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Your complete guide to landing top tech jobs
A comprehensive, practical roadmap for FAANG and Big Tech interview preparation. From DSA fundamentals to system design, behavioral interviews to offer negotiation.
Prepare for top companies
Google Meta Amazon Apple Microsoft Netflix Stripe Uber Airbnb LinkedIn Twitter/X Spotify Salesforce Adobe Oracle Nvidia Intel Databricks Snowflake Coinbase
140+
Documents
9
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Documentation
Start Here
Get oriented with the roadmap
- README
- Targeting Your Lane
- Interview Loop
Foundations
Core technical knowledge
- DSA & Coding
- Computer Systems
- Databases
- Cloud
Role Roadmaps
Career path specific guides
- SWE
- Backend
- ML Engineer
- Data Engineer
Interview Playbooks
Master each interview type
- Coding
- System Design
- Behavioral
- SQL
System Design
Templates and common problems
- Design Template
- Capacity Planning
- Patterns
ML & MLOps
Machine learning interview prep
- ML Fundamentals
- Feature Engineering
- LLMs
Data
Data engineering essentials
- SQL Patterns
- Data Modeling
- Pipelines
Infra & DevOps
Infrastructure knowledge
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- CI/CD
- Observability
Career
Job search and negotiation
- Resume
- Networking
- Negotiation
Quick Links
Study Plans by Experience Level
Choose a structured study plan based on your experience level. Each plan includes weekly schedules, LeetCode problem counts, and phase-by-phase milestones.
3 months
20 hrs/week
Phases
Foundation Weeks 1-4 DSA + fundamentals
Practice Weeks 5-8 Mock interviews
Refinement Weeks 9-12 Polish + targeting
What You'll Achieve
- 100+ LeetCode problems
- 5 STAR behavioral stories
- Basic system design
- 4-5 company applications
6 months
15 hrs/week
Phases
Review Weeks 1-4 Refresh DSA
Deepen Weeks 5-12 System design mastery
Execute Weeks 13-24 Applications + loops
What You'll Achieve
- 150+ LeetCode problems
- 10 behavioral stories
- Full system design prep
- 6-8 company targets
4 months
12 hrs/week
Phases
Assess Weeks 1-2 Gap analysis
Focus Weeks 3-12 Deep system design
Execute Weeks 13-16 Staff interviews
What You'll Achieve
- Focus on system design
- Leadership scenarios
- Staff-level behavioral
- Targeted applications
Master These DSA Patterns
Don't just memorize solutions—learn the underlying patterns. These 8 patterns cover 80% of coding interviews.
Sliding Window
Two Pointers
Binary Search
DFS/BFS
Dynamic Programming
Backtracking
Heap/Priority Queue
Graphs
Company-Specific Interview Playbooks
Each company has unique interview culture, evaluation criteria, and red flags. Study the specific playbook for your target companies.
5 interview rounds
Key Focus Areas
- Googleyness
- Technical rigor
- Data-driven decisions
Focus on clean code that would pass code review
Amazon
Levels: L4-L7 5 interview rounds
Key Focus Areas
- 14 Leadership Principles
- Customer obsession
- Ownership
Every answer should tie to a Leadership Principle
Meta
Levels: E3-E6 4 interview rounds
Key Focus Areas
- Move fast
- Impact at scale
- Open collaboration
Emphasize shipping velocity and measurable impact
Apple
Levels: ICT2-ICT5 6 interview rounds
Key Focus Areas
- Attention to detail
- Design excellence
- Privacy
Show passion for user experience and product quality
Netflix
Levels: Senior+ 4 interview rounds
Key Focus Areas
- Freedom & responsibility
- Context not control
- High performance
Demonstrate senior judgment and autonomous decision-making
Microsoft
Levels: 59-67 5 interview rounds
Key Focus Areas
- Growth mindset
- Inclusive culture
- Customer success
Show continuous learning and cross-team collaboration
Practice Questions by Company
Real interview questions frequently asked at top tech companies. Each includes complexity analysis, solution hints, and what interviewers are looking for.
Heavy on algorithms, clean code, Googleyness
Phone + 4-5 onsite (2 coding, 1-2 system design, 1 behavioral)
Coding Questions 5 problems
Two Sum
Easy Hash Map
Time: O(n) Space: O(n)
Use HashMap for O(n)
Pattern: Hash Map Lookup
LRU Cache
Medium Design
Time: O(1) get/put Space: O(capacity)
OrderedDict or doubly-linked list + HashMap
Pattern: Data Structure Design
Word Ladder
Hard BFS
Time: O(M² × N) Space: O(M × N)
BFS level-by-level, transform one char at a time
Pattern: Shortest Path BFS
Median of Two Sorted Arrays
Hard Binary Search
Time: O(log(min(m,n))) Space: O(1)
Binary search on smaller array to find partition
Pattern: Binary Search on Answer
Serialize/Deserialize BT
Hard Tree
Time: O(n) Space: O(n)
Preorder DFS with null markers, use queue for deserialize
Pattern: Tree Traversal
System Design 4 problems
Design Google Search
Web crawling, indexing, ranking (PageRank) Key Components:
Billions of pages, sub-second latency
Follow-ups: How to handle spam? • Personalization? • Real-time indexing?
Design YouTube
Video upload, transcoding, streaming, recommendations Key Components:
500 hours uploaded/min, 1B daily views
Follow-ups: Adaptive bitrate? • Live streaming? • Copyright detection?
Design Google Maps
Geospatial data, routing algorithms, real-time traffic Key Components:
Petabytes of map data, millions of routes/day
Follow-ups: ETA accuracy? • Offline mode? • 3D buildings?
Design Google Drive
File storage, sync, collaboration, versioning Key Components:
15GB free per user, real-time sync
Follow-ups: Conflict resolution? • Deduplication? • Sharing permissions?
Behavioral 3 questions
"Tell me about a time you failed"
Tests: Self-awareness, learning from mistakes, humility
STAR Tip: Focus on what you LEARNED, not excuses. Show growth.
Structure: Situation → What went wrong → Your role → Lessons learned → How you applied them
"How do you handle ambiguity?"
Tests: Problem-solving approach, comfort with uncertainty
STAR Tip: Show structured thinking even when requirements are unclear
Structure: Ambiguous situation → How you clarified → Actions taken → Positive outcome
"Describe a complex project you led"
Tests: Technical leadership, communication, impact
STAR Tip: Quantify impact (users, latency, revenue). Show YOUR specific contribution.
Structure: Project scope → Technical challenges → Your decisions → Measurable results
Meta
Fast-paced coding, impact-focused, move fast culture
Phone + 4 onsite (2 coding, 1 system design, 1 behavioral)
Coding Questions 5 problems
Valid Palindrome II
Easy Two Pointers
Time: O(n) Space: O(1)
Try removing left OR right char when mismatch found
Pattern: Two Pointers
Binary Tree Vertical Order
Medium BFS
Time: O(n) Space: O(n)
BFS with (node, column) pairs, use HashMap for columns
Pattern: BFS + HashMap
Merge K Sorted Lists
Hard Heap
Time: O(N log k) Space: O(k)
Min-heap with k nodes, always pop smallest
Pattern: K-way Merge
Regular Expression Matching
Hard DP
Time: O(m × n) Space: O(m × n)
2D DP: dp[i][j] = s[0..i] matches p[0..j]. Handle * = 0 or more
Pattern: 2D Dynamic Programming
Subarray Sum Equals K
Medium Prefix Sum
Time: O(n) Space: O(n)
Prefix sum + HashMap: count[prefix - k] gives valid subarrays
Pattern: Prefix Sum + HashMap
System Design 4 problems
Design Facebook News Feed
Feed ranking, fanout on write vs read, real-time updates Key Components:
2B users, 1000+ friends avg, real-time
Follow-ups: Celebrity problem? • Feed ranking ML? • Stories vs Feed?
Design Instagram
Photo upload, filters, feed, stories, explore Key Components:
500M daily users, 100M photos/day
Follow-ups: Image processing pipeline? • Hashtag search? • Reels?
Design Messenger
1:1 and group chat, read receipts, presence Key Components:
Billions of messages/day, sub-100ms delivery
Follow-ups: End-to-end encryption? • Offline messages? • Group chat scaling?
Design WhatsApp
E2E encryption, offline support, media sharing Key Components:
100B messages/day, E2E encrypted
Follow-ups: Key exchange? • Multi-device sync? • Status/Stories?
Behavioral 3 questions
"Why Meta?"
Tests: Genuine interest, cultural fit, product knowledge
STAR Tip: Be specific about products you love. Mention 'move fast' culture genuinely.
Structure: Specific product passion → How you align with culture → What you'd contribute
"Move fast and break things - examples?"
Tests: Bias for action, learning from mistakes, velocity
STAR Tip: Show you shipped fast but also learned from any breakage
Structure: Urgent situation → Fast decision → Result (good or learned) → Iteration
"How do you prioritize competing projects?"
Tests: Impact-driven thinking, stakeholder management
STAR Tip: Use frameworks: impact vs effort, urgency vs importance
Structure: Multiple priorities → Framework used → How you decided → Outcome
Amazon
Leadership Principles driven, STAR format mandatory, customer focus
Phone + 4-5 onsite (2 coding, 1-2 system design, 1 bar raiser)
Coding Questions 5 problems
Number of Islands
Medium DFS/BFS
Time: O(m × n) Space: O(m × n) recursion
DFS/BFS from each '1', mark visited, count components
Pattern: Graph Traversal
LRU Cache
Medium Design
Time: O(1) get/put Space: O(capacity)
Doubly-linked list (order) + HashMap (O(1) access)
Pattern: Data Structure Design
Word Search II
Hard Trie + DFS
Time: O(m × n × 4^L) Space: O(total chars)
Build Trie from words, DFS on grid with Trie traversal
Pattern: Trie + Backtracking
Meeting Rooms II
Medium Intervals
Time: O(n log n) Space: O(n)
Min-heap of end times, or separate sort start/end arrays
Pattern: Interval Scheduling
Trapping Rain Water
Hard Two Pointers
Time: O(n) Space: O(1)
Two pointers from ends, track leftMax/rightMax
Pattern: Two Pointers
System Design 4 problems
Design Amazon.com
Product catalog, search, cart, checkout, inventory Key Components:
350M products, Black Friday scale
Follow-ups: Inventory consistency? • Recommendation engine? • 1-click ordering?
Design Prime Video
Video streaming, adaptive bitrate, recommendations Key Components:
4K streaming, global CDN, millions concurrent
Follow-ups: Live sports streaming? • Download for offline? • X-Ray feature?
Design Alexa
Voice recognition, NLU, skills, smart home Key Components:
Real-time voice, millions of devices
Follow-ups: Wake word detection? • Multi-turn conversations? • Privacy?
Design Order System
Order lifecycle, payment, fulfillment, notifications Key Components:
Millions of orders/day, exactly-once processing
Follow-ups: Idempotency? • Distributed transactions? • Order tracking?
Behavioral 3 questions
"Leadership Principle: Customer Obsession"
Tests: Customer-first thinking, going beyond requirements
STAR Tip: ALWAYS tie back to customer impact. Use specific metrics.
Structure: Customer problem → Your action → Customer outcome → Business impact
LP: "Leaders start with the customer and work backwards"
"Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager"
Tests: Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
STAR Tip: Show you voiced concerns respectfully, then committed fully once decided
Structure: Disagreement → How you expressed it → Resolution → Your commitment
LP: "Disagree respectfully, then commit wholly once decided"
"Describe a time you took ownership beyond your role"
Tests: Ownership - think long-term, act on behalf of entire company
STAR Tip: Show you didn't say 'not my job'. Took action without being asked.
Structure: Gap you noticed → Action you took → Result → Long-term impact
LP: "Owners never say 'that's not my job'"
Apple
Secretive, attention to detail, design excellence focus
Phone + 5-8 onsite (varies by team, mix of coding/design/behavioral)
Coding Questions 5 problems
3Sum
Medium Two Pointers
Time: O(n²) Space: O(1) or O(n)
Sort array, fix one element, two pointers for remaining
Pattern: Two Pointers
Serialize/Deserialize BT
Hard Tree
Time: O(n) Space: O(n)
Preorder traversal with null markers, reconstruct with queue
Pattern: Tree Serialization
Find Median from Stream
Hard Heap
Time: O(log n) add, O(1) find Space: O(n)
Max-heap for lower half, min-heap for upper half, balance sizes
Pattern: Two Heaps
Design Tic-Tac-Toe
Medium Design
Time: O(1) per move Space: O(n)
Track row/col/diag sums; +1 for X, -1 for O; win when |sum|=n
Pattern: Game State Design
Maximum Product Subarray
Medium DP
Time: O(n) Space: O(1)
Track both max and min at each position (negatives can flip)
Pattern: Dynamic Programming
System Design 4 problems
Design iCloud
File sync, conflict resolution, cross-device consistency Key Components:
2B devices, seamless sync across ecosystem
Follow-ups: Offline support? • Selective sync? • End-to-end encryption?
Design Apple Music
Music streaming, library sync, playlist sharing Key Components:
100M songs, 100M subscribers
Follow-ups: Lossless audio? • Lyrics sync? • Social features?
Design Siri
Voice assistant, NLU, device integration, privacy Key Components:
On-device processing, low latency, privacy-first
Follow-ups: On-device vs cloud? • Context awareness? • Multi-language?
Design App Store
App distribution, review process, in-app purchases Key Components:
2M apps, billions of downloads, 30% commission
Follow-ups: App review automation? • Fraud detection? • Regional pricing?
Behavioral 3 questions
"Tell me about attention to detail in your work"
Tests: Quality standards, polish, user experience focus
STAR Tip: Apple obsesses over details. Show you care about the last 1%.
Structure: Project → Specific detail you caught → Impact on user experience
"Describe an innovative solution you created"
Tests: Creativity, thinking differently, challenging status quo
STAR Tip: Show you didn't just follow the obvious path
Structure: Problem → Why obvious solutions failed → Your novel approach → Result
"How do you collaborate across teams?"
Tests: Cross-functional work, communication, influence without authority
STAR Tip: Apple teams are siloed; show you can navigate that
Structure: Cross-team project → Communication challenges → How you bridged gaps → Outcome
Microsoft
Growth mindset, inclusive culture, customer success focus
Phone + 4-5 onsite (coding, system design, behavioral, as-appropriate)
Coding Questions 5 problems
Reverse Linked List
Easy Linked List
Time: O(n) Space: O(1) iter / O(n) recursive
Iterative: prev, curr, next pointers. Or recursive with backtracking.
Pattern: Linked List Manipulation
Course Schedule
Medium Graph
Time: O(V + E) Space: O(V + E)
Topological sort using Kahn's algorithm or DFS cycle detection
Pattern: Topological Sort
Longest Increasing Subsequence
Medium DP
Time: O(n log n) Space: O(n)
DP: dp[i] = longest ending at i. Optimize with binary search.
Pattern: DP + Binary Search
Alien Dictionary
Hard Graph
Time: O(C) where C = total chars Space: O(1) (26 letters)
Build graph from adjacent word pairs, then topological sort
Pattern: Graph + Topological Sort
Word Break
Medium DP
Time: O(n² × m) Space: O(n)
dp[i] = true if s[0..i] can be segmented. Check all word endings.
Pattern: Dynamic Programming
System Design 4 problems
Design Azure Blob Storage
Object storage, tiering, replication, consistency Key Components:
Exabytes of data, 99.999999999% durability
Follow-ups: Hot/cool/archive tiers? • Geo-replication? • Consistency models?
Design Microsoft Teams
Real-time messaging, video conferencing, file sharing Key Components:
270M monthly users, enterprise scale
Follow-ups: Meeting recording? • Screen sharing? • Guest access?
Design OneDrive
File sync, collaboration, versioning, sharing Key Components:
1B files synced/day, Office integration
Follow-ups: Conflict resolution? • Files on-demand? • Ransomware protection?
Design Xbox Live
Gaming platform, matchmaking, achievements, social Key Components:
100M gamers, real-time multiplayer
Follow-ups: Skill-based matchmaking? • Anti-cheat? • Cross-platform?
Behavioral 3 questions
"Tell me about a time you demonstrated growth mindset"
Tests: Learning from failure, embracing challenges, continuous improvement
STAR Tip: Show you sought feedback and improved, not just succeeded
Structure: Challenge/failure → What you learned → How you grew → New outcome
"Describe how you've created an inclusive environment"
Tests: Diversity, empathy, psychological safety
STAR Tip: Microsoft values inclusion highly. Show specific actions.
Structure: Situation with exclusion → Your awareness → Action taken → Team impact
"How have you driven customer success?"
Tests: Customer obsession, understanding enterprise needs
STAR Tip: Focus on understanding customer problems, not just shipping features
Structure: Customer pain point → Your investigation → Solution → Customer outcome
Netflix
Senior-focused, freedom & responsibility, high performance culture
Phone + 4-6 onsite (coding, system design, culture fit - bar is very high)
Coding Questions 5 problems
Top K Frequent Elements
Medium Heap
Time: O(n log k) Space: O(n)
Count frequencies, then min-heap of size k OR bucket sort O(n)
Pattern: Top K Pattern
Design Hit Counter
Medium Design
Time: O(1) amortized Space: O(300) = O(1)
Circular array of 300 buckets, or deque with timestamp cleanup
Pattern: Sliding Window Design
Sliding Window Maximum
Hard Deque
Time: O(n) Space: O(k)
Monotonic decreasing deque: remove smaller elements, max is front
Pattern: Monotonic Deque
Graph Valid Tree
Medium Union Find
Time: O(n × α(n)) Space: O(n)
Tree: exactly n-1 edges AND connected (no cycles). Use Union-Find.
Pattern: Union Find
Clone Graph
Medium Graph
Time: O(V + E) Space: O(V)
DFS/BFS with HashMap: old node → new node mapping
Pattern: Graph Traversal + Cloning
System Design 4 problems
Design Netflix Streaming
Video delivery, adaptive bitrate, global CDN Key Components:
250M subscribers, 15% global internet traffic
Follow-ups: ABR algorithm? • Pre-positioning content? • Quality of Experience?
Design Recommendation System
ML-based recommendations, personalization at scale Key Components:
Billions of ratings, real-time personalization
Follow-ups: Cold start problem? • Diversity vs relevance? • Exploration vs exploitation?
Design Video Upload Pipeline
Ingestion, transcoding, quality control, metadata Key Components:
Hours of 4K/HDR content daily, multiple formats
Follow-ups: Resumable uploads? • Parallel transcoding? • Audio normalization?
Design CDN (Open Connect)
Content delivery, cache hierarchy, peering Key Components:
Terabits/sec, global presence
Follow-ups: Cache eviction? • ISP peering? • Failure handling?
Behavioral 3 questions
"Describe a time you took a risk without permission"
Tests: Freedom & responsibility, judgment, bias for action
STAR Tip: Netflix values informed risk-taking. Show good judgment.
Structure: Opportunity you saw → Risk assessment → Action without approval → Outcome
Culture: Netflix: 'Don't seek to please your boss. Seek to do what's best for the company.'
"Tell me about managing a low performer"
Tests: High performance culture, direct feedback, tough decisions
STAR Tip: Netflix has 'keeper test'. Show you can give hard feedback.
Structure: Performance issue → Direct feedback given → Support offered → Outcome
Culture: Netflix: 'Adequate performance gets a generous severance.'
"How do you make decisions with incomplete information?"
Tests: Judgment, context over control, senior-level thinking
STAR Tip: Show you can make good decisions without micromanagement
Structure: Ambiguous situation → How you gathered context → Decision framework → Result
Culture: Netflix: 'Highly aligned, loosely coupled.'
Curated Resources
LeetCode
2000+ coding problems with solutions
NeetCode Roadmap
Curated 150 problems by pattern
Tech Interview Handbook
Comprehensive interview guide
System Design Primer
Learn system design concepts
Pramp
Free mock interviews with peers
Levels.fyi
Compensation data & leveling
Pro Tip
Press Ctrl + K to open the command palette and search across all documentation.