>>>> Many interviewers fail to provide enough context and that leaves the interpretation of the prompt too wide open.
yes but this not a defect as youre viewing it.
in real world at amazon, your job to deal with ambiguity. the hand holding phase where youre given or told exactly what to do is maybe 1-2 year for college level hire. you work with ambiguity or you move out.
if you do not want ambiguity challenge then amazon not best fit for you. its not for everyone and amazon certainly has big problems in its culture. not defending any of it but saying to you what it is.
until recently i was a principal engineer at amazon. so maybe my opinion has some weight.
system design interview is more about interviewee asking questions..taking time to understand the problem..ask about product feature or SLA..understand functional and non functional requirement.
then its about candidate showing some knowledge set showing they can think and reason behind some immediate coding task. Demonstrate ability to make judgment..simplify where possible..discuss costs and trade offs.
this interview not about candidate building some system at scale themself. building and supporting has trials and lessons you only learn by doing and failing, not through interview prep or YouTube videos
this is amazon culture since beginning. decision making federated to director level or VP organization and s-team only step in on bigger goal.
rto not even top 3 company problem though. main issue is fast pace culture that had its own problem with retention now turned into lazy, cancerous zombie.
-performance bar lowered at all levels.
-management layers overrun by hires from failing companies.
i left after 10 years. tech stopped hiring innovators. it simply h1b wagon..people who do exactly as told because they afraid of PIP and having to move back to india. the other class of worker is a politician from some company like ibm. from ibm, they bring EXTREME culture of politics and empire building.
my theory that amazon leadership know this biggest business risk. any rto policy to get these people to quit without severance. amazon leadership know problem so bad they will risk strong talent.
article puts goodreads problems on amazon. partially true but lazy journalism.
much goodreads leadership same as when amazon bought them. i know because i work close to them before i leave amazon.
tech was outdated ruby on rails. the engineering org has very low technical bar and love inventing things that amazon already solve at scale. more energy put into resisting amazon than thinking about innovation. lots and lots of waste.
i do wonder how amazon layoffs affected goodreads. i would clean house.
Not sure how far she makes in CS without some high school level math like pre algebra, algebra 1 and 2. remember that actual computer science curriculum have more advanced math like single and multi variate calculus, differential equation, linear algebra, discrete.
Good news: most software engineer not taking derivative or vector calculation like full calculus or linear algebra taught in CS program.
but you need ability to reason about basic maths if your program has any computation at all.
khan academy is good for the math. dont really need much more.
you see abortion as issue about body autonomy. many see it as issue of murder. it like religious debate.
me not arguing either way. but wonder about “quality” of this journalism. it subtly condition reader to believe one side is correct and other side like some German nazi.
work in tech. not every employee liberal or super progressive.
it crazy to me the bar for what considered journalism. probably many of such “anti-abortion” lawmaker have other policy friendly for business. probably some people in these company even against abortion.
this article written as if supporting law makers is mutually exclusion choice. we must give money to only one side as if those single issue the only issue or even most important issue. subtle way by media of conditioning how we think.
ha! worked at amazon on detail page, cart, checkout.
nothing unparalleled. lots of java and perl mason code. very poor and broken abstractions. missing unit test. missing integration test. poor developing experience. horrible culture of burnout and throwing people under bus, people cry at work. it was H1B train where you over work under threat of being fired and then need to leave country because visa system stupid.
>>> It’s an excuse to underpay and ignore 55% of your workforce.
google isnt walmart or big business killing small store.. this comment like these people have no other job to work if google killed every other company and holding these workers hostage.
I use linked in sometimes. see lots of colleagues suddenly write lengthy motivational or sales post in perfect English.. but worked with them and know they did not type it.
it set expectation on your ability to write clear english and can have wrong consequence.
recently someone respond to my post on HN and accuse me of being some USA person with agenda. they present evidence that they found me older post written in very clear english.
i wrote text..asked chatgpt to clean it for me.. and then posted here. ;]
brave new world. never read it in my country when growing up and friend recently told me it is one of 10 books to read if me want to read english.
do not read books but i could not put it down. had to google some chapters and website called cliff notes was good guide to understand some chapters that were hard for me to follow because me english not that good.
used linked in on mobile web browser. there is another pattern where cider accidentally “like” post without knowing. so my page full of me liking random items that appear on my feed over time. stupid dark pattern to fake engagement metric.
definitely some product manager know this and intentionally keep it to increase their metric
not my post but i see current USA federal reserve bank rate policy will cause slow painful end to big tech companies empire building policy. the growth religion must stop hiring endless layers of managers and ‘promoting’ good engineer from individual role to manager role. line manager with direct individual contributor report sit in useless meeting all day. zero value. if they not change this..they will die in market slowly and be replaced by new generation of companies.
its not that we believe government DOES solve everything or trust government. it’s that we believe government is the answer and only government responsible.
constant load shedding? parliaments job to fix.
people dont want to obey traffic rule? could it be something with our culture? of course not. government problem to fix.
Ok..trash everywhere in street? government problem to fix. i will say government should fix it, ignoring that it is myself throwing that trash out on the street instead of in bin even when rubbish bin is right there at hand distance.
not enough jobs? government should fix by hiring everyone.
do we trust government, no. but my party is good and yours corrupt. if my prime minister favorite actually shoots child it is okay and i will justify it.
thats the type of mindset. every problem i have.. it is someone else’s fault. i have zero responsibility.
is there option where instead of “forgiveness”, government help part of interest payment, but if borrower makes principal payment?
discussion often no actual detail or nuance. my issue is people who irresponsible..do not own irresponsible behavior..and say someone else should pay 100% of their debt. no absolutely not.
Im disturbed with these “opinion” articles and influence they have.
it still make zero sense to me why student loan payments on hold. should we also put car loan payment on hold? credit card payments?
yes..people took loans without thinking if they pay off debt. is it every borrower? No.
easy scheme for political party to get votes. make perfect sense to me why sofi would sue.
i always think to my home country. being born in USA like winning lottery. just green card and no citizenship is like lottery. endless opportunity to do something in USA. no mentally and physically ok adult in USA have reason to be in poverty.
but of course USA people thinking government magically solve all of it. true irony that developed country fall into our third world thinking mindset.
me believe that if you want to achieve something.. you can do it in USA. and if you goal not to change world or become rich but just lift from poverty.. yes you can do that in this country. just need hard work and determination.
but if you idea hard work that you have easy job.. little stress not too much labor then USA not enough by itself. Now you must blame someone and show you victim.
People and companies who would quickly kill unprofitable business cheerlead propaganda campaign. CNN writes this propaganda article against business but how willing is CNN to keep funding ventures that do not make money? Where is their justice war then?
They don’t care. Its just to get eye ball and clicks.