
Ask HN: Are you supposed to “study” for FAANG interviews? - gravy
I fall under the umbrella of impostor syndrome where I think I&#x27;m not capable of passing a FAANG interview. I was wondering why that is. I think I would be able to learn what&#x27;s &quot;typical&quot; about a FAANG interview (CTCI problems?), but maybe I&#x27;m going about this the wrong way. Are you supposed to study for these interviews in the same way you study a test on new material? How much of the interview is expected to be second nature (or maybe even just solvable) to an entry-level engineer?
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mindcrime
Judging by the number of "How to prepare for a Google interview" blog posts
there are out there, and given how few people routinely use a lot of low-level
C.S. knowledge in their daily lives, I don't think it's at all unreasonable to
"study up" for an interview.

I mean, I've been programming for 25+ years, the past 19 professionally, and
if I were going to interview at Google I'd go off and spend some time
studying. Because frankly, I don't walk around with the runtime complexity of
various sorting and searching algorithms memorized, nor do I remember all the
details of how to implement Quicksort from memory, etc.

So are you "supposed to" study? I don't know, but feeling like you need to
study certainly isn't anything you should feel bad about.

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noonespecial
>How much of the interview is expected to be second nature (or maybe even just
solvable) to an entry-level engineer?

Essentially none. Its a London Taxi Knowledge test(1). Its a filter designed
to see if you can acquire "the Knowledge", not because you'll "need" it to do
the job, but because of what it says about you as a technologist. Its not a
_good_ filter, mind you, but they think its the best they've come up with so
far. (Its cheap for them to use and expensive for you personally; it works for
them because they have more than enough applicants.)

If you really want to work FAANG, treat it like being on a game show like
Jeopardy.

(1)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicabs_of_the_United_Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicabs_of_the_United_Kingdom)

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icedchai
I think so. When I had an interview at Google, the recruiter advised me to
study, and even sent a long a list of books I should read...

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mindcrime
That's pretty cool. Are you allowed/willing to share that list?

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icedchai
Unfortunately, the email says it is confidential / under NDA...

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mindcrime
That's too bad. While I personally have no interest in interviewing with
Google, this piques my curiosity. :-)

