The **Tech Interview Handbook** contains carefully curated content to help you ace your next technical interview with a focus on algorithms. While there are a ton of interview resources on the internet, the best ones are either not free, or they do not cover the complete interview process, usually only focusing on algorithms. Tech Interview Handbook goes straight to the point and tells you the minimum you need to know to pass your technical interviews.
Over 500,000 people have benefitted from this handbook!
Over 500,000 people have benefitted from this handbook! I have lost count of the number of people who have messaged me on Twitter/LinkedIn to thank the Tech Interview Handbook for helping them in their job hunt.
## Who am I?
I'm [Yangshun](https://twitter.com/yangshunz), a Senior Software Engineer at Meta/Facebook. In 2017, I was frustrated at my job at Grab, a regional ridehailing company and wanted to break into FAANG but I didn't know how to. After studying and practicing for a few months, I interviewed at 11 companies and managed to get [9 offers from top tech companies in the Bay Area](https://www.teamblind.com/post/Sharing-my-offer-numbers-from-big-companies-for-your-reference-yNgqUPQR) - Facebook, Google, Airbnb, Palantir, Dropbox, Lyft, and some startups. This handbook is a collection of the notes I made while preparing for my interviews to serve as revision for efficient job hunts in the future, but will probably also benefit you in your job hunt!
## Why do I want this?
This repository has **practical** content that covers all phases of a technical interview, from applying for a job to passing the interviews to offer negotiation. Technically competent candidates might still find the non-technical content helpful as well.
- This repository has **practical** content that covers all phases of a technical interview, from applying for a job to passing the interviews to offer negotiation. Technically competent candidates might still find the non-technical content helpful
- The information in this repository is condensed. Ultimately, the key to succeeding in technical interviews is consistent practice and I don't want to bore you with too many words. I tell you the minimum you need to know on how to go about navigating the interview process, you go and practice and land your dream job
## Who is this for?
Whether you are a beginner to technical interviews or a seasoned engineer who has not been on the other side of the interviewing table in a while and want to get back into the game, the Tech Interview Handbook has got you covered.
If you are a busy engineer like most people are, this resource is for you. Nobody has time to do hundreds of LeetCode questions, and the good news is that you don't need to do that many to actually get the job at FAANG! We have hundreds of LeetCode questions and distilled the best questions to practice.
If you are a busy engineer like most people are, this resource is for you. Nobody has time to do hundreds of LeetCode questions, and the good news is that you don't need to do that many to actually get the job at FAANG! We have looked through hundreds of LeetCode questions and distilled the [best questions to practice](./best-practice-questions.md).
@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Computer Science is rapidly gaining popularity and engineering is a highly-regar
### Requires lifelong learning
Technology industry is an extremely fast-moving one. Many technologies used today didn't even exist/were popular a decade ago; in 2009, mobile app development and blockchain were pretty much unheard of. Engineers constantly need to upgrade their skills to stay relevant to the demands of the job market. Engineering is a great career for passionate individuals who like to learn.
Technology industry is an extremely fast-moving one. Many technologies used today didn't even exist/were popular a decade ago; in 2009, mobile app development and blockchain were pretty much unheard of. Engineers need to constantly upgrade their skills to stay relevant to the demands of the job market. Engineering is a great career for passionate individuals who like to learn.
### Flexible
@ -27,26 +27,10 @@ A software engineering job is perhaps the most flexible job that exists in terms
## Internships vs full-time
If you dream of working at a top-tier tech company one day, getting hired via an intern conversion is by far the easiest way to achieve that. Internship interviews are extremely short (usually just 2 rounds whereas interviews for full-time roles are usually 4-5 rounds). Internships allow you to work at a company over a short period of time (3 months or so) and helps in understanding the company and engineering culture better. Companies also tend to give higher return job offers to high performing interns as they have proven to be effective at the job and fits into the culture; hence hiring them is considered to be relatively low-risk.
If you dream of working at a top tech company one day, getting hired via an intern conversion is by far the easiest way to achieve that. Internship interviews are extremely short (usually just 2 rounds whereas interviews for full-time roles are usually 4-5 rounds). Internships allow you to work at a company over a short period of time (3 months or so) and helps in getting a first-hand understanding of the company and engineering culture. Companies also tend to give higher return job offers to high performing interns as they have proven to be effective at the job and can work with existing employees; hence hiring them is considered to be relatively low-risk.
Top tech companies pay a ridiculous amount even for junior candidates:
### Singapore
We ran a survey to find out what the famous tech companies in Singapore are paying new hires in 2022 and here's a sample of the results. View the [full dataset](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QtC8efWw0mVkGXW4QA9bX4f0nJhGbmFqCfVLSumMZ0I/) or [contribute your data](https://forms.gle/9oNNJJwespqWBZGw6)!
| Company | Internship (monthly in SGD) | Fresh Grad Annual Total (SGD) |
_Note: Fresh grad annual total numbers are approximate and include base salary, stock, and target bonuses._
### United States
<divclass="text--center">
@ -63,17 +47,33 @@ Salaries of top US tech internships in 2016 ([source](https://twitter.com/rodney
</div>
### Singapore
We ran a survey to find out what the famous tech companies in Singapore are paying new hires in 2022 and here's a sample of the results. View the [full dataset](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QtC8efWw0mVkGXW4QA9bX4f0nJhGbmFqCfVLSumMZ0I/) or [contribute your data](https://forms.gle/9oNNJJwespqWBZGw6)!
| Company | Internship (monthly in SGD) | Fresh Grad Annual Total (SGD) |
_Note: Fresh grad annual total numbers are approximate and include base salary, stock, and target bonuses._
## Company size
Companies have different focuses depending on the stage they are at and the types of work to be done can also be vastly different. In the earlier stages where product-market fit hasn't been found, companies would be rapidly iterating on products and features, whereas larger companies that have already found the right product will focus on scaling their infrastructure and growing their users. Liquid compensation is also lower at early-stage companies due to the equity not being worth any money, but there is the chance of earning a lot more if/when the company IPOs or gets acquired.
| | Early-stage Startup | Late-stage Startup | Large Company |
| Dimension | Early-stage startup | Late-stage startup | Large company |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Company Size | <100|100-1000|>1000 |
| Company size | <100|100-1000|>1000 |
| Compensation | Base salary is a bit higher than big companies. Higher equity amount but its value is hard to judge as the company's valuation is unclear and stocks are not worth money yet. High risk, high return. | Base salary is a bit higher than big companies. Company valuation is clearer and stocks have higher chance of being worth money. | Depends on the prestige of the company. Compensation is usually market standard or better. Stocks are worth money if company has gone public. |
| Types of Work | Mainly product development. Engineers have to wear multiple hats - Front End, Back End, DevOps, Design, etc. | Product development and some infra. | Diverse roles and specialized work; dedicated people for each role. Infra and prod infra work is more common. More opportunities for internal transfers, sometimes even across the globe. |
| Career Ladders | Unstructured. No (or very vague) career levels. Not much formal mentorship nor training. | Somewhat structured. | Very structured. Well-defined career levels. |
| Iteration Speed | Extremely fast. Struggling to find product market fit. | Moderate. Has found product market fit, trying to grow user base. | Stable product with wide user base. Incrementally roll out changes and do lots of experimentation. |
| Types of work | Mainly product development. Engineers have to wear multiple hats - Front End, Back End, DevOps, Design, etc. | Product development and some infra. | Diverse roles and specialized work; dedicated people for each role. Infra and prod infra work is more common. More opportunities for internal transfers, sometimes even across the globe. |
| Career ladder | Unstructured. No (or very vague) career levels. Not much formal mentorship nor training. | Somewhat structured. | Very structured. Well-defined career levels. |
| Iteration speed | Extremely fast. Struggling to find product market fit. | Moderate. Has found product market fit, trying to grow user base. | Stable product with wide user base. Incrementally roll out changes and do lots of experimentation. |
_It's important to note that the above are just general trends and exceptions can apply._
import TeikjunResumeOldURL from '@site/static/img/teik-jun-resume-old.png'; import TeikjunResumeNewURL from '@site/static/img/teik-jun-resume-new.png';
To put the points mentioned in the [the previous section](resume.md) in practice. Here we will be reviewing [Teik Jun's](https://github.com/teikjun) resume, critiquing it and improving it. At the time of writing, Teik Jun is a Year 4 undergraduate at National University of Singapore and is looking for a Software Engineering (SWE) internship for the summer of 2022.
To put the points mentioned in the [previous section](./resume.md) in practice. Here we will be reviewing [Teik Jun's](https://github.com/teikjun) resume, critiquing it and improving it. At the time of writing, Teik Jun is a Year 4 undergraduate at National University of Singapore and is looking for a Software Engineering (SWE) internship for the summer of 2022.
Here's the initial version of Teik Jun's resume I received from him.
On first glance, it looks like a solid resume, and it is. However, I've known Teik Jun for a few years now since the [Major League Hacking (MLH) Fellowship program](https://fellowship.mlh.io/) where he [contributed a ton of features to Docusaurus v2](https://github.com/facebook/docusaurus/commits?author=teikjun), and know that he has done even greater things in the past. This version of his resume doesn't do his skills justice. Let's see how we can improve it by applying the points learnt in the previous section.
@ -31,12 +31,12 @@ On first glance, it looks like a solid resume, and it is. However, I've known Te
### Points of improvement
- Irrelevant experience - It's honestly super cool to be "Best Shot" of Sniper Course and to get other impressive accolades as an NSF, but it's hardly relevant to a SWE job. If I were running out of space I'd remove it.
- Not sufficiently conveying the impressiveness of his experience - Teik Jun's work on the MLH program was for a popular Facebook Open Source project, Docusaurus (the same project that powers this website) and he did very very good work as part of the program. I know because I reviewed his Pull Requests and he did a damn good job. Docusaurus is an important project to Facebook and widely used by popular Facebook projects like React Native, Jest, and Relay.
- Not explaining what the project is about - In most cases, recruiters are the ones reading a resume and they would not know what a project is about, especially when most of them aren't technical. Hence resumes also have to explain the complexity and impact of a project. I know what Docusaurus and TEAMMATES are, but that's because I worked on Docusaurus and I am aware of NUS' projects. Most recruiters would not, so we have to explain what they are. TEAMMATES was also a Google Summer of Code project, so mentioning that would be nice.
- Trivial details - Under TEAMMATES, there was a point "Added a progress indicator component for expensive operations". This sounds quite small and can be removed if there's a lack of space.
- Obscure projects - The "Mentorship Management Web Application" doesn't sufficiently relay the complexity. The details are also obvious and doesn't sound impressive. I'd remove this project because it doesn't add much value.
- Contributions to Open Source Projects - Any project can be made open source and contributing to your own open source homework doesn't mean much. What makes open source contributions impressive would be the complexity of the project and the contributions made. The latter might be hard to fit into a resume, so we should do the former at the very least.
- **Irrelevant experience** - It's honestly super cool to be "Best Shot" of Sniper Course and to get other impressive accolades as an NSF, but it's hardly relevant to a SWE job. If I were running out of space I'd remove it.
- **Not sufficiently conveying the impressiveness of his experience** - Teik Jun's work on the MLH program was for a popular Facebook Open Source project, Docusaurus (the same project that powers this website) and he did very very good work as part of the program. I know because I reviewed his Pull Requests and he did a damn good job. Docusaurus is an important project to Facebook and widely used by popular Facebook projects like React Native, Jest, and Relay.
- **Not explaining what the project is about** - In most cases, recruiters are the ones reading a resume and they would not know what a project is about, especially when most of them aren't technical. Hence resumes also have to explain the complexity and impact of a project. I know what Docusaurus and TEAMMATES are, but that's because I worked on Docusaurus and I am aware of NUS' projects. Most recruiters would not, so we have to explain what they are. TEAMMATES was also a Google Summer of Code project, so mentioning that would be nice.
- **Trivial details** - Under TEAMMATES, there was a point "Added a progress indicator component for expensive operations". This sounds quite small and can be removed if there's a lack of space.
- **Obscure projects** - The "Mentorship Management Web Application" doesn't sufficiently relay the complexity. The details are also obvious and doesn't sound impressive. I'd remove this project because it doesn't add much value.
- **Contributions to Open Source projects** - Any project can be made open source and contributing to your own open source homework doesn't mean much. What makes open source contributions impressive would be the complexity of the project and the contributions made. The latter might be hard to fit into a resume, so we should do the former at the very least.
### Bonus
@ -53,8 +53,8 @@ Here's an improved version of Teik Jun's resume which I feel which better highli
In my opinion, this improved resume is sure to capture the eyes of any recruiter in the world!
@ -27,8 +27,8 @@ Here are some tips to develop a good elevator pitch for yourself:
Include who you are, who you work for (or school and major), and what you do.
- For internships, you should mention the following: name, school and major, focus areas, past internships and/or noteworthy projects
- For full-time roles, you should mention the following: name, past companies, noteworthy projects (best if it's a public consumer product that they might have heard of)
- **Internships** - You should mention the following: name, school and major, focus areas, past internships and/or noteworthy projects
- **Full-time** - You should mention the following: name, past companies, noteworthy projects (best if it's a public consumer product that they would have heard of)
Does this look familiar? It should be, because it is similar to your resume! Your resume is a condensed version of your knowledge and experiences and your self introduction is essentially a condensed version of your resume. As you grow older, professional experience becomes more important and school background becomes less important. Hence your self introduction changes as you become more senior.
@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ Does this look familiar? It should be, because it is similar to your resume! You
Tell them some highlights from your favorite/most impressive projects and including some numbers if they're impressive or challenges that you've overcome. Do not delve into the depths of how you reverse engineered a game and decrypted a packet to predict when to use your DKP on a drop. Tell them the executive summary: "I reverse engineered X game by decrypting Y packet to predict Z." If this catches their interest, they _might_ ask further questions on their own.
### Why do _they_ want _you_?
### Why do they want you?
Tell the interviewer why you would make a good hire. Is your experience relevant to the company? Have you used a similar tech stack as the company or built relevant products? What unique talent(s) do you have that may give them confidence about your ability to contribute to the company?
@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Next, gain familiarity and mastery of the algorithms and data structures in your
### Practice coding questions
Practice coding algorithms using your chosen language. While [Cracking the Coding Interview](http://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/) is a good resource for practice, I prefer being able to type code, run it and get instant feedback. There are various Online Judges such as [LeetCode](https://leetcode.com/), [HackerRank](https://www.hackerrank.com/) and [CodeForces](http://codeforces.com/) for you to practice questions online and get used to the language. From experience, LeetCode questions are the most similar to the kind of questions being asked in interviews whereas HackerRank and CodeForces questions resemble competitive programming questions. If you practice enough LeetCode questions, there is a good chance that you would have seen/done your actual interview question (or some variant) on LeetCode before. If you are more of a visual person, [Coderust](https://www.educative.io/collection/5642554087309312/5679846214598656) explains the common algorithm questions through step-by-step visualizations which makes understanding the solutions much easier.
Practice coding algorithms using your chosen language. While [Cracking the Coding Interview](http://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/) is a good resource for practice, I prefer being able to type code, run it and get instant feedback. There are various Online Judges such as [LeetCode](https://leetcode.com/), [HackerRank](https://www.hackerrank.com/) and [CodeForces](http://codeforces.com/) for you to practice questions online and get used to the language. From experience, LeetCode questions are the most similar to the kind of questions being asked in interviews whereas HackerRank and CodeForces questions resemble competitive programming questions. If you practice enough LeetCode questions, there is a good chance that you would have seen/done your actual interview question (or some variant) on LeetCode before. If you are more of a visual person, [Coderust](https://www.educative.io/collection/5642554087309312/5679846214598656?aff=x23W) explains the common algorithm questions through step-by-step visualizations which makes understanding the solutions much easier.
@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ System design content is still work-in-progress, but the following are some reso
## Quality courses
- ["Grokking the System Design Interview" by Educative](https://www.educative.io/courses/grokking-the-system-design-interview?aff=x23W) - This is probably the most famous system design interview course on the internet and what makes it different from most other courses out there is that it is purely text-based, which is great for people who refer reading over watching videos (such as myself!). It contains a repository of the popular system design problems along with a glossary of system design basics. I've personally completed this course and have recommended many others to use this. Highly recommended!
- ["System Design Interview Course" by Exponent](https://www.tryexponent.com/courses/system-design-interview) - This course covers system designs basics and has a huge database of popular system design questions with videos of mock interviews. Some of the questions have text answers and a database schema and APIs for reference (which I find helpful). While the subscription might be a little pricey for just the system design interviews content, they also offer quality technical content for [Data Structures](https://www.tryexponent.com/courses/swe-practice?ref=yangshuntay), [Algorithms](https://www.tryexponent.com/courses/algorithms?ref=yangshuntay) and [Behavioral Interviews](https://www.tryexponent.com/courses/behavioral?ref=yangshuntay). The convenience of a one-stop platform which covers all aspects of technical interview preparation is very enticing.
- ["System Design Interview Course" by Exponent](https://www.tryexponent.com/courses/system-design-interview?ref=yangshuntay) - This course covers system designs basics and has a huge database of popular system design questions with videos of mock interviews. Some of the questions have text answers and a database schema and APIs for reference (which I find helpful). While the subscription might be a little pricey for just the system design interviews content, they also offer quality technical content for [Data Structures](https://www.tryexponent.com/courses/swe-practice?ref=yangshuntay), [Algorithms](https://www.tryexponent.com/courses/algorithms?ref=yangshuntay) and [Behavioral Interviews](https://www.tryexponent.com/courses/behavioral?ref=yangshuntay). The convenience of a one-stop platform which covers all aspects of technical interview preparation is very enticing.
- ["Grokking the Advanced System Design Interview" by Educative](https://www.educative.io/courses/grokking-adv-system-design-intvw?aff=x23W) - I haven't tried this but it's by the same people who created "Grokking the System Design Interview", so it should be good! In my opinion you probably wouldn't need this unless you're very senior or going for a specialist position.
Yangshun
3 years ago