I've been learning DSA topic by topic, but whenever I move to something new, I feel like I'm forgetting the older concepts. I don't want to keep restarting the same topics, but I also don't want to rush ahead without retaining anything.

How do you guys balance revision with learning new things? Do you maintain notes, revisit old problems, or use some other method?

How do I really know that I'm ready to apply to FAANG level companies. I'm a backend engineer with 4+ years of experience. Started to prep hard for interviews. Leetcode, SQL, Systems Design etc.

However I am not sure what the end of prep looks like. Any tips or suggestions would be highly appreciated 🙏

Hi, I just wanted to rant here a little bit, and seek advice on how to improve.

I recently interviewed for Google SWE PhD Intern role, which involved 2 rounds. First round went excellent (interviewer said all good things, strong hire), I completed the code/complexity/follow-up on time. 2nd round was mixed, and the recruiter asked me for an additional round.

For 3rd round, I got a DP+memoization problem, which I initially solved with DP only, but then on follow-up, correctly implemented the approach. The interviewer liked my final design and we correctly did the dry run. I checked the question later, and my solution/flow was 100% correct.

However, yesterday I got the rejection. I couldn't understand the decision, considering the 3rd round went very well. Is there something I am missing / or how should I improve my performance to make sure I avoid this?

CS degree and 2YOE as SWE. I have been grinding leetcode and DSA theory for one month straight doing 30 hours every week and I *think* I have the theory of everything down, after all it was a big refresh of my algorithms course with some small additions, but I went from being able to decently solve mediums and a few hards to not even understanding how to lay down a basic BFS solution...

I feel very demotivated and I definitely think fatigue is catching up on me, but I feel like I cannot stop if I genuinely want to have a chance at it. I do think I have to change my study method though now.

I am at the point I am doing random problems to understand if I get the solution, and I easily get the brute force or a slightly optimized solution, but I then get stuck and my mind goes blank.

I think maybe I need to get better at pattern recognition but honestly I don't know if that's the issue? maybe I am missing some patterns?

How do I prep from there?

I can understand solutions when I read them, but I still struggle to identify the right approach when I open a new problem. Sometimes two questions look similar but require completely different logic.

How did you get better at recognizing which technique to use? It it mostly repetition, or is there a better way to study problems?

I am very confused about note taking and revising,

The problem is i end up making notes for all the problems i solve and its very time taking, but every problem seems new and teaching some new concepts, so what should i do? how do i revise ? and how do i take notes ?

basically , if i stuck with a problem, i watch videos / solutions and understand and i write notes.

I write the whole algorithm, code, explanation everything on my one,

but eventually, i end up writing notes for every problem since i started solving more medium problems.

i know every problems will be different and use different concept, so how should i revise ? how should i take notes?

Do i need to just keep on solving ? without notes? or should i take digital notes? or comment notes? or what..?

pls help guyss 👀

I have completed the 4 rounds, have got the mail that I have successfully completed the rounds. The recruiter had asked if I would require a visa sponsorship, I mentioned I would require it along with other details required. They mentioned that the visa process will take approx 2 months and they mentioned that they have applied for work authorization in Germany.

Has anybody done their proc? Need some insight on their technical interviews 🙏

See i have been learning dsa since a year it took me months to choose the language after which i started completing you tube playlist . started doing leetcode's question 3 months ago i m not consistent and have done only 35 questions.

Right now whenever i see a question i am able to build logically what the solution will be but it always end up having some syntax error or null pointer exception what should i do to rectify my mistake and increase no of questions solved.

I am thinking of applyinh to a internship in 2 months or so and i want to be prepared

Two of my application moved to under consideration phase week after I gave OA. What it means ? Do I have chance of getting the interview?

does anybody have dynamic programming leetcode questions list which are must do problems??like these problems should be the ones which you cannot skip

Hi all,

I recently passed the assessment stage for a Software Engineer role at Canonical focused on distributed systems with Python/Go. I’m now moving into the early-stage interviews

So far, I know one of them is a Python deep dive, and I’m guessing another will be a Linux-focused round.

If you’ve gone through this a similar interview loop at Canonical recently, I’d really appreciate any insight on:

1. **Python deep dive:** How deep does it go? Language internals (GIL, memory model, asyncio), design and architecture discussion, or live coding?

2. **Linux round:** What topics came up? Processes and signals, filesystems, networking, debugging tools, containers?

3. **Third interview:** What was it in your case?

4. **Written interview follow-ups:** Did interviewers dig into your written answers?

5. **Location:** Did anyone apply through a region-specific listing (e.g. MENA) while living in another country? Was that an issue later?

6. Anything you wish you’d prepared for but didn’t.

Thanks in advance, any experience helps!

A while back, I shared my LeetCode tracker here and used your feedback to rebuild it into V2. I'm now approaching 500 downloads, so I wanted to come back to the community that helped shape it. ❤️

I originally built it because I'd solve 200+ problems, mark them as done, and still blank on familiar problems during interviews.

I realized I needed to track retention, not just completion. V2 now lets you:

• Rate your confidence after each problem (1–5)
• Capture one key insight instead of rewriting the whole solution
• Surface low-confidence problems in a revisit queue
• Track progress by pattern, so you can spot weak areas

It's still free, and I'm exploring whether an optional Pro version with more advanced revision tools would be useful.

If you use a tracker, what do you wish it did better? And if you've tried mine, what's missing, frustrating, or worth improving?

I'd rather build something people genuinely need than add features just for the sake of it.

Tracker Link - https://app.notion.com/marketplace/templates/leetcode-tracker-dsa-revision-system?cr=pro%253Asalmakes

I also have a short, optional feedback form for anyone interested in helping shape future features: https://tally.so/r/810XrY

So, I have 7 years of experience in Android, iOS, Flutter and React Native, I applied for Android SDK Developer, and I got GHA, which I passed two weeks back, today I got email from them, and I have tomorrow's availability.

I don't know what to expect, and I am pretty anxious and can't process anything!

Any tips would be helpful, Thanks.

NOTE : This is not a tech round, this is just a recruiter.

Hello everyone. I recently got an OA out of nowhere for application I did 8-9 months ago. So I gave the OA and applied to multiple other locations at the same time.

So I got rejection email and showing no longer under consideration for the one I gave OA but showing Under Consideration for 2 other location. What it means? Is there any chance of getting Phone Screen or Onsite?

I have my Google intern interview soon what kind of and were asked . If u got rejection what do u think might have made diff in ur interview . And what are ur suggestions for me 🤔

Hey everyone,

I finished Day 53 today. My sleep schedule has been completely out of sync lately, and staying up late to binge shows caught up with me today. My energy was drained both at work and during prep, but I made sure not to skip the daily reps.

I focused heavily on BFS patterns across all three problems today:

1. Rotting Oranges: Classic multi-source BFS. You push all initially rotten oranges into the queue with time t = 0. With each step, you rot the adjacent fresh oranges, decrement the fresh count, and advance time. Checking remaining fresh oranges at the end cleanly gives the total minutes or -1.
2. Flood Fill: Last time I tackled this, I rushed through a recursive DFS without fully absorbing the state transitions. Today, I implemented it using standard BFS from scratch. Taking the time to understand the traversal properly made the solution completely intuitive without looking at hints.
3. Cycle Detection in Undirected Graph (BFS): Tracked each node alongside its immediate parent (node, parent). If you visit an adjacent neighbor that is already marked visited and isn't the current node's parent, you have encountered an alternate path—confirming a cycle.

Fixing my sleep routine is non-negotiable moving forward because showing up tired makes every concept twice as hard to process.

Heading to bed early tonight and continuing Graphs tomorrow.

See you guys for Day 52!

Hey everyone! I'm going to take the Amazon SDE Intern OA for the first time and would appreciate some advice.

Which DSA patterns should I focus on while preparing, and what difficulty level should I expect?

How should I prepare for questions involving AI-assisted repository or coding environments?

How should I prepare for questions related to Amazon's Leadership Principles?

Any tips or experiences would be really helpful. Thanks!

Does Amazon consider grads 1 year out of school with 1 year of FT experience for new grad roles? I read an article in 2023 that the answer would be no, but just wondering if something has changed. Also, does Microsoft ever hire in Canada from external candidates / those without referrals?

I recently completed my Google interviews and wanted to get some opinions from people who have been through the process.

For the coding round, I feel reasonably okay.

The problem was basically a variation of Flood Fill(med-hard). I understood the problem, explained an optimized approach, and completed the full code around 1 to 2 minutes before the interview ended.

The interviewer reviewed it and said something like, "Looks good to me."

My only concern is communication.

The interviewer had a pretty strong accent, and there were a few moments where I had difficulty understanding exactly what he was saying. I asked him to repeat things a couple of times, and I’m worried I may have missed one or two hints or comments.

But I was still able to understand the actual problem, explain my approach, and complete the solution.

So I’m wondering, can this kind of communication gap affect the coding feedback even if the solution was completed correctly?

For the Googleyness round, I’m much more unsure.

The interview finished in around 30 minutes, and the interviewer asked a mix of behavioral and hypothetical scenario questions.

For the real experience-based questions, I tried to answer using STAR.

For the hypothetical questions, I didn’t force a STAR story. I explained what I would do, what factors I would consider, the trade-offs, and how I would try to reach a balanced solution.

So my main questions are:

Is STAR mandatory for every Googleyness question?

For hypothetical questions, is it okay to explain your reasoning and approach without giving a past STAR example?

If the answers are reasonable but not always in perfect STAR format, can that result in Lean Hire or No Hire?

How is the Googleyness round actually evaluated?

Is a Googleyness interview ending in around 30 minutes a bad sign?

And if the coding round went well but the Googleyness round felt more uncertain, can the overall result still be positive?

Would really appreciate thoughts from anyone who has gone through a similar Google interview process or knows how these rounds are evaluated.

Hey everyone,

I have an upcoming interview with Apple UK for a software engineer role. Has anyone interviewed with them, especially in London or Cambridge?

Curious about what the interviews are like, whether they ask LeetCode-style questions or more role-specific stuff.

Also, if anyone works or has worked there, I'd love to hear what it's like. How's the work culture and WLB?

Thanks!

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Same as title.

I have cleared oa and my interview is scheduled

What kind of codebase I can expect in round 1 of interview?

I have 4 years of software dev experience which was on an enterprise platform ( Salesforce dev) and I followed that up with a masters degree in CS. Since I don't have general SWE experience to apply directly for SDE-2 roles at big tech, I have been mostly applying to SDE-1 roles including the new grad one. However I have got only rejections so far. I wanted to know is it too much experience that is working against me or that it is not relevant experience for SDE roles. Would appreciate some opinions from people who work at these places.