How are tech interviews changing, what is wrong with the CAP theorem, and what skills are becoming more important than coding, for devs? It was great to finally do an in-person episode with @neetcode1 , the founder of NeetCode.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro 02:57 Neet’s take on coding interviews 06:41 Getting into tech 08:56 Why Neet isn't a fan of the CAP theorem 13:12 Quitting Amazon after two months 18:22 Google vs Amazon 22:26 The origins of NeetCode 25:27 Leaving Google to go all in on NeetCode 32:02 Why Neet doesn't fix every bug 39:26 The value of coding interview prep 42:57 Systems thinking and domain expertise 47:28 Hiring at Big Tech 52:15 Tech stack at NeetCode 57:57 The NeetCode redesign contest 1:01:46 The future of software engineers 1:09:04 Hot takes: AGI, AI skill erosion, personality traits 1:22:49 “Maybe some people should just give up” 1:24:39 How to be a standout engineer 1:27:55 Book recommendation
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• Google Cloud Run – fully managed platform that runs your code directly on top of Google’s scalable infrastructure. Run frontend and backend services, batch jobs, host LLMs, and agents without managing infrastructure. https://cloud.google.com/run?e=48754805&utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=the_pragmatic_engineer
Three interesting parts from this convo:
1. The CAP theorem’s “two of three” framing is widely taught but technically shaky.
Navi felt that is an awkward theorem that is incomplete, and felt validated when Martin Kleppmann publicly criticized it too. This is a good reminder that it’s worth thinking for yourself, and not accepting theorems as true, without understanding them.
2. The Neetcode YouTube channel took off after Navi posted that he’ll post less because he got into Google.
Before he shared that he got a software engieneering job at Google – back at that time, one of the most competitive companies to get into – there were not many people watching the Neetcode channel. Sharing that he got into Google turned out to be the best “sales pitch” though: and suddenly, people wanted to understand what he’d practiced that helped him get this job!
3. Predictions of coding’s death haven’t materialized as expected. Despite dramatic AI model improvements, Navi does not observe most engineers aren’t being laid off. In fact, he sees the opposite: devs doing more work than before!
