[chrisseaton]

I think you definitely need to be at the absolute top of your field to even consider working at somewhere like Google though. That's probably bifurcated between people coming from top schools and independently talented people like I guess yourself.

[willcipriano]

There are lots of programmers globally, the top few percent is probably on the order of a couple of football stadiums worth of people. You are probably closer to that then you suspect.

[adamnemecek]

You really don't need to be the absolute top. Grind leetcode for a month.

[VRay]

I used to think that Microsoft/Google/etc only hired amazing super-geniuses and I could never walk among their hallowed halls. It turns out, though, whiteboard coding is a skill you can develop just like most skills. The evil logic puzzles they used to ask at Microsoft are a skill you can improve as well, but hopefully you won't run into those.

[chrisseaton]

This probably feels great to say... but in reality 99.99% of developers will never be anywhere near the standard for Google even if they waste years grinding at Leetcode.

[johnward]

I also disagree. If you are able to pass leetcode style test you have a very good chance at getting into a FAANG. It seems to be all they really care about.

[adamnemecek]

Disagree.