Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by lambrospetrou 1006 days ago
I would say that luck in FAANG interviews is much lower than the average tech company. At least in my experience. Don't get me wrong, there is luck involved, and it's a big part of the interview process.

But, at least, you have standardised pools of coding questions, standardised pools of system design questions, and a standardised feedback form.

The interviewer varies a lot though... And makes all the difference when you have an inexperienced one, or someone that doesn't care.

2 comments

> The interviewer varies a lot though... And makes all the difference when you have an inexperienced one, or someone that doesn't care.

I believe this is likely the main point being made about luck - be unlucky enough to hit up an inexperienced interviewer and all the time spent preparing as in the linked OP is up in smoke.

Not sure if it counts as an average tech company, but in terms of non-FAANG I think startups and smaller companies can end up relying less on luck. There is more time and motivation to truly flesh out candidates, maybe giving non-interview coding tasks and such to balance out interviews. At a FAANG if there was an issue because of an inexperienced interviewer, again you need luck for a recruiter or committee to attempt a save among all the other applicants.

We have a question bank, but you don't have to ask a question from the bank. Apple interviews are pure chaos, and up to the individual team.