Current Events > Another day, another rejection from a software developer position. Time to grind

(+) Yeah! (+)

I also might add other daily activities here. This topics has really kept me on track to do things daily. I think I'll add some short workouts as well, I've been on and off about them

Kudos to TC. I've always worked more closely with the embedded side of things, so honestly, a lot of this outside prepwork seems intimidating to have to go through.

Sansoldier posted...

Kudos to TC. I've always worked more closely with the embedded side of things, so honestly, a lot of this outside prepwork seems intimidating to have to go through.

It's incredibly annoying lol. At least it's kinda guaranteed that if I keep doing I'll eventually get another job.

In other news, I woke up feeling like poop. I'm pretty sure it's due to me leaving the window open when I slept, because I was shivering when I woke up. Headache, feeling weak, and sensitive skin. I'm going to push the online test to tomorrow, and take it a bit easy todaay. I'll look up the answer to https://leetcode.com/problems/132-pattern/ because I can't figure it out, at least something not faster than O(n^3). I don't want this day to fully go to waste because that can form bad habits. I say "because" a lot...

Day 28

Well, that online test went horribly. The questions were pretty straight forward, but they gave me way too little time. I'm not sure how this online test got past them. I highly doubt anyone could complete them in time. smh, only answered 2 of 4, although I did write something down for both of them

Day 29

Yesterday sucks, but I need to suck it up and move on. I still have one lingering interview left. After that, I'll start applying when I reach at least 300 leetcode questions. Currently at 248. And I'll also change the daily leetcode questions to 2 after my last interview.

I reviewed the question from day 27 again and installed it into my brain, and I did question https://leetcode.com/problems/prison-cells-after-n-days/. I was able to get this much quicker than I thought. You can calculate all the days but you won't beat the time requirements. The shortcut is you know numbers will repeat which you already calculated, so you just need to find the cycle. Similar to other questions I answered.

Did more video sharing system design reviews. I'm going to be practicing drawing them on a white board from scratch and doing mock interviews with myself.

Day 30

Got another leetcode question that I couldn't figure out. Looked up the answer and facepalmed. It's all about identifying the pattern, the question just feels like a puzzle instead. I'll throw this one in Anki as well. https://leetcode.com/problems/elimination-game/

Not gonna lie, some of the videos I'm seeing on system design aren't really that great. From the interviews I've done, most of the interviewers want you to be more specific on certain aspects of the design that the videos don't go into detail about.

Vacation week is near its end. Feels bad man.

Day 31

Turns out the online test I did crap on was actually a pass. I guess maybe they saw I put some kind of answer for each question and they liked what they saw. I wonder if some dude actually was able to answer them all on time.

Anyways, didn't do leetcode today. I watched more system design interviews and practiced designing a web chat and netflix using those apps where you can draw diagrams. I'm going move on to designing twitter, and how to design push notifications. Honestly I find system design interesting.

Day 32

Did the leetcode question of the day, which was actually the same as a question I answered before. Just finding the complement of a number.

Watched a notification system design video and took notes. It's nice to see that I already know a majority of the concepts. The hard part is explaining this clearly with the interview. Sometimes the interviewers just want to fight back, saying something is wrong when it clearly isn't. Balancing the act of letting it go and being persistent will be tough.

Day 33

Interviews coming up. Last ones. I haven't applied to any others.

I did one leetcode easy today, really straight forward. https://leetcode.com/problems/license-key-formatting/

Watched and reviewed more System Design interviews. I'm a bit more comfortable with it. Practiced a bunch using the diagram drawing website. Let's see what happens.

Day 34

Had a interview today. I don't know if it's good or bad. I'm just going to stop thinking about it, and move on. The interview might as well be my study session for today. Tomorrow we'll continue with leetcode and system design.

Day 35

Week 5. Just did one leetcode question today. The question was simple, but the followups are interesting. I may look up how to deal with the followup questions tomorrow. https://leetcode.com/problems/linked-list-random-node/. I'll need to memorize how to quickly create the Random object in Java and how they are called, so I don't have to google it.

Day 36

Kinda fucked up this day. I slept through most of it, so I didn't get any time in to study. I only reviewed the questions that came up on Anki, but I haven't looked at any new ones. I also have one lingering interview coming up, so I thought I might as well take it easy today, and get back in the groove tomorrow.

Day 37

Interview tomorrow and last one lined up. It's all or nothing. I did a random question from looking up what they might ask, and I did a leetcode easy question https://leetcode.com/problems/binary-watch/. I was curious how people answered the question, and one of them was pretty funny. Since there are only 9 possible choices, you can just find all those choices and code them, and return one of them. No problem solving needed.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

It really depends on your experience taking these questions. Medium questions don't take too long for me anymore, maybe an hour or less, unless for the really tricky ones. If you're starting out then even leetcode easy questions will take a while. But the more you do it, the shorter they take, since you'll start to recognize patterns from other questions. I'm currently a software developer, seeking a place that pays better.

Day 38

Also in other news, my parents got covid, so I most likely had it when I was feeling a bit sick back then. I've hardly ever stepped out of the house, and am currently living here until work tells me it's time to go back to the office. I may still have it. My only guess is when we had relatives over for Christmas, or from my parents when they usually step out. I guess the symptoms showed on me first. I haven't been tested, but I'm not going any where really so I'll just self isolate. I have the vaccine and am boosted.

In other other news, I did one part of an interview. I thought it went decent but I failed other interviews that I also thought went decent, so I'm expecting the worst. The interview is my review, so I'll be continuing on Wednesday

Day 39

Man I am really tired of interviews. I received another rejection, but the feedback made no sense. They gave me a choice to either do a take-home assignment or a leetcode style interview. I went with the former just to brush up on React, and that took 10-20 hours to do. They liked my design and moved me on. Coding interview comes and they ask me to add new functionality to the program, so I did. They asked how to add another feature but not code it, so I told them. They seemed satisfied. Next round was system design. I thought I explained myself pretty well, answered all their questions, etc.

Rejection email comes saying I failed to answer their planned leetcode style question. What? I was never given that question. Then they mentioned that they had concerns of my data modelling? Then why bring me on? I explained my choice well, as well as suggesting alternatives. They said they loved the design. I think there is a mix up but I don't know if it's even worth it to respond.

Man, it is really hard to keep going, not going to lie. All of this seems irrelevant if they just disqualify you for anything minor.

Anyways I did another interview today. I don't know anymore if interviews go well or not, it always leads to disappointment.

Day 40

I forget what it's called, the 6 signs of grief or something? I think I'm permanently on the anger phase, so might as well put that anger to good use. I worked out, angrily, then went back to leetcode.

I did question https://leetcode.com/problems/insert-into-a-binary-search-tree/. This should have been a leetcode easy tbh, not sure why it's medium.

Second question is https://leetcode.com/problems/number-of-dice-rolls-with-target-sum/. This took more time than needed. I'm a little disappointed in that. It's some good ol dynamic programming but I would have past the time limit and possibly failed during a real interview.

I kinda scoured the internet for system design questions that I was asked yesterday. I still think mine was pretty good so I'm jut confused man... I don't get it. I'm try to be as unbiased as possible and look at the things I could have improved on.

1. I forgot the JSON notation when discussing how the APIs would send and receive messages, but I don't think it was a big deal. I just remember it uses curly brackets and commas, but maybe not knowing the exact threw them off.
2. I did have to change up my data modelling after I first drew it up and used different table, but I thought afterwards it was sound and made sense. They didn't have to tell me what to do, I just figured out this might not be the best and changed it up, and they seemed satisfied (maybe not because of the rejection... dem poker faces)
3. I didn't go through all the functional requirements and missed one of them, although the interview seemed to be okay with that when I somewhat insisted, so I didn't push it further. Last thing I want to do is annoy the interviewer.
4. I should have drawn more arrows connecting different parts of my system design. Hard to do that while talking at the same time. I thought the diagram still looked good, but I cannot take chances like that anymore. Everything needs to be super clear.
5. I think I should take time drawing a diagram to explain a basic use-case. Like user A logs into the system, hits these points in the service, and gets back information
6. The interview did hint on what type of database to use, and maybe I should have been more confident. I more-so described the pros and cons of each type, but I should have made it clear that I was going to go with one.

That's all I can think of.

Day 41

Looks like my journey might finally come to an end. I received an offer and am currently in the negotiation phase. I won't really relax until I actually sign the offer and started working, since anything can happen in between. I heard stories of companies recalling their offers. I should be in a good position to negotiate now that they want me.

I think I will continue doing leetcode questions. I still want to hit the 300 mark, maybe 350 so I can match that other user who posted here. So I did just one today. https://leetcode.com/problems/alert-using-same-key-card-three-or-more-times-in-a-one-hour-period/. Straight forward, and these are the kind of questions interviews have asked me tbh. Not really any critical thinking or trying to solve a puzzle, just doing a lot of data structure management in a limited time.

Day 42

Going to accept the offer. Leetcode does help. The question I received was very similar to other questions on leetcode, and I've used the data structures needed for that question so many times that the syntax is just instinctual to write down. I maybe want to shoot for FAANG in the future, so leetcode grind won't end. But I'll limit it to 1 per day and keep this topic alive. I want to beat 300.

Anyways, probably no one is reading this. This is mostly for my sake. But for those maniacs who are, thanks for watching my journey.

Back on topic, answered this question https://leetcode.com/problems/string-to-integer-atoi/. Dealing with the limits on integers was annoying, but this question is similar to converting binary numbers to integers.

Day 43

Felt like poop today, but didn't want let this day go empty handed. I currently struggling to complete https://leetcode.com/problems/number-of-operations-to-make-network-connected/. I completely forgot the way to determine if nodes are connected. I think I'm going to try my ghetto version tomorrow. If it's too much work, I'll just look up the answer.

Day 44

My algorithm for the question yesterday was dumb, so I looked it up. I forgot the algorithm for union-find. So I need to remember it again. I also still feel terrible from yesterday, I had a fever. Today is a review and chill day.

Day 45

Even if I might get a new job, the journey does not stop. Current goal, 300 leetcode.

Answered an easy and medium. Medium question was kinda easy. I think dealing with the annoying edge cases made it a medium. https://leetcode.com/problems/maximize-distance-to-closest-person/

Second was the easy question https://leetcode.com/problems/word-pattern/. I always wondered when I would have to pull out the double hashMap. I've worked with SQL a lot so I thought of how Java would mimic it.

Day 46

Didn't really advance much. The leetcode question of the day was a question I did literally 5 years ago. I wanted to give it a shot again since I don't remember the answer. It was marked easy, but I was overthinking it. I gave the naive approach, which makes sense when you really think about it, and got it. And here I thought I would need some dynamic programming. https://leetcode.com/problems/can-place-flowers/

I'm really aching to start creating a game I had in my mind for the longest time, or start practicing the a new language. There's so little time in the day and so much to learn, and too many distractions.

Ive felt pretty unmotivated lately while looking for software developer jobs but this topic makes me want to try harder. I suck at leetcode so maybe Ill start working on that more too

Feline_Heart posted...

Ive felt pretty unmotivated lately while looking for software developer jobs but this topic makes me want to try harder. I suck at leetcode so maybe Ill start working on that more too

Woah... a new visitor... uhh... uh... hello there. I uh, I uhm, please make yourself comfortable, don't mind the mess.

I think leetcode is one of most important things in landing a job. Behavioral and system design come second. Join if you want. TeamBlind also helped with seeing the total compensation people were getting there.

Anyways, I'll be uhh, in my cave...

Day 47

I did one question today. I was looking at the first 50 questions on the website. I'll tackle all the mediums and easies. I did https://leetcode.com/problems/zigzag-conversion/. I guess the many downvotes are due to the question being hard to understand. Downvotes always make me wary when I first see the question.

I know nothing about any of this but props to you TC for staying dedicated and grinding. Its not easy. Stick to it and Im sure itll work out for you.

Is the position you're looking for a level entry position or a senior type level position?

MrDrMan posted...

I know nothing about any of this but props to you TC for staying dedicated and grinding. Its not easy. Stick to it and Im sure itll work out for you.

Thanks bro. I actually did get an offer. It was literally the last interview I had. I was going to take a break from applying and starting grinding more if I didn't get it. Assuming all the necessary checks are complete and nothing comes up, I should be good to go. But I want to continue in case there is even a better opportunity possibly a year from now, and it's always good to stay ahead. And also, from what I've read on teamblind (I know, a very toxic website), I need to get my numbers up to approach the big boys.

Prestoff posted...

Is the position you're looking for a level entry position or a senior type level position?

More mid-senior position, but I was at a place that paid poop. I have about 4 years of exp. You definitely get a lot more recruiters approaching you when you have a couple or more years of experience on you.

Thank you guys for visiting.

Day 48

Did one question. I was fucking close, but close isn't going to cut it. I think an interview might tell me that one of the minor parts of the code would run slowly, and give me the benefit of the doubt since the big portion of it was correct, but I can't take those risks. This question was also similar to questions I answered before. That's the name of the game for leetcode, recognizing patterns... the questions was https://leetcode.com/problems/koko-eating-bananas/

Also if anyone is trying to look for a new job and needs interview practice, I can definitely help. I would like to give back to the community I spent so much time lurking.

tc, I think you are really overthinking this

the job market is red hot right now and I am getting a bunch of activity from my resume with (it sounds like) less experience than you.

I signed up for this website called hired_ where you just post your resume and recruiters reach out to you

the current job I hold did not do any sort of code testing. They just had me meet with the development team to see if I knew what I was talking about

i would say youre more than prepared and you should have confidence in your abilities

BIueJay posted...

ode questions per day, and stick with easy/medium for now (because hard honestly isn't worth it unless it's a super common question, no interviewer asks hard questions since they always take too long). Then I'll review more sys

Hey, don't worry. You learn from every interview

adventofcode.com is fun if you want to change it up..

and the book / PDF Cracking the Coding Interview is ideal.

TheGoldenEel posted...

tc, I think you are really overthinking this

the job market is red hot right now and I am getting a bunch of activity from my resume with (it sounds like) less experience than you.

I signed up for this website called hired_ where you just post your resume and recruiters reach out to you

the current job I hold did not do any sort of code testing. They just had me meet with the development team to see if I knew what I was talking about

i would say youre more than prepared and you should have confidence in your abilities

Yeah it is pretty hot. Somehow a facebook recruiter got hold of my work email asking me to apply. I'll leave FAANG in the future. I kinda do take rejections hard, but I use it to force me to become better. It's a good motivator at least. BTW, I did receive an offer. I don't want my skills to deteriorate so I'll keep going and at least hit the bench mark I hear I'll need for larger companies.

shironinja posted...

adventofcode.com is fun if you want to change it up..

and the book / PDF Cracking the Coding Interview is ideal.

Interesting website. I'll check it out. And yep, have that book and did like half of the questions on there a while back. Really good book.

Day 49

I didn't do much of anything today. I got stuck on https://leetcode.com/problems/gas-station/ and will have to look it up tomorrow. I can't figure out the linear pattern. I might start doing one leetcode question, then going through at least one system design video.

Day 50

I looked up how to answer the gas station question. So clever. At least it gives me one thing to look for when answering other questions. I'm keeping it to one leetcode question per day, and I think I want to start working on a side game. The heavy lifting is done assuming I got this job, but I want to keep my mind fresh since the country I'm in pays pretty low for developers, and America's salaries are so much higher.

I got got past the phone screening for Amazon to do I guess the first round assessment

leetcode is not giving me confidence

BIueJay posted...

Interesting website. I'll check it out. And yep, have that book and did like half of the questions on there a while back. Really good book.

Enjoy! Love what you do never work a day in your life.

Another fun thing to do if you haven't already is think about a problem you may have and then write a software system to solve it. These could be random mundane things like:

- Keeping track of your games collection
- Organizing your fridge and alerting you when a product is about to expire
- Todo app (this is done to death though so kind of boring imho)
- Tracking how many poops your cat takes in a week
- Or just whatever.. try to think of as stupid as an idea as you can because those may end up to be the most funny and rewarding to work on

Once you feel more confident in system design and start considering things like queues and messaging pick any random application you use on your phone .. then duplicate it's main functionality by creating a process diagram of what it does, interfaces of components, throw it into a ticket tracking system (sticky notes are a good one), and then just start carving out work.

This tends to uncover a lot of interesting problems that you wouldn't otherwise think about. You will be forced to perform research and learn a lot, gaining confidence and the ability to speak about it along the way.

TheGoldenEel posted...

I got got past the phone screening for Amazon to do I guess the first round assessment

leetcode is not giving me confidence

Nice! I been hearing some bad things about Amazon, but honestly if you can get Amazon on your resume you're set for life. So it's worth it just to "do your time". I would highly suggest looking up any Amazon question on the Leetcode discussions section of that website. I interviewed there like a couple of years ago, and all the questions asked I've seen before. Unfortunately, I still fucked up one of the questions because I forgot how to answer it.

shironinja posted...

Enjoy! Love what you do never work a day in your life.

Another fun thing to do if you haven't already is think about a problem you may have and then write a software system to solve it. These could be random mundane things like:

- Keeping track of your games collection
- Organizing your fridge and alerting you when a product is about to expire
- Todo app (this is done to death though so kind of boring imho)
- Tracking how many poops your cat takes in a week
- Or just whatever.. try to think of as stupid as an idea as you can because those may end up to be the most funny and rewarding to work on

Once you feel more confident in system design and start considering things like queues and messaging pick any random application you use on your phone .. then duplicate it's main functionality by creating a process diagram of what it does, interfaces of components, throw it into a ticket tracking system (sticky notes are a good one), and then just start carving out work.

This tends to uncover a lot of interesting problems that you wouldn't otherwise think about. You will be forced to perform research and learn a lot, gaining confidence and the ability to speak about it along the way.

Really good ideas. I'll start doing this starting tomorrow actually. I've mean meaning to also look up how messaging queues work again.

Day 51

Answered one question today. https://leetcode.com/problems/sequential-digits/. Was thinking it might be the usual DFS type of question, but nope. This ain't it.

My office chair is getting more and more uncomfortable. I don't know if it's if I'm sitting a lore more lately, or the cushioning is just getting worse. At least it forces me to get up and walk around a bit.

/blogfaqs

Day 52

Did a couple of leetcode easies today. First was the question of the day. https://leetcode.com/problems/detect-capital/. Obviously they want it in one pass. No fuss about it.

Second question is https://leetcode.com/problems/palindrome-number/. Learning binary manipulation more really helped me with these type of questions. Pretty smooth sailing. Tomorrow I'll do one question and one system design.

Day 53

I didn't do much today. I just watched a video on message queues to soak in any knowledge I missed. I didn't work out today. Usually when I don't get stuff done, it hits me hard. I need to revitalize that streak tomorrow. I can't be complacent in life.

I had an interview this morning. I think this was the best job Ive ever done of answering the typical interview questions and I even asked the interviewer a question that she said was interesting, but the tone of her voice throughout the call made it feel like she was writing me off the entire time. I dont feel like Im going to make it to the next step but she said that Ill hear back from her by the end of the day. God, I hate interviews

Feline_Heart posted...

I had an interview this morning. I think this was the best job Ive ever done of answering the typical interview questions and I even asked the interviewer a question that she said was interesting, but the tone of her voice throughout the call made it feel like she was writing me off the entire time. I dont feel like Im going to make it to the next step but she said that Ill hear back from her by the end of the day. God, I hate interviews

Nice. Yeah I've had some interviewers who seemed cold throughout the call. I always try to be lighthearted and get at least one smile. I hope you get the good news, let me know how it goes.

Also

Day 54

I didn't do much again other than reviewing leetcode problems on Anki. But atleast I started working out again. I'll need to keep the workout streak going alongside this.

BIueJay posted...

Nice. Yeah I've had some interviewers who seemed cold throughout the call. I always try to be lighthearted and get at least one smile. I hope you get the good news, let me know how it goes.

I got a rejection email lol. But another job that I applied for sent me a coding test to do so thats something at least

Feline_Heart posted...

I got a rejection email lol. But another job that I applied for sent me a coding test to do so thats something at least

O noes. Good thing you got another test. What the first test an in person coding test, or behavioral? I try to look back at all my rejections and see what I could improve.

BIueJay posted...

O noes. Good thing you got another test. What the first test an in person coding test, or behavioral? I try to look back at all my rejections and see what I could improve.

It was a behavioral interview. She only asked me two questions and I tried to give in depth answers because I know thats something I usually struggle with. I think the problem was that the first question I asked was if there was room for growth in the company and then she said that they dont have a traditional workplace with different levels of heirarchy. She said that everyone basically just helps out with whatever they want to help with and the way she was talking made it feel like she thought I didnt do enough research into the company.

I dont know how I couldve known that though since it wasnt on their website or anywhere online. I tried to ask more questions after that to make it seem like I was interested to learn more about what its like to work there but it felt like she wasnt really interested in me after that

Feline_Heart posted...

It was a behavioral interview. She only asked me two questions and I tried to give in depth answers because I know thats something I usually struggle with. I think the problem was that the first question I asked was if there was room for growth in the company and then she said that they dont have a traditional workplace with different levels of heirarchy. She said that everyone basically just helps out with whatever they want to help with and the way she was talking made it feel like she thought I didnt do enough research into the company.

I dont know how I couldve known that though since it wasnt on their website or anywhere online. I tried to ask more questions after that to make it seem like I was interested to learn more about what its like to work there but it felt like she wasnt really interested in me after that

Interesting. I tend to do better on behavioral versus coding. One thing that really helped me is that I'd write down stories for a range of topics. Parts of these stories are fake, but convincing enough if I'm asked to go into detail. Stuff like having a disagreement with an employee, dealing with troublesome clients, prioritizing items, etc. Most of the stories of these, but parts of them are fake or exaggerated. They never figure it out.

Day 55

Just reviewed problems I did on Anki. I was was sort of doing https://leetcode.com/problems/all-elements-in-two-binary-search-trees/, and I think I have a solution in mind but it's hard to put down in code. Might just look this up and move on, even if I think I'll eventually get it.

Day 56

More Anki reviews, and added a couple more questions I answered on there. Nothing more to report.