I spent a lot of time practicing leetcode, interviewed a bunch of times (4 times, about 25 technical interviews) at FAANG without getting an offer. They always tell me it was very close (or even that I passed, but they didn't find a team in the following month and asked me to reapply).
What leaves me with a bitter taste is that they don't seem to value the experience on my resume (e.g. OSS and tons of github projects, blog or scientific articles, things written by me they could actually check). It feels like they will favor a candidate who can solve leetcode problems a little bit faster to someone who is a more experienced SWE. Also the whole thing seems pretty random.
Also practicing leetcode feels like wasted time. It's not uninteresting but after you solve 500 problems, it starts to get uninspiring. There are cooler things to do for personal development, especially when you already have a demanding job.
But well, that's part of the game... at least the rules are clear, and the interviewers/recruiter are usually pretty nice.
What leaves me with a bitter taste is that they don't seem to value the experience on my resume (e.g. OSS and tons of github projects, blog or scientific articles, things written by me they could actually check). It feels like they will favor a candidate who can solve leetcode problems a little bit faster to someone who is a more experienced SWE. Also the whole thing seems pretty random.
Also practicing leetcode feels like wasted time. It's not uninteresting but after you solve 500 problems, it starts to get uninspiring. There are cooler things to do for personal development, especially when you already have a demanding job.
But well, that's part of the game... at least the rules are clear, and the interviewers/recruiter are usually pretty nice.