[onion2k]

Cracking the Coding Interview and leetcode are good advice for getting a job at a FAANG or a startup (not that startups hire juniors..), but they're much less relevant at small- and mid-sized software companies. Applying to a FAANG/startup you're up against top graduates, people who have been coding for decades (even for junior roles), and highly motivated people who already have more demonstrable experience than you.

If you're applying to somewhere small it's less important to demonstrate you're already a good developer, and more important to demonstrate that you're interested in learning what the company can teach you, you're a decent human being who the company will want to be part of the team, and that you're not going to give up after a few weeks. Tools like leetcode won't teach you those things.

[kitsune_]

Agreed. I know plenty of highly intelligent, super talented and experienced people who had to take multiple rounds to get into Google. I myself tried it once and made it to the hiring committee, but was ultimately rejected. I was an experienced developer and prepared myself pretty well and was still nervous as hell.

To be honest I don't know how without any prior experience or graduating from a top uni you would get an interview at a FAANG in the first place.