a good book or link to learn system design?

Hey man amazing video. Please post more your info is extremely insightful

Quality and actionable advice. Subscribed. Thanks a bunch.

Worked at Amazon as a senior architect ...this guy basically might have been reading from the interview ' handbook' and I mean that in a good way -- if you're not in the first or second year of your career, watch the whole video... at 1X. Maybe twice. Maybe take notes.

Great advice. When I am in an interview I anticipate what the interviewer is going to ask and tell stories about it. I will often hear them say well you just answered my next question. Telling good stories keeps the interviewer engaged and sometimes even fascinated. Stories can lead to the interviewer discovering something they didn't know before and when that happens they will take a liking to you. When you can story tell you can manipulate the interview and interviewer any way you wish. The degree they allow you to do so is an indication of of your success on that occasion.

The story telling recommendation is gold. I’ll remember that. Thanks for the content!

Although I am looking for a Data analyst, I found this very helpful. Thank you!

These videos are gold! I watched all of them. Please, please stick with it.

This video is so great. It explained to me in detail how I can be seen in a senior position interview. It is like an expanded version of the humorous "how programmers overprepare for job interviews" video from the Joma Tech channel.

Finding this could not have come at a better time. Thanks so much, I'll revise my strategy asap. Yes, I was focusing too much on just coding challenges.

Thanks for all your vids. Glad this came up in my recommended.

This is great content, I would like to know more about how to perform well in the tech industry! and also many things about systems design!

I was skeptical looking at the title and thumbnail, but I gave your video a shot anyways. Your answer about looking from the companies perspective on hiring was something I never thought about. I always thought getting hired is difficult; but now I know, hiring is way more difficult for these companies.

Thank you, well needed advice.

This is a great video, thanks for making it!

Fantastic video! Just as your other video pointed out "Now that I see it... I can't unsee it".

Thank you for sharing your experience, this is extremely useful and invaluable.

Thanks for the awesome video, Meta. I am interested in getting better at systems design.

Thank you ! Your content is great! i learnt a lot from this 12 min video!please make more videos!

I'm not way near the level to apply for a senior position, but it's good to know these things early on :)

The wig part is gold!!! The last piece of advice on the ratio of portions gives an exact idea what to do next! Big thanks!

Very insightful video. Thank you. I have no problem with Ds and algorithms, but to me, being good at coding is very different than knowing algorithms well. I can be great at solving algorithms but write shitty code. How important clean code is during coding interview? Would you consider a candidate who is weaker at algorithms but who wrote top-tier code with TDD approach and all that?

Amazing video. The think is the people will not see the value of these kind of advices til they had some experiencie... Thanks a lot for sharing your wisdom.

really clear explanation, thanks for the content!

I'm in job search and I found this video very insightful!

Thanks for sharing your experience with us

Watched it over and over again. Each word is compacted with golden information. When will you have new videos? Can't wait!!!

Hi Steve great content as usual question: what can be better: mix studying for coding & system design interviews (1 day/1 hr for coding and next 1 day/1 hr for system design) or focus on one part, finish it and switch to the other one? thanks!

Cannot thank you enough for sharing this with us!

Love the leadership bit at the end. Very true. Also, nice wig selection.

Thanks for the video. I would love to see more videos from you.

I'd love to see more regarding systems design related questions and the general flow of them, and possibly how to approach them.

Respect brother. Honest and open apart from rest of youtuber crowd, who try to market their channel rather than earn it organically

That was a fantastic tutorial ! thank you Meta

I've been reading through some interview questions and honestly, most of the things they're asking are 'challenges' / snippets I've already done in personal projects. I think that if you're pushing to get better at the craft most of the time then you have no choice but to use the kinda code snippets you see on LC etc. as you level-up. LC is great for keeping your s*** tight but I couldn't imagine shooting for an interview using sites like LC alone.

I'm applying for senior position at amazon and I'm super happy that I watched this before preparing! Thanks!

WOW. Awesome. My AWS interview is in 7 days! Thank you - this video helped me a ton.

Why don't they trust the experience you had from previous companies?

Hi Steve (@ALifeEngineered), great video. Thanks. Please could you make a video on how to respond to Amazon's 16 leadership questions for Sr/Principal SDE roles? It might require video series. Or writing a book series, which complements the SD books.

Thanks for sharing man. I was in a final round for a junior position with an AWS principal architect interviewing me and rejected. The points you talked about in this video are really inspiring for my future interviews.

Hi, thanks for the truly excellent video, it is much appreciated.

That is so helpful! Thanks for sharing!!!

I’m a new senior (not principal) level engineer and your advice is mind opening. I’ve been asked that same “describe a time when you disagreed….” question many times and I’ve always answered at a mid to junior level level without realizing it. I did have examples that match senior/principal levels but I never prepared for these questions.

Definitely would appreciate some pointers on learning system design as efficiently as possible

Im a bit puzzled by the advice to eg prep 40% of time on leadership. How do you prep for leadership questions? I imagine that it’s sufficient to prep some good stories which you can use throughout the interview. But I don’t imagine that would take me more than a day or two

would love more videos from you about system design!

Great advice, I agree with all the points

Thank you for your content, personally I would be interested to find out how to get better at System Design on your own time. Building large systems or at least programs that emulate them in a personal study context seems challenging to me (and potentially expensive with usage of cloud services)

Looking for more content to grow into a staff or senior position, thanks bro 😊

Great video and very insightful! If one is not in FAANG companies and not working on a high scale, could you please suggest how to learn these system design skills needed for that scale..who has a few years of experience

Shockingly good. Subscribed :D

Thanks for all video, I am wondering if an Amazon developer work in on project at the time or more?

This was so detailed!!

Great video as always. Would love to hear more on system design. System design is hard for me, since most of my time is doing frontend work and seldom touches distributed system. So the system design questions are situational questions for me.

Thank you! I would love to see more System design videos!

Love this video. Are you releasing system design content in future?

This is awesome! Thanks.

subbed! great content

Would love for you to make more videos about system design.

please make videos on system design whatever you learnt in amazon, would be great helpful.

This information is pure gold.

Forget the content, you had me sold on the background of the dope ass DJ Setup and the Whiskey Collection. The wigs confirmed my gut feeling and intuition!

Great video. Thanks for sharing.

Technical interviews are always a toss of a coin. Anybody can fail anybody based on a random set of requirements.

What a great video. Thanks a lot!!!

Cool stuff, thanks for the video :)