Im an 25 tier1 grad
I worked in 2 firms (SDE)
Firm 1 (big tech)- 6months ( 28 annual) boring ass work, not much growth options
Firm 2 ( faang lvl big texh)- 1y now (38 annual, 66ctc, almost remote)
Intially liked the work and scale , but now its again boring java and legacy work. Thinking to bounce from here again

Im not liking the culture its ultra slow paced old tech stacks though the work load is less

I am planning to switch to US remote startups or, well funded indian startups or midium sized firms for exposure and newer tech exposure

Would appreciate guidance and paths
Also do suggest company names which can pay> 40 annual take home ( incl base + stocks or bonus only) at 1.5 -2 yoe.

Hi all,

I’m a Frontend Engineer with ~4.5 YOE (React, Vue, TypeScript, JavaScript, Electron, some Node.js), working as an SSE at a mid-sized Bangalore startup. I built an Electron desktop app from scratch at my previous company, which shut down due to funding issues.

I’m targeting product companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and Intuit/Rippling. Pure frontend openings are few, and my backend experience is limited, so I want to grow both as a senior frontend engineer and as a full stack engineer. I learn best by building, so I’d love suggestions I can actually build and learn from.

Questions

1. Senior frontend growth: what separates a senior frontend engineer from a mid-level one? Which areas matter most (frontend system design, performance, accessibility, design systems, testing, build tooling, architecture)?
2. Backend stack: given my React/TS/Node.js background, should I go deeper with Node.js + TypeScript (NestJS/Express/Fastify), or learn something like Go, Java or Python? Does it matter for big-tech interviews?
3. Backend fundamentals: what should I learn, and in what order? Databases and SQL design, indexing, caching (Redis), queues, auth, REST/GraphQL/WebSockets, Docker, cloud basics, observability.
4. System design: what are the best resources for frontend and backend system design at the 4-5 YOE level, and how deep do interviewers go?
5. What to build: which projects teach real backend skills and also look credible on a resume?
6. Positioning: how do I present myself as full stack when my backend experience is limited, without overselling?
7. Roadmap: if you had 3-4 months, how would you split time between DSA, system design and building projects?

Any roadmap, resources or personal experience of making this transition would be really helpful. Thanks!

(Used AI to organise my thoughts.)

Hi everyone,

I recently accepted an offer for a Google L4 Applied Solutions Architect role with a $28.5K GSU grant. Initially, the recruiter offered $20K, which was increased after I pushed back.

Recently, I spoke with others who joined Google in the same role and level within the last six months and received $50K+ in GSUs. My base salary is also roughly in line with L4 software engineers.

I’d appreciate advice on a few questions:

1. Should I try renegotiating my stock grant now or wait until my first performance review? Is an adjustment after joining realistic?
2. Since I’ve already accepted the offer, could reopening negotiations jeopardize it?
3. How common are such differences in stock grants for Google L4 hires?
4. What’s the best way to approach the recruiter about this?

I’m excited about joining Google and don’t want to risk the offer, but the difference is substantial. Would especially appreciate insights from current or former Googlers.

Thanks!

Hi there,

I have an interview scheduled with microsoft for SDE 2 role (5 YOE) as a fullstack developer in 3 days.

I have about 3 days time to revise DSA since thats what I'm expecting the first round to be.

Can anyone please share commonly or recently asked questions in microsoft ? Would really help a lot. Thank you!

I’ll be joining Amazon India for a 2-month SDE internship next summer, and I had a question about PPOs.
I’ve seen quite a lot of information about 6-month Amazon interns getting PPOs, but I can barely find anything about PPO conversion after the 2-month summer internship.
Is PPO conversion also a possibility for the 2-month internship, or is it generally only considered for the 6-month interns?
If anyone has personally done a 2-month Amazon SDE internship and received a PPO, I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience.

Last week's contest ratings are now updated. I got to 2143, and am officially a Guardian now. It took me ~ 1 year of consistent practice and upsolving contest questions to reach this. Achi feeling hai bhai.

Hi guys, I am a Backend Software Engineer with 4 yoe, have 3+ yoe of Full-Stack experience as well, recently interviewed for L4 role for Google Cloud team.

I have cleared all the rounds. My Recruiter has passed me the feedback for all the rounds:

Virtual Round 1 - Coding: Hire

Googlyness Round - Behavioural: Hire

Onsite Round 1 - Coding: Hire

Onsite Round 2 - Coding: Leaning Hire

My Recruiter informed me that my feedbacks are positive and now my profile will be considered for team matching phase. The catch is that, after the first 2 rounds the position was open, but after the completion of my onsite rounds, recruiter told that this position has been filled recently and they have not got any other open role as of now for Backend/Full-Stack position and said they will try to match me with Hiring Managers / different teams during team matching but its been around 2 weeks since I completed my interviews but I haven't received any updates on Team Matching.

I am concerned about delayed team matching. Should I approach different recruiters and Hiring Managers across different teams at Google?

What are the chances of getting offer here?

hi, i am 8 yoe looking for people who work on causal inference/ statistics as data scientist. any experiences ?

My both round was scheduled together .(SDE1)

I will give R1 as No hire and R2 as strong hire
what are the chances of getting R3 ?

Hey guys,

I’ve been practicing Low-Level Design (LLD) questions for the past 15–20 days. After watching 7–8 videos on YouTube, I started designing UML diagrams on my own and reviewing them using AI (Claude / ChatGPT).

However, I’m facing a major confusion:

When I ask AI to generate an LLD/UML design, it creates a highly complex system with 18–20 classes.But when I explicitly prompt it to design for an interview setting, it condenses it down to 8–10 classes.

Since LLD is subjective with no single "right or wrong" answer, I’m confused about which version I should actually study and prepare for my learning. This back-and-forth makes me feel like my last 15 days were wasted due to a lack of proper guidance, and it's getting frustrating.

About My Background:

Graduation: 2025 batch with 13 months gap (currently looking for opportunities as on-campus hiring was poor).

Gap/Health: Spent 4 months job hunting, then fell ill and was on medication until late May.

DSA: Solved 900+ questions with a 240+ day streak on LeetCode.

Projects: Built 3 Agentic AI + MERN stack projects using Redis, Docker, AWS, RAG, etc.

Current Focus: Learning LLD & HLD to make the most of my time as I know dsa and system will be the future so focuing here

Could you please share a concrete, step-by-step strategy on how to correctly practice and prepare LLD for interviews?

I’m a 4th-year BTech student with an SQA internship offer, but my long-term goal is to become an SDE.

Offer details:

\- ₹22k/month stipend

\- PPO: ₹4.5 LPA + ₹67.5k first-year bonus

\- Relocation required (estimated expenses: ₹15k/month)

I also have no prior internship experience

I’m confused about whether accepting an SQA role could make it harder to get an SDE job later.

A few questions:

\- Does SQA experience help when applying for SDE-1 roles, or will recruiters mainly see me as a QA candidate?

\- How difficult is it to switch from SQA to SDE, internally or through another company?

\- Is it better to accept this offer and prepare DSA/development alongside the internship, or wait for an SDE opportunity?

Would you take this offer in my position, or keep looking for SDE roles?

I’d especially appreciate advice from people who’ve made the QA-to-SDE transition or have experience hiring developers.

For off campus , my mentality for a fresher is be great/good at dsa depends on the level of company you are applying for , also DBMS and sql query should be strong and you should know about your proejcts that is my strategy, knowing level of projects should only be till the level interviewer can say oh I think you have build your project it's rare it would ask you line by line explanation.

Hi,

I have an interview a day after tomorrow in EY for Full stack MERN & Gen AI.

4+ YOE

If anyone has given it before.

Please suggest what kind questions are expected.

Thanks in advance 🙏🙏

I got offer from Tesco and Flipkart. I'm confused of what to join. My main concern is the job security.

Which one should I join? Can someone please assist here.

Any suggestions are welcom.

Biggest cut since 2022.

Trying to decide between two offers for an AI Engineer 2 position

Current ctc : 18 lpa

​The Hartford India (Hyderabad) - 19 fixed and 1.5 variable bonus

​Honeywell (Bangalore) - 21 fixed

​TC is the exact same for both, so money isn't the tiebreaker. I’m strictly optimizing for:

​Work Quality: Actual AI/GenAI/ML engineering depth vs. legacy work.

​Culture: WLB, politics, hybrid policy, and team stability.

​Cost of Living: Savings potential and quality of life in Hyd vs. Blr on the same pay.

​Current or former employees, which one would you pick and why?

Got a call from Intuit saying that there would be only 1 round of interview, since I was kept on hold after completing my round 5 and there were 2 rounds left that time.

Not sure but most likely it would be technical round ig, can anyone help on what topics should I go with. Don't wanna miss this opportunity...

Also do let me know if you guys too received the call...

So I've been working in service based companies all my life for 6 years although internally I was working for a pure product development, now on and off I've been practicing dsa and system design and I got calls from Amazon and google as well, I asked for sometime they gave and after that I got rejected at resume shortlisting itself, at this point it's very demotivating and hazy that I'm a web developer and all my hopes of getting into a product based company are gone, do you think I should give it a one last chance?

i got a mail after applying with in a hour saying "Your application status has been updated . We appreciate your continued interest in this role! Our recruitment team may be in touch with you shortly regarding potential next steps."

means what ? i havent got any assessment or hacker rank ,yet my application is active its been just 2 days since i applied ..........so any idea ?? how long will it take for next steps ....etc

Hey everyone!

I’m currently working as a DevOps Engineer at one of the WITCH. I’ve been consistently preparing and trying to switch to a Data Engineer role, and I finally received an offer last week. I’m currently serving my notice period.

My concern is that my current designation is DevOps Engineer, whereas my new role is in Azure Data Engineering.

Will this difference in job roles or designations cause any issues during background verification (BGV)? Has anyone here successfully transitioned from DevOps to Data Engineering and gone through a similar situation?

Would appreciate any insights or experiences. Thanks in advance!

Basically the title, I was reached out by Amazon, MSFT recruiter but I have seen horrendous posts of people at MSFT at India being overworked & told to fuck off by some VP on all hands if they feel it's unfair.

Is MSFT, Amazon India really that bad? I can work for 12 hrs, for 5-6 days, recently got married so can work like that 1-1.5 yrs but then we are planning for a baby

Currently issue is my existing salary is already high, and only these FAANG orgs can match that and they seem to be the only ones hiring. Startups have disappeared mostly. Should I give FAANG a shot or stick to stable GCC with slightly lesser pay.

Do product based companies like Google, Microsoft still care about hitting their diversity metrics? Especially for lateral hiring. Curiosity to hear from interviewers.

I'm currently L4 at Amazon. It will take at least a year more to be promoted. Work is very hectic and absolutely no WLB. I've 3+ YOE so L60 doesn't seem a good option. Recruiter didn't agree to take more interview rounds for L61. Should I join ? How long does it generally take to promote to L61 ? Should I take offer and prepare for another role during notice period ?
Any reviews on Microsoft Fabric team ?

Hi folks. Had my onsite last week in-person for Generic SWE L5. Still awaiting feedback.

My ratings (self assessed)

R1 DSA: H/SH - Graph question where Union Find was optimal. Coded follow-up as well. Went to second follow-up for scaling discussion.

R2 Googlyness: H - Good conversation, had prepared well.

Recruiter reached out saying that screening round feedback was positive.

Onsite loop

R3 DSA: H - DP involved, don't remember exactly question, a bit similar to robot factory on leetcode. Very difficult to get right, interviewer ensured I explained everything correctly before starting to write code. Came to this solution without any hints. Was barely able to finish coding on time. Asked verbal followups on scaling and multi threading, I was able to answer correctly.

R4 System Design: LH/H - Question was very vague, related to a dashboard of N worst queries. Digged around a lot with clarifying questions, was able to get a good grasp on complexities and scaling involved. Gave a decent design but felt like interviewer had something in mind which I wasn't able to figure out accurately. Good conversation and flow throughout.

R5 DSA: SH - BFS, then Dijsktra, then test cases followup and extra followup for code review suggestions. Was able to code for base and follow-up, then verbal discussion.

Now I'm worried about my system design round. Based on these ratings wanted to know what the outcome might be? I researched online and it's either a downlevel due to LH in System design or an additional system design round. What do you guys think?

I am just tired of waiting for feedback and would appreciate some insights. TIA.