WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.210 --> 00:00:01.930 line:15% All right, I hope all those practice sessions 2 00:00:01.930 --> 00:00:03.060 line:15% gave you a lot of preparation 3 00:00:03.060 --> 00:00:04.980 line:15% on how to tackle your system design interview. 4 00:00:04.980 --> 00:00:06.990 line:15% if you're lucky, you might even get that same question. 5 00:00:06.990 --> 00:00:08.300 line:15% But, at a high level, 6 00:00:08.300 --> 00:00:10.660 line:15% I think it taught you how to think about these problems, 7 00:00:10.660 --> 00:00:12.100 line:15% and how to approach them. 8 00:00:12.100 --> 00:00:13.670 line:15% And in the remaining part of this course, 9 00:00:13.670 --> 00:00:15.220 line:15% I want to go at an even higher level, 10 00:00:15.220 --> 00:00:18.230 line:15% and go beyond the scope of just system design interviews, 11 00:00:18.230 --> 00:00:20.020 line:15% and give you some insight as to what 12 00:00:20.020 --> 00:00:21.580 line:15% interviewers are actually looking for 13 00:00:21.580 --> 00:00:23.960 line:15% in your technical interviews, in general. 14 00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:26.000 line:15% Not just a system design one 'cause, 15 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:27.460 line:15% I've got a lot of insight to share with you 16 00:00:27.460 --> 00:00:29.440 line:15% from my time as a hiring manager at Amazon. 17 00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:31.390 line:15% And, the things that they're looking for 18 00:00:31.390 --> 00:00:32.940 line:15% isn't always what you'd expect. 19 00:00:33.980 --> 00:00:37.060 So what our hiring managers actually looking for? 20 00:00:37.060 --> 00:00:37.990 Like I said before, 21 00:00:37.990 --> 00:00:39.890 it's more than just your technical skills. 22 00:00:39.890 --> 00:00:42.580 They want to look at your soft skills just as much. 23 00:00:42.580 --> 00:00:45.070 They want to see that you have determination, grit, 24 00:00:45.070 --> 00:00:47.270 perseverance, whatever you want to call it. 25 00:00:47.270 --> 00:00:48.250 They want to make sure 26 00:00:48.250 --> 00:00:51.920 that you have the internal drive and motivation 27 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:53.260 to solve new problems, 28 00:00:53.260 --> 00:00:55.720 and find new solutions on your own. 29 00:00:55.720 --> 00:00:57.260 You're not gonna be given recipes 30 00:00:57.260 --> 00:00:58.840 of how to solve the problems you're given. 31 00:00:58.840 --> 00:01:00.910 You need to have the determination 32 00:01:00.910 --> 00:01:03.860 to figure these things out collaboratively, of course, 33 00:01:03.860 --> 00:01:04.820 you know, when appropriate, 34 00:01:04.820 --> 00:01:07.370 but you've got to have the determination 35 00:01:07.370 --> 00:01:09.700 to get things done with minimal guidance. 36 00:01:09.700 --> 00:01:11.490 You shouldn't need to have someone pushing you forward 37 00:01:11.490 --> 00:01:12.410 all the time, 38 00:01:12.410 --> 00:01:15.470 you need to be curious enough and driven enough 39 00:01:15.470 --> 00:01:18.320 to solve new problems that haven't been solved before. 40 00:01:18.320 --> 00:01:19.503 That's what they want. 41 00:01:20.520 --> 00:01:21.960 It's a hard thing to find. 42 00:01:21.960 --> 00:01:24.860 Why? Because technology changes quickly. 43 00:01:24.860 --> 00:01:27.660 So, the things they might be quizzing you on 44 00:01:27.660 --> 00:01:29.460 from a technological standpoint, 45 00:01:29.460 --> 00:01:31.900 that technology might be obsolete a year from now, you know? 46 00:01:31.900 --> 00:01:33.900 We talked about things like Apache Spark, 47 00:01:33.900 --> 00:01:34.980 or Hadoop, or whatever. 48 00:01:34.980 --> 00:01:37.270 Hadoop's already kind of on the decline, right? 49 00:01:37.270 --> 00:01:40.180 So, the value of testing your knowledge 50 00:01:40.180 --> 00:01:42.000 on specific technologies, 51 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:44.120 really isn't that high. 52 00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:46.610 But your ability to adapt to new technologies 53 00:01:46.610 --> 00:01:47.443 as they come out, your ability to self-learn, 54 00:01:47.443 --> 00:01:49.088 and continue to drive yourself forward, 55 00:01:49.088 --> 00:01:51.256 that's what's hard to find. 56 00:01:51.256 --> 00:01:52.495 That's what they really want to see. 57 00:01:52.495 --> 00:01:54.283 Your determination to learn new technologies, 58 00:01:54.283 --> 00:01:57.133 or changes to technologies as they come out going forward. 59 00:01:57.133 --> 00:02:00.776 That's what people want in the longterm. 60 00:02:00.776 --> 00:02:04.970 So yeah, you still need to prove you can code, you know? 61 00:02:04.970 --> 00:02:06.987 That's not gonna go away. 62 00:02:06.987 --> 00:02:08.015 You're still gonna have to code on the whiteboard, 63 00:02:08.015 --> 00:02:09.605 and show that you can actually think, 64 00:02:09.605 --> 00:02:10.999 in terms of coding, 65 00:02:10.999 --> 00:02:11.959 and think in terms of assembling technical solutions 66 00:02:11.959 --> 00:02:14.288 from discreet components on a whiteboard, 67 00:02:14.288 --> 00:02:16.470 or whatever digital equivalent it is, 68 00:02:16.470 --> 00:02:18.728 depending on the setting. 69 00:02:18.728 --> 00:02:20.121 So yes, your tech skills still matter, 70 00:02:20.121 --> 00:02:22.141 but they're really just table stakes, you know? 71 00:02:22.141 --> 00:02:24.019 That's sort of the way of getting your foot in the door. 72 00:02:24.019 --> 00:02:26.838 First thing they're gonna ask you 73 00:02:26.838 --> 00:02:29.540 is some really simple coding question. 74 00:02:29.540 --> 00:02:31.070 And, that's just to weed out the people 75 00:02:31.070 --> 00:02:33.380 who just can't function, right? 76 00:02:33.380 --> 00:02:36.290 But once you get past that initial hurdle of technology, 77 00:02:36.290 --> 00:02:37.570 what they're really gonna be looking for 78 00:02:37.570 --> 00:02:38.670 is your perseverance, 79 00:02:38.670 --> 00:02:40.420 and your inner qualities 80 00:02:40.420 --> 00:02:42.050 that will make you a good, long-term hire 81 00:02:42.050 --> 00:02:44.673 that can adapt to new changing technologies. 82 00:02:45.550 --> 00:02:47.560 So how do you demonstrate perseverance? 83 00:02:47.560 --> 00:02:49.220 That's kind of a hard thing to show, right? 84 00:02:49.220 --> 00:02:51.550 Well, interviewers have their way, 85 00:02:51.550 --> 00:02:52.730 but a good way to approach this 86 00:02:52.730 --> 00:02:55.200 is by telling them a story, okay? 87 00:02:55.200 --> 00:02:57.020 Hiring managers are usually trained 88 00:02:57.020 --> 00:02:59.320 to do something called behavioral interviewing. 89 00:02:59.320 --> 00:03:01.247 So, they're not gonna ask you, 90 00:03:01.247 --> 00:03:02.360 "Did you do x?" 91 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:03.437 Where you can just lie about it and say, 92 00:03:03.437 --> 00:03:04.420 "Yeah, I did the x. 93 00:03:04.420 --> 00:03:06.510 I'm great at whatever that is!" 94 00:03:06.510 --> 00:03:08.970 They want to hear stories that they can dig into 95 00:03:08.970 --> 00:03:10.410 about how you demonstrated 96 00:03:10.410 --> 00:03:13.030 whatever quality they're trying to find out about. 97 00:03:13.030 --> 00:03:15.800 So, make sure you have those stories ready. 98 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:17.540 If they want a story about how you handled 99 00:03:17.540 --> 00:03:19.270 a very tough technical problem, 100 00:03:19.270 --> 00:03:21.610 or how you handled some conflict within your team, 101 00:03:21.610 --> 00:03:24.410 or how you handled convincing your manager 102 00:03:24.410 --> 00:03:26.650 to do something the right way, 103 00:03:26.650 --> 00:03:28.610 have those stories in your back pocket, 104 00:03:28.610 --> 00:03:30.140 because those are things you can talk about 105 00:03:30.140 --> 00:03:30.973 to prove that you've 106 00:03:30.973 --> 00:03:33.460 actually dealt with these situations before, 107 00:03:33.460 --> 00:03:35.050 and how you dealt with them. 108 00:03:35.050 --> 00:03:36.730 And the interviewer will dig into it, you know? 109 00:03:36.730 --> 00:03:39.840 That's the whole idea behind behavioral interviewing. 110 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:43.020 They say, "Give me an example of when you did this," 111 00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:45.600 and you say, "I did this, this way!" 112 00:03:45.600 --> 00:03:47.127 And then they will dig into details like, 113 00:03:47.127 --> 00:03:49.580 "Okay, tell me more about this aspect of it." 114 00:03:49.580 --> 00:03:50.810 And that's their way of confirming 115 00:03:50.810 --> 00:03:52.900 that you really did what you said you did, right? 116 00:03:52.900 --> 00:03:55.150 Like, they can tell if you're lying that way. 117 00:03:55.150 --> 00:03:56.710 So come prepared with those stories about 118 00:03:56.710 --> 00:03:59.050 how you solved challenging problems in the past 119 00:03:59.050 --> 00:04:01.640 that your past employers in the world of academia, 120 00:04:01.640 --> 00:04:02.920 wherever you came from, 121 00:04:02.920 --> 00:04:04.410 even in a self-taught environment, you know? 122 00:04:04.410 --> 00:04:07.020 Some Kaggle challenge you had trouble with. 123 00:04:07.020 --> 00:04:08.360 The interviewer will dig into details 124 00:04:08.360 --> 00:04:10.630 to make sure that you're not lying about it, 125 00:04:10.630 --> 00:04:12.090 but have those stories ready to go, 126 00:04:12.090 --> 00:04:14.120 because that's really how you're gonna demonstrate things 127 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:16.150 like perseverance to your interviewer. 128 00:04:16.150 --> 00:04:18.690 Have a story about where and when 129 00:04:18.690 --> 00:04:21.120 you demonstrated perseverance in the real world. 130 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:23.260 And there's no better proof that you can do things 131 00:04:23.260 --> 00:04:24.310 than to say, "Hey, 132 00:04:24.310 --> 00:04:25.350 I've already done this before. 133 00:04:25.350 --> 00:04:26.800 I can tell you all about it."