/Interview Advice

How SQL Query Works? SQL Query Execution Order For Tech Interview

tl;dr: “While SQL queries are written in a declarative, human-readable format, there is a complex process that occurs behind the scenes to execute these queries and retrieve the desired results. In this article, we'll delve into the inner workings of SQL queries, breaking down the process step by step.”

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An Engineering Manager Challenge

- Ted Neward tl;dr: Ted shares his answer to the following interview question: "You're the tech lead and your team is getting stretched thin. You decide to add resources but you can afford 1 senior full-stack developer or 2 junior full-stack devs. Which do you choose and why?" 

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An Engineering Manager Challenge

- Ted Neward tl;dr: Ted shares his answer to the following interview question: "You're the tech lead and your team is getting stretched thin. You decide to add resources but you can afford 1 senior full-stack developer or 2 junior full-stack devs. Which do you choose and why?" 

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How Hard Is It To Cheat In Technical Interviews With ChatGPT? We Ran An Experiment

- Michael Mroczka tl;dr: "Does ChatGPT make it easy to cheat in technical interviews? To find out, we ran an experiment where we instructed interviewees on our platform to use ChatGPT in their interviews, unbeknownst to their interviewers. The results were surprising, but as a preview, know this: companies need to change the types of interview questions they are asking — immediately."

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My Approach To Coding Interviews: Optimize For Iteration

tl;dr: “I didn’t encounter this question in an interview personally. I’ll be pretending to go through a ~60 minute interview with an imaginary interviewer. And what you will read here is how I would tackle this question and how I predict the interview would go, informed by my experience in interviews. While reading all of this, it’s important to remember that the most important part of an interview is communication. Keep your interviewer in the loop! Not only tell them what you are currently doing, but also what you are working towards. Think out loud and describe what your ideas are and how you plan to implement them. Most interviewers want to help and will reinforce good ideas and try and prevent you from going down the wrong path. A coder that can’t articulate what they are doing is likely not going to do well in a team environment.”

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How To Sabotage Your Salary Negotiations Efforts Before You Even Start

- Aline Lerner tl;dr: Common mistakes people make during salary negotiations, focusing on two key errors: revealing information too early and negotiating before being ready. Aline emphasizes that recruiters are not your friends; they work for the company and are incentivized differently. Revealing information like your current salary, expectations, or other job interviews can be used against you. The article advises being in "passive information gathering" mode during interactions with recruiters. It also stresses the importance of timing in negotiations. “Only when you have all the necessary information should you begin to negotiate.”

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Back Of The Envelope

tl;dr: “The back of the envelope calculation is commonly used to evaluate different architectural designs. Although the optimal design depends on the system requirements, the back of the envelope calculation provides an opportunity to compare different architectural designs without prototyping.”

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Real Time Presence Platform System Design

tl;dr: “In layman’s terms, the presence status shows whether a particular user is currently online or offline. The presence status is popular on real-time messaging applications and social networking platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Slack. The presence status represents the availability of the user for communication on a chat application or a social network.”

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System Design Interview Cheat Sheet

tl;dr: “The system design questions are subjective. This cheat sheet is a work in progress and is written based on my research on the topic.” Topics include databases, API design, capacity planning, high level design, design deep dives, and more.

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I Failed 3 Job Applications, Here's What I Learned

- Alex Ewerlöf tl;dr: “Today after 23 years, I have a relatively high level leadership position but it wasn’t always like this. As an introvert in a world that’s optimized for extroverts I had a long and painful learning curve.” Alex provides us with tips he's learned and mistakes he's made applying for jobs at Datadog, Spotify and Shopify.

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