Top 5 Coding Interview MISTAKES (from a Google Engineer)

I am going through your leetCode site doing 1 question a day, and it has been great! Thank you so much!

Where can we tip you? Would love to throw a little appreciation back after I get a job!

would u prefer 14 inch MacBook Pro or 16 inch as developer tool ?

As a hiring manager I completely agree, at least for me, I am much more interested in knowing the candidates thought process than seeing a correct solution. I'd rather hear a candidate describe their (correct) approach to many scenarios than to see a implementation of just one.

Bombed my coding interview today 😢 . I recognized the question and jumped in immediately.

Thanks needcode landed a job at intuit and got into the onsite on couple of companies. Got an offer from Google also but the intuit offer was better.

I really appreciate your content.

Hi, How do you make a video like this? What software tools do you use?

Any extra advice for students overseas, having the white board interviews online.

I was able to enter heaven thanks to neetcode. Saint Peter was tough but I still got through.

34/150: agree.

The biggest mistake is thinking that you don't need to study social skills for the interview

Love your videos NeetCode!! I try to be as well-spoken and confident as you everyday. but just not working out in interviews :((

HI NC, can I ask which device you use for the drawing part in each video?

Sir, what about sorting algorithms?

I got today why I rejected by tech companys

In the video you said you read every comment. If you read this reply me with " Yes" , i am just curious 🤨🧐

Programming tests like this are the worst...especially if you are someone with learning disabilities. Especially annoying as you age and have actual experience because most of the questions like this are not real world work but more like a college level homework assignment. I can develop and build enterprise level applications but I'd fail every single one of these types of things.

Just got rejected from Google. I thought i did well on the on-site interview. But i got rejected. The recruiter didn't provide feedback. That's really weird

I have a couple of friends who perform technical interviews and they tell me that most candidates can't even seem to do basic coding. They even allow the person to write in the language of their preference.

I highly recommend practicing whiteboard coding, it's a big part of what people aren't mentally prepared for

What if the interviewer has 2 questions planned but you get stuck on the first question not because you have absolutely no clue but the interviewer is extremely picky and insists on the "perfect" solution.. and you never get to the 2nd question. This happened during a Facebook coding interview where I ended up giving a O(N) solution to the first question but the interviewer insisted on not only a O(N) solution but also one that's 1-pass through (and he didn't tell you the 1-pass requirement when he first posed the question but I guess it's my fault for not asking about it since it didn't even enter my mind to ask if he wants a 1-pass solution.) Anyways, he had 2 questions planned and I couldn't finish the 1st one to his liking even though I had a O(N) solution but was 2 pass and he never let me move on to the 2nd question.

Hi, I have a tricky situation. maybe you can help/guide.
Can someone with 10 yrs exp in IT services companies like Accenture/deloitte/Infosys etc still make it to big tech or is it too late?

Its a dream to work in big tech but I was stuck with these companies too long due to my work visa H1b and Green card. Please guide. Any help/suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks !!

In a coding interview for my first software engineer role I had to write a routine to check if a number was prime. I chose to avoid a more complicated and optimal solution because it wasn't asked for and when queried it wasn't required. Instead I went with a very concise routine that was easy to understand, using only 4 lines of code. Its simplicity impressed the interviewer and was not a solution he had seen before. I got the job but can't help but think the outcome could have been very different.

I think this is a good overview of common mistakes, but I slightly disagree with the not managing time. If an interviewer knows they are going to ask follow ups, or expects the candidate to solve more than one question, it should be their responsibility to move the candidate along. Obviously if the candidate is struggling, be patient with them, and help them get to some working solution so they have a good experience. But if it’s clear the candidate knows what they are doing, the interviewer should move the interview along. At the end of the day it’s the interviewer’s responsibility to collect the data they need, which means they own the time management. It shouldn’t be the case that “you are lucky” the interviewer gives you some notice of the time constraints, that’s part of their job.

coding jobes pay you horrid these days. better off being a pro gamer

Do you think its possible, that they want you to solve some problems that are by nature - not solvable. But you can solve at least parts of it very well. So they want to test if you can seperate a big problem into many small and then solve these which have a solution and explain why others cant be solved. I encountered such things in my university :D

For me at least it was usually the impression that I left that mattered the most. I never prepared with weeks/months in advance if i ever prepared, mostly just 1/2 days before the interview, and that went incredibly well every time. The questions are supposed to take you by surprise and check whether you are a good candidate or not. If you study them beforehand, what point do they still have? I never met an interviewer to care about whether my answer was completely correct for a whiteboard question, mostly what they cared was whether I was a good fit. Even more, I feel like overpreparing is a way to make you feel less confident, since you know the extent of your knowledge, and getting questions that are outside of that range will make you feel more nervous than if you didn't study anything. Strive to be a better person, not a better robot, if anyone wanted to hire a robot they'd just get github copilot.

These titles are one step from ending with "(as a millionaire)"

Great tips. I wonder if the interviewers let you know up front that there will be more than one problem to help you know how to gauge your time?

Should’ve added “(as a millionaire)” to the title.

UMPIRE (Understand(clarify with questions, happy case), Match(match to known pattern, known techniques), Plan(Pseudocode, think of edge cases), Implement(write code), Review(walk through the code like you were debugging), Evaluate(discuss Time/Space complexity).

Would you say it's safe to ask for hints or ask if the interviewer has more questions planned?
Or are these taboo questions?

Hi NeetCode, how many leetcode questions of hard difficulty to complete at minimum would you recommend, especially if one wants to get a job at FAANG(Google ideally!)

I only do coding interviews for Amish companies. They have no idea what my code is meant to do. It can be difficult to do your work without electricity.

I had my google interview on 25th May but didnt hear back anything since thn what could be the reason should i now reach out to him? Or Wait..
My last interview wasnt great🙃

How good does it feel to write “from a Google engineer”? 😏

that explains some of my interview failures :-)
I still think the common methodology is somewhat wrong, and my guess is that the rate of false negatives is way too high.

How many times do you have to study data structures and algorithms before being able to do whiteboard

Hey Neetcode,

On reading the room, how would you know what your interviewer is looking for? They could be staying quiet because they just want to hear your thought process without interrupting, or they could be staying quiet because they only care about the end result (your code).

Thanks!

I was able to pass my Amazon interview, and it was because of your videos.
Thanks NeetCode

These apply to more than just coding interviews, but any interview in general, and also oral exams!

How to handle a situation where we completely got blind and don't know like how to approach the solution , do we need to ask more hints to the interviewer ? Or does it make us look more unprepared ?

That was very helpful. Thank you :)

Hi, Is there any site which can help with mock peer programming, I have an interview with Google and wanted to practice

A+ content as always. Btw what type of work are you doing at G? Front/back end, infra, …?

Hey Neet. On the grind. Feels hopeless. Just hoping I can see the light at one point. You give me hope. Thanks man

how do you write?

Thank you for all that you've done for the community. Your videos are some of the most well explained solutions one can find.

Can you please make a video on Z-ALGORITHM like you made video on KMP(LPS) as your videos are really helpful in understanding those complex algorithms.

Neetcode let's start one step back pls. How do you even get the interview in the first place? The only time Amazon has called me is to tell me to pick up my package. 😑