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__methodd__ t1_isug8s9 wrote

ML interviews are all over the place unfortunately. With LC at least there are common standards, but even then there's a luck element because different interviewers have different ideas for what is a "complete" answer. God help you if you're a python guy/girl getting interviewed by a C++ nerd.

For ML it's worse because there are so many different work flows within ML. sklearn, pandas, and tensorflow are common, but most companies have a unique combo of tools for production ML. Playing around with a toy dataset and vanilla sklearn is not a great test if, unlike LC, the rules of that game aren't established ahead of time. Most companies with tests like this don't have standardized processes so the recruiter doesn't know what to tell you to prepare.

On top of that there are so many different backgrounds in ML from pure math to stats to traditional engineering and of course CS. ML detail interviews are trivia contests, and ML breadth interviews test your ability for recalling buzzwords. Design interviews suffer the same limitations.

The good news is that you get used to this crap shoot and can eventually start passing interviews. There are, at the end of the day, only so many algorithms and pieces of trivia a reasonable person can throw at you.

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htrp t1_isz52k9 wrote

> ML interviews are all over the place unfortunately. With LC at least there are common standards, but even then there's a luck element because different interviewers have different ideas for what is a "complete" answer. God help you if you're a python guy/girl getting interviewed by a C++ nerd.

If your shop is doing ML work in C++ god help you. If your interviewer is interviewing you in C++ without knowing ML .... god help the company.

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__methodd__ t1_iszecri wrote

You might not have gone thru big tech interviews before. A lot of companies have the same coding standards for MLE as SWE, so interviews are conducted by SWEs across functions. That will be 1 or 2 coding interviews out of 5 or 6 total.

Every company will allow you to interview in Python, but the point is that a C++ nerd might gatekeep. Maybe the interviewer thinks the hash function in your python dict is really critical for a deep dive. "This noob doesn't understand basic data structures."

I got failed on a coding interview when I used a dict to represent some data, and I could have used an array/list instead. (The only reason I know about that is because the recruiter saw the feedback and saved my ass from oblivion and gave me another shot.)

But yes I agree with the sentiment of God help this company. God help the candidate too lol. It's super super common. Unfortunately smaller companies have even less standardization around their hiring pipelines, so they're even more annoying.

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