Ask HN: Can you get a job without LeetCode?
I feel like leetcode has become the only way to get a job nowadays but can you get a job without LeetCode or are there any companies that don’t ask leetcode in the interviews
13 comments
In my experience interviewing nobody looks at resumes, code samples, or even open source contributions. Instead they are often manually looking for word cloud nonsense.
They might look at your open source application but only about 30 seconds at the readme only, so include screenshots and maybe they might look at that. They are probably just looking at the number of stars, forks, and any other number not related to the software.
In the case of web development or JavaScript almost every time they will throw a shotgun blast of newb syntax questions at you. Sometimes the questions are general and other times the interviewer is fishing for something of comfort to a personal code style. If they ask for any opinion or open-ended question respond with something critical or unpopular to see how the interviewer reacts. Failure to do so will endanger your ability to do anything creative or challenging.
As a bored and thoroughly under impressed candidate I really wished companies, who claim to be looking for senior developers, asked for the impossible to see what kind of answers they get. By impossible I really mean standard interview questions everywhere else. Examples:
* How do you achieve complete page load in less than a second?
* How do you achieve accessibility AA criteria without ARIA?
* How do you create custom components without a framework?
* Describe a means of broadcasting information to users in real time without polling a server.
* How do you persist/restore state without compromising page load time?
* How would you achieve real time status updates to/from users without negatively impacting usability or accessibility?
They might look at your open source application but only about 30 seconds at the readme only, so include screenshots and maybe they might look at that. They are probably just looking at the number of stars, forks, and any other number not related to the software.
In the case of web development or JavaScript almost every time they will throw a shotgun blast of newb syntax questions at you. Sometimes the questions are general and other times the interviewer is fishing for something of comfort to a personal code style. If they ask for any opinion or open-ended question respond with something critical or unpopular to see how the interviewer reacts. Failure to do so will endanger your ability to do anything creative or challenging.
As a bored and thoroughly under impressed candidate I really wished companies, who claim to be looking for senior developers, asked for the impossible to see what kind of answers they get. By impossible I really mean standard interview questions everywhere else. Examples:
* How do you achieve complete page load in less than a second?
* How do you achieve accessibility AA criteria without ARIA?
* How do you create custom components without a framework?
* Describe a means of broadcasting information to users in real time without polling a server.
* How do you persist/restore state without compromising page load time?
* How would you achieve real time status updates to/from users without negatively impacting usability or accessibility?
Even small startups started "copying" FANG interview style. For me, this was none-sense. We were discussing this point few days ago, some colleagues (who work in ML space) are going through interviews (for ML engineer, data scientists roles), most of them don't get questions about ML (which is the focus of the job) and they go through the typical LeetCode problems for AI/ML startups, which was discouraging for most ppl.
I understand when a big company uses LeetCode problems to scale out the process (e.g. new hires in Bangalore and new hire in SF go through the same process). In these companies, usually candidate don't interview for a specific team, they just get an interview to join FANG, then they get matched to a team at the end of the process. However, for startups, they should know what they need, and what kind of skills/person that they are looking for. I wish this trend change (hiring professional interviewees, instead of hiring professional developers).
I understand when a big company uses LeetCode problems to scale out the process (e.g. new hires in Bangalore and new hire in SF go through the same process). In these companies, usually candidate don't interview for a specific team, they just get an interview to join FANG, then they get matched to a team at the end of the process. However, for startups, they should know what they need, and what kind of skills/person that they are looking for. I wish this trend change (hiring professional interviewees, instead of hiring professional developers).
Yes, it a single place I’ve worked has asked leetcode questions. Almost every job I’ve gotten has had a pretty simple interview process. Some discussion is out my past work, etc. followed by a series of trivia questions, nothing tricky or anything, mostly really basic questions regarding the languages I’d be working with, OOP concepts, etc.
The caveat? Well for one my first few jobs have been extremely low paying and that’s not hyperbole at all. Even now I don’t make very good money, relatively speaking, for the field. I’ve worked at very small companies, government agencies and large corporations, exclusively non tech. The work is boring and droll, a lot of sitting around and waiting for bureaucratic processes. But never any leetcode questions.
I’m sure there are other people with better experiences who have not gone through the leetcode process as well.
The caveat? Well for one my first few jobs have been extremely low paying and that’s not hyperbole at all. Even now I don’t make very good money, relatively speaking, for the field. I’ve worked at very small companies, government agencies and large corporations, exclusively non tech. The work is boring and droll, a lot of sitting around and waiting for bureaucratic processes. But never any leetcode questions.
I’m sure there are other people with better experiences who have not gone through the leetcode process as well.
Obviously you can get jobs at many startups without having much algorithmic skills. However, for you to make your case strong you should try building some web applications to prove that you're proficient to learn on your own and build things. Sometimes even the certifications and knowledge in cloud technologies are good enough for you to be hired. You should try getting referrals from people working at the companies and connect with people online.
There's definitely plenty of companies out there that have stopped using LeetCode style questions. I just finished interviewing and out of the 8 companies I talked to only 1 had a single LeetCode style question and it was one of the "coding challenges" at the virtual "onsite" stage. My previous employer also didn't ask any LeetCode style questions.
It's worth pointing out that there are some questions on LeetCode that are absolutely fair game in the interview process. Questions along the lines of can you implement the logic of a rate limiter, can you implement some authorization logic, how would you deduplicate some data in a system, given some request headers can you implement X logic, etc. are all questions that can be closely tied to some LeetCode questions but are also regular day-to-day work. However these are questions where you don't have to memorize "tricks" to solve them in the amount of time you're given.
That being said FAANG companies are known to ask the typical "LeetCode" type of questions, so if you're applying to those companies expect such interview questions.
It's worth pointing out that there are some questions on LeetCode that are absolutely fair game in the interview process. Questions along the lines of can you implement the logic of a rate limiter, can you implement some authorization logic, how would you deduplicate some data in a system, given some request headers can you implement X logic, etc. are all questions that can be closely tied to some LeetCode questions but are also regular day-to-day work. However these are questions where you don't have to memorize "tricks" to solve them in the amount of time you're given.
That being said FAANG companies are known to ask the typical "LeetCode" type of questions, so if you're applying to those companies expect such interview questions.
I recently interviewed for a frontend web dev intern position at a FANG company and I didn’t get a single LeetCode question. Instead, I was asked to code part of a website though. Idk whether that is the case for full-time position however.
yes, become a consultant and charge 10x for your work.
no leetcode.
no leetcode.
** your mileage may vary
Yes, I got my most recent job without leetcode. Large tech company in SF. Interview was more about my past work experience and the tools required to do the job.
My last job interview was a couple interviews, a very mild take home assignment (they didn't require much).
I liked explaining work I did more than trivia type stuff.
Got the job.
Granted this was a very non silicon valley, midwestern small company so i really don't think they were interested in a whiteboard / trivia type interview.
I liked explaining work I did more than trivia type stuff.
Got the job.
Granted this was a very non silicon valley, midwestern small company so i really don't think they were interested in a whiteboard / trivia type interview.
For sure you can get a job nowadays without leetcode. I have no idea what your skillset or experience is, so it is hard to give specific advice.
However, many consulting companies, esp smaller ones, will look at project work and may ask you to do some coding, but won't care about your algorithm skills.
However, many consulting companies, esp smaller ones, will look at project work and may ask you to do some coding, but won't care about your algorithm skills.
If you want a high paying, well respected job - there’s no way around it.
Unless you want to work for FAANG, I don't think is very necessary..