ok interview. To be honest, I have met so many meetings in the past five months, and many of the results are not satisfactory and I am quite exhausted.
These two interviews are my last interviews, and I just want to end them soon. But this time, I have a deeper understanding of system design, and the process of system design has become clearer. I participated in the coding interview first and it went well. The problem to be solved in the system design interview is related to a certain function in a very popular mobile application. This time we discussed the design in more detail and performed quantitative analysis, such as the number of systems required in the server and the size of the database. This time I really did my best, and I had a pleasant discussion with the interviewer.
Tip: The focus of the system design interview is: collecting requirements, defining protocols, high-level design, database schema, data size estimation, component design and trade-offs.
Pay for the pains
Two weeks later, the results of the interview came out and passed smoothly! I got a position in Facebook Engineering Department, rank E4. (The position I originally applied for on the Facebook AR/VR team has already been recruited). I think the reason why we attach so much importance to system design is that E4 engineers must know how to design in addition to programming.
Ending words
I didn’t expect it to be so difficult to change jobs. I can understand the feelings of those who are struggling in the job search process. The development of things is not always as expected, and interviews also have elements of chance or luck. A Sanskrit phrase in “Bhagavad Gita” helped me stay awake well in those difficult times.
“You only have the right to work, but the results do not belong to you. Don’t just treat the results as your motivation, and don’t let your attachment become ineffective.” (It means “but do good things, don’t ask about your future.” )
Good luck everyone!
Translator: Zhang Momo