u/michaelnovati replied ·
RE: how many interviews you will do (i can’t reply to that comment because the author blocked me)
FAANG level interviews are typically 1-2 data structures and algorithms interview as the first round. The “on-site” will then be 3 data structure and algorithm interviews in most cases and 1 behavioral - mostly looking for flags and deep diving in your work experience for determining your level compared to other engineers at the company. For frontend leaning roles you might swap out some of those technicals for more frontend focused practical coding/component design. For anyone with experience you will do a system design interview as well, where you will super deep dive into something like “design twitters infrastructure”. This interview is used to test real experience at scale and also help determine peoples levels. You can’t really study to get through a system design interview unless you have the experience already and just need to know how to frame that experience. For OP, this will be a critical interview to prepare for and learn how to frame their experience in the context of the bigger world of system design problems.
At kind of second tier companies you’ll find more variance in the interview process. You might interview directly for a team only, and you might not even have many technical interviews. If you don’t have at least 3 technical interviews it’s a flag the company isn’t a top tier company.