Hi All,

If any of you have interviewed for the Google FDE role for L4 or FDE II please share your experience. I see different opinions on Reddit but I have found conflicting details. Some mention the coding round is on oops principles while some say it’s more leetcode. Would appreciate any insight.
Please help out another candidate.
Thanks for your help!

Hi I did an interview with a google hiring manager a month ago for a non-technical role, and I’m waiting for a response from my recruiter.

I saw that the job listing was taken down about a week or two ago, and today I saw the job listing was back up on google careers. What could this mean? Should I contact my recruiter? She told me she would update as soon as she has any updates and that I was still a potential candidate for this role…

Please let me know any thoughts, I would really appreciate it!!

Hey all,

Ex-Amazon, 8 YOE. Currently working as a Supply Chain Program Manager. Recently moved back to India after working in the UK across startups and scale-ups.

Before someone points it out — I know 8 YOE isn’t unique, and plenty of people have stronger profiles.

That’s partly why I’m posting.

I interviewed with Google twice last year (didn’t convert), and since then the job search across both UK and India has been pretty rough. I’m targeting Program Manager roles in data centre operations and supply chain/business programs (Amazon/Google-type work, also interested in companies like Revolut).

Lately, it feels like I’ve either overestimated my profile or I’m just positioning it badly — maybe both.

If anyone has honest feedback, perspective, or advice, I’d really appreciate it.

Happy to help others as well — CV reviews, interview prep, etc. Let’s pay it forward.

Curious to know if anyone passed their Google FDE (preferably L3/L4) interview recently and got an offer. What was the feedback like and what do you think was the deciding factor in their judgement.

Hey everyone, looking for some perspective on navigating an Amazon to Google move.
I’m currently an SDE2 at Amazon in Canada. I recently passed my Google interviews and am in the team-matching phase, but they downleveled me to L3.
Here is my dilemma:
The Downlevel: Amazon SDE2 usually maps closer to Google L4. Taking L3 means a title reset and having to grind for promo again.
Compensation: I’m expecting the L3 offer to just match my current pay—I doubt they will go higher.
The Culture Nuance: This is where I'm torn. My current manager is actually great and my specific team isn't a pressure cooker at all. However, the macro-level Amazon culture is grating on me. The strict 6-month evaluation cycles, the looming threat of PIPs/layoffs, and the current top-down push to artificially shoehorn "AI" into our deliverables just to survive evals is exhausting. Google seems like a much safer, more stable environment long-term.

Any advice is appreciated!

For the context I graduated 3 years ago, have been working as test automation engineer. I would say I have a good understanding of the basics due to my degree but I never worked as a software engineer. However, in my test automation roles I used to develop internal tools to used for testing in addition to the writing the testcases in either Java or Typescript.

I feel like my career is not well stablished. I only worked in small to medium sized companies.
I really want to compensate for that. I want to get a software engineer position in a big tech company by the end of this year.

Am I being so optimistic?
How likely I can get to be invited for an interview with such profile?
I was planning to focus on the leetcode problems and read the system design interview book.
What else I need to focus at?

The candidate had a PhD with around 5 YoE, and the package was:

• Base: $300K
• Signing bonus: $100K
• RSU grant: $3M over 4 years
• Annual bonus: $60K
• First-year total comp: $1.21M

Curious what people think: is this a new normal for top ML talent, or just a rare outlier from a company fighting hard for autonomous driving talent?

I was referred by someone at Google, but I had already applied to the Specialist role (non-tech). I'm hoping the application can be traced back to the referral but I'm not sure. Either way, an external Korn Ferry recruiter supporting Google let me know that they've passed my application to the hiring recruiter for the role. I was then sent the Google Hiring Assessment (GHA) and passed. It's been over a week, and I have not heard anything from anyone. For those who passed the GHA, how long did it take you to hear from someone at Google? I know some folks don't even get an interview after they pass...when should I give up hope...?

So this interview was supposed to be of 1 hour. But it got finished in 34 minutes. Is this negative?

Completed a full loop for a role. Next day my portal shows that particular role as Position Closed and moved to Inactive Tab. Like there can be two things either they made an offer and sombebody signed because of which position closed. Or may be they closed the position so that they do not get any new candidates and select the ones that are already there and are interviewing. Also on my Qualcomm tabs I can see some roles explicitly mention No longer in consideration and the roles are still open. Something similar happened with me while interviewing for a screening round at Apple. The Apple recruiter said they are closing the poistion to priotize the candidates already in the pool during my screening round.

So what can possibily can be the case in my situation?

Hi all,

I have been applying to many roles at Netflix, and I feel like my experience is very solid for the roles I am applying to. I have almost 6 years of experience at another FAANG company.

I have had my resume reviewed and gotten good feedback, and I believe it is at a strong state. However, no matter what I try, I never get a reply from Netflix. Not even a rejection email. I have applied with and without referrals.

Any tips on things I can do to try and better stand out? Netflix would be my dream company, and I really want the chance to interview there.

Thanks!

- I kept failing DSA interviews for the same reasons:
- I couldn’t solve problems efficiently
- I got stuck when the clock started ticking
- I memorized solutions but never understood the patterns

During interviews, my brain just went blank
Most platforms only show the final solution.
They don’t teach you how to think.

So I built DSAFun dot com.
It explains every problem step by step in plain English, teaches the intuition behind each pattern, and connects data structures to real-world examples so they actually make sense.

It also includes:
An AI tutor that guides your thinking process
Pattern-based learning instead of memorization
Cheat sheets designed to make concepts stick permanently
Interview-style practice focused on speed and clarity

Built by someone who struggled hard with DSA, not someone pretending it was easy.

Would genuinely love feedback from anyone preparing for coding interviews.

Hi All,

I applied for a technical service engineer position at MongoDB. I did 4 rounds of interview with them. All of them passed with good positive feedback.

Problem was I needed to do a director interview. The director was not available for 2 weeks so my interview had to be scheduled with him after 2 weeks.

I said ok no problem/

Within 1 week before my director interview I get an email saying "We are no longer moving with you. Another Candidate has been selected and the job has been closed" Like wtf????

Why was I interviewed if they had already give another candidate an offer????

Why didn't they schedule my director round earlier like try to squeeze in??

They just reject me for this reason. This is bullshit. and I am sooo madd and ANGRY

I have an Apple product onsite coming up and would love to hear from anyone who’s gone through a loop there recently. Specifically curious about:

- Do they lean on a specific framework or is it more conversational?

- How technical do they get?

Happy to swap notes if you have a loop in flight. Thanks in advance

Anyone know how long it takes to hear back for the role?

I am laid off, it's been 8 months... I have 9 years of experience...

I don't have skill to give the interview like

1. Design an in-memory configuration management system in Java with the following requirements:

• Store configurations in memory
• Always return the latest version of a configuration key
• Maintain version history for rollback support
• Allow clients to subscribe to configuration keys
• Notify subscribed business/services whenever updates happen
• Support concurrent reads and updates safely
• Ensure thread-safe version updates and notifications

I cannot solve this interview of 1 hour without googling or researching it...

2. DSA questions -> I don't have a concentration on this area...

In my previous company kinda of startup and it has good market, I have built a lot system,
- Booking system
- Search Engine
- Notification Services
- Distributed caches for eCommerce
- Integration of third party systems

How do I get the job?

I’ve had a few Apple interviews over time for different SWE/infrastructure roles, and one thing I still can’t fully figure out is the first manager conversation.

Every single one has been completely different.

Some interviewers went very deep technically. Some mostly spoke about projects and past work. Some were super conversational and team-fit focused. A few even spent a lot of time explaining the team/project themselves.

And honestly, most of them felt good while they were happening. The conversation flows well, they engage, ask follow-up questions, explain the work deeply, sometimes even say things like “that aligns well with what we’re looking for.”

But I still rarely make it past that round.

So I’m genuinely curious from people who’ve interviewed at Apple or interviewed candidates there:

What are managers actually trying to evaluate in that first 30–60 min conversation?

Like what usually separates: “good conversation” from “move this person forward”?

Is it communication style? Conciseness? Technical depth? Calmness? Personality/team fit? Ownership? Something else?

I feel like I’m missing something subtle that I’m not able to identify myself.