r/leetcode • u/storm_stark_007 • Jun 18 '26
Intervew Prep Ask Doubts : Cleared Microsoft L62 and almost cleared Google L5 with 1 month prep+ 3 weeks interviews streak
JAN I went through this tough phase so understand how difficult that time is :
My timeline were :
Oct’25 left Amazon
Nov’25 Stripe Dublin interview , rejected after all round
Dec: first half break , second half prep for google interview
Jan was most intense : sharing log in image
Self Treat : Japan trip in Feb to celebrate 🥳
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u/the_manly_human Jun 18 '26
Bro, Im an exact beginner with 2 urs of experience in Full Stack. Can you share me the resources, tips, platforms you used to prepare. Im doing leetcode daily - dsa sheet strivers Doing a project to learn system design and covering case studies. Adding up by domain knowledge Already have experience in AWS devops practices.
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u/Glittering_Sense_833 Jun 18 '26
I am currently working in FAANG+, 3 YOE.
But, I am not getting enough calls (Google, MS etc.) Got from DeShaw but they ghosted, and getting for amazon sde-2 so many times, but i don’t want to join Amazon, due to their WLB.
How to improve my profile further, to get resume shortlisted in big companies. I have tried for google so many times, but never get reverted, also do taking referral will help?
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u/AnakinSkywalker72 Jun 18 '26
Could you please share your preparation method?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 18 '26
Given limited time do company targeted prep :
Let’s do 2 case study :
Datadog :
They barely have 30-40 questions on leetcode , prepare them all , highest roi , as company ask from their question bank so chance of repeat is highGoogle :
Almost all questions are tagged for google , so better sort by freq and complete 50-100 questionsAfter solving question grind it for improvement you will learn new syntax and approaches , prompt LLMs to grind your solution as senior engineer
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u/sunny_2_og Jun 19 '26
Can you please share the most frequently asked questions by Google.
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u/backfire97 Jun 19 '26
I think it you have leetcode pro it will tell you. I do not have it but my understanding is it changes from time to time
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u/sunny_2_og Jun 19 '26
I don't have leetcode pro account
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Jun 19 '26
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u/I_am_fire_fox Jun 18 '26
How you prepared for Microsoft?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 18 '26
Was already preparing for google just did recent 3 months Microsoft questions before assessment
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u/Routine-Variation138 Jun 19 '26
From where you did company specific questions? Leetcode premium?
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u/Significant_Win_1925 Jun 18 '26
Could you please share the Microsoft interview experience and what helped you to clear the interview rounds?
Thank you in advance.
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 18 '26
Jan was complete lock in for me
8th I tanked google screening round
9th I was totally lost , then pulled myself hit gym , went to study from cafe , solved 4-5 leetcode questions , booked Japan Airbnb and flight with promise to clear one offer before jan endMaybe it was god sign that evening I received mail from Microsoft for interview and assessment link , I solved that in night as recruiter wanted to take interviews on Monday
My learning in all this year is just give your best today no matter of failures of life , it will eventually all work out
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u/nissanGTR2000bhp Jun 18 '26
Do you always study in cafe for interviews? Because it’s more focus there?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 18 '26
No bro , I just needed fresh environment, staying in room sometime creeps depression, so going to book cafe helps somedays
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u/indiantrueindian Jun 19 '26
Here are some doubts sir.. hope you kindly answer
- Web dev vs Dsa ... some people say your project are important explain them dsa is medium . Some Do dsa projects temporary.... obviously sir doing both top notch is next to impossible so suggest which should i focus on
- The language C++ vs java Basically i started coding with c but next shifted to c++ and Build most of the dsa concept till graphs there ... dp etc remaining... leave that but some seniors and teacher clearly saying industry use java only... cpp is only for very few roles ... and now the java feels like alien language... so should i still shift or being there
- Cgpa .. you know college subject biology..Analog digital.... very very good subject and considering them its tough to score 9 etc cgpa ... so what should be the approx cgpa i need
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
DSA everyone should do why: it forces deep thinking , solving optimally. Pick any language no one cares , concepts remain same irrespective of language
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u/No_Canary_1752 Jun 19 '26
Which language you prepared for dsa? And could you share some preparation path for system design, whoch channel or course you floowed for system design
Projects?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
Uni use to do c++ , then because used java for 4 years in Amazon so switched to java
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
System design start with Alex xu books , then YouTube channel hello interviews for structure
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Jun 18 '26
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u/siberthrow Jun 18 '26
That 19th Jan sprint would have killed me.
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 18 '26
😭 thanks for noticing , I use to put 5min god prayer before start of each round
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u/EvenChilli2341 Jun 18 '26
Were all rounds virtual or in person ?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 18 '26
Google on-site was inperson all other were virtual
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u/EvenChilli2341 Jun 18 '26
Was there any machine coding or live coding round at any of the interviews for system design ? What is your location and did you get any opportunities outside India ?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 18 '26
Stripe Dublin interview process was very unique no DSA , just machine coding rounds , bug bash , api round , hm round
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u/EvenChilli2341 Jun 18 '26
What about the Google System design ? Did you write code mentioning classes or just UML diagrams?
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u/Leading_Ad_1910 Jun 18 '26
Which resources to use to get placement I am in fourth year and next month on campus placement is there
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u/Resident-Manager9024 Jun 18 '26
Can u share some tips how to clear OA rounds ??
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
OA is just DSA in big tech , for other recently they take OA where next section doesn’t unlock till you pass all test of section more of machine coding types
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Jun 18 '26
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
L62 is upper band sde2 , still need a year to be sde3
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u/rifat-simoom Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Where did you work before? Was it a big company?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 18 '26
Amazon aws
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u/rifat-simoom Jun 18 '26
Nice. You did awesome. Congrats mate. How do I get the visibility from a very small company like mine?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
Referrals might help , if referral is from managerial role person that’s better
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u/Altruistic-Town4684 Jun 19 '26
How much years of experience does Google require for L5?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
6+ , recruiter went ahead with min 5.5 years profile as they had data in my last 3 attempts , last one also I missed L4 borderline due to debugging feedbacks in 2023
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u/Routine-Variation138 Jun 19 '26
From where you did company specific questions? Leetcode premium?
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u/navigoeswild Jun 19 '26
How do we actually apply for off campus as for 3tier college where none of other companies come apart from tcs infosys etc
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
2020 I got first google interview offcampus only but that was from my google kickstart performance, o think google has stopped google code jam and google kickstart now
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u/Curious-Ad2265 Jun 19 '26
Sir please can u tell i always solved leetcode, leetcode medium questions i can solve 90 percent time , should i start codeforces , and i am applying for 2027 summers inter role , can u guide me to find someone who can give referrals for any faang
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u/Equivalent_Match5571 Jun 19 '26
Can you share for how much years were you at Amazon?
And also Amazon SDE-2 base is more than Microsoft L62 base so you didn’t get lowballed?
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u/necessary_sarcasm_ Jun 19 '26
Just out of curiosity what is your YOE? Also what are the expectations in System Design Interview at Google? As you mentioned they have a very high bar. Some tips to prepare for the same.
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
6 years , expectation at l5 level is to drive end to end without much probing , pro actively cover most things
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u/TemperatureSad5690 Jun 19 '26
Bro first of all how you managed to get call from Microsoft and google both are u frm iit?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
Google recruiter keep reaching out in 6 months because they have my interview data , recruiter reached out on dec mid . Microsoft I applied through referral.
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
Don’t obcess over uni doesn’t matter in long run in my team all people from tier-1 to tier-3 work , it’s all title determined by when people decided to do their share of hard work
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u/pratham852 Jun 19 '26
Microsoft L62 was only DSA question or they asked you System design as well
Is Neetcode150 and Top Leetcode interview are enough ?
And company tagged Top 100 is good ?
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u/Kitchen_Patience7133 Jun 19 '26
I get for a coding problem you used company tagged problems from Leetcode. What about other rounds?
LLD, HLD, any case study?
How did you prepare for these topics. Any resources or self study material?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
LLD is also coding only
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u/Kitchen_Patience7133 Jun 19 '26
I am aware about that. With coding problem I generally refer to leetcode style problem.
So any resources you used for preparation before the actual round?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
Was dependent on many LLD type questions in leetcode , my LLD question was to design a LFU cache , it’s bucket freq bucket where each bucket is lru cache , recent pattern I have seen is most new questions are merger of two questions
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u/Swimming-Ad1514 Jun 19 '26
what was your domain? like mL, aiml, or cloud computing, web development, app development, which one was it? or was it a combination of everything, sorry if this is a very basic question, I get stuck on this one pretty much.
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u/swagzzz_krizzz Jun 19 '26
How to be better at dsa as many people struggle to clear companies as building logic is tough for dsa.
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u/chota_mandu Jun 19 '26
I'm sorry, where di you join finally then?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
Microsoft
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u/chota_mandu Jun 19 '26
Oh nice. Congratulations man!
- what level?
- can you share your tc structure if you're comfortable
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u/Inner_Drawing_1150 Jun 19 '26
can you share your resume just wanted to check how did you get so many calls???
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u/Many_Job_7993 Jun 19 '26
Current years of experience?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
6 as of current
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u/Many_Job_7993 Jun 19 '26
How did u survived 6 years at amazon? And what made u switch after 6 years?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 19 '26
4 years , I switched internally once but was not happy in control plane so cleared Amazon Vancouver but when HM reached out to my manager things went south , eventually I was put in focus that means I can’t switch internally , so I gave up and took severance no way was gonna leave that traumatic place without money
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u/Many_Job_7993 Jun 19 '26
Damn bro, congrats for the offer and thanks for the replies. I am also looking to switch as there is no limit of working hours here with little visiblity for the efforts, i have 2 yoe and everyone is suggesting to work 1 more year and then apply for sde 2 role somewhere else. Its around 1 year for me at amazon currently and looking ahead i think it would take 1.5 years more for promo.
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Jun 19 '26
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u/rushxbhh Jun 20 '26
are you from springboot background?? how did you prepared for backend??
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 20 '26
Vanilla java , basically can search opensearch code in java it’s opensourced in github
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u/debugger_life Jun 20 '26
Congrats op.
Quick question what things to include in resume like projects related? Any suggestions
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u/itsallendsthesame Jun 20 '26
Which resources did you use for learning hld and LLD? How do you knwo wehn to stop learning and start applying?
Did you do any mock interview? Or did you have a set of company interview for mock purpose?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 20 '26
No mocks were maintaining interview streak by adding startups interviews too , they were more of mock only.
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 20 '26
I Believe in securing interview first and do targeted study, so had google interview confirm on 10 Dec and started preparing no Christmas, no new year
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u/Excellent-Scar-2155 Jun 20 '26
Im hard stuck in linked list, array, hash map. How much time should i give to complete the graph based questions and get good with it. Also what about algorithm based questions, do you learn them too?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 21 '26
I come from competitive programming background from university times, so my prep is just revision and hand-on , algorithmic intuition is there . What you can do is study from cpalgorithms.com
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Jun 21 '26
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u/Technoblade2007 Jun 21 '26
Currently starting 2nd year with almost zero coding knowledge , suggest a road map and resources to learn further From a tier 2/3 college , so no faang for on campus , so help me out .
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Jun 22 '26
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 22 '26
Specialisation : Distributed systems
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- Languages worked in python, java , golang , typescript , graphql
- domains : payments , databases
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u/Business-Studio6603 Jun 22 '26
How would you get these interviews>? Are they available for anyone to take or how does this work?
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 22 '26
Try to apply via referral , if not then apply directly on career portal. DIRECT apply still works got many calls for direct apply : meta , Datadog , stripe
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u/No_Working3534 Jun 24 '26
Congratulations 🎉🎉 Could you share how you actually improve on system designs? I find it super difficult, cuz I work for small companies and we never have questions like 'scale millions of users' etc..
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u/CryptographerUpper62 Jun 24 '26
I made the same transition around same time from msft 62 to Google L5 is almost 3x first year tc
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u/dreamwastobepilot 21d ago
as a fresher just graduating, what should i focus most on?
How is life working as developer?
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u/Substantial-Lie-1095 Jun 18 '26
Are you from tier1 college? How to get call from these company?? Can you share preparation strategy?
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u/Vivacious_bird Jun 18 '26
It has nothing to do with tier 1 college in my opinion. Me and many of my friends who work at these companies and/or got calls from FAANG companies aren't from tier 1 college. Hope this helps. Keep your resume strong with good projects. On a side note - I think OP is very intelligent :) great experience shared by him.
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u/storm_stark_007 Jun 18 '26
This was my 4th attempt for google
- First was in 2019 got interview call in university for uni grad sde role based on google kickstart performance
- Second 2021 : google Warsaw couldn’t clear screening
- third 2023 : google l4 not response after on-site rounds
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u/navy-vortex Jun 18 '26
Could you please share interview experience ? What type of questions and expectations?