Is there a reason you want to get into those companies so badly? I personally don't practice leetcode, because my ROI on those types of problems is not really great, and I'd rather do things that I find to be more interesting with the time. This does mean that, when I interview, sometimes interviewers treat me like a child for not being able to reach optimal solutions for problems they know to be well known or simple. But I'm ok with that, because tech is an absolutely huge field, and there are companies out there that better fit me.

If you want to work on interesting topics, start a side project and try to turn it into a company.

I'd say little doubt, any of those aforementioned companies would be a "yes". I'm open minded about other companies - but again, it all boils down to that question. For Credit Karma and WeWork, where I did get offers, after interviewing there, the answer to that question I arrived at was "maybe" for the former (compensation was very lowballed), and "no" to the latter (weird culty vibes).

Different loops and interviewers conduct interviews in different ways. There is no "one problem" rule.

Usually the questions are structured in layers where there's many follow-ups available. Based on the question, the interviewer, the loop, they can ask one problem or more. Unless you are the interviewer, it's not clear how far into the question you've been and what the expectations were. It is common to ask two questions though.

Context: I have 300+ interviews at Facebook and been active in the whole process.

I completely, utterly, bombed my Microsoft phone screen - as in, I could not even get a basic brute force algo down. Yet I got invited to the onsite because the interviewer liked me for some non-technical reason.

And most of the smaller ones, while less prestigious, are probably just straight up better places to work.

That said, the number of companies I would be willing to jump ship to from my current job (despite my gripes about it) is not that large. Certainly more than FAANG, but I'd say < 100.

Forgive me for the observation but it seems to me you've put big name companies on a pedestal as though they are objectively better jobs and maybe have some blinders on in terms of the real scope of opportunity that is out there.

And if it's about pay, smaller companies can often pay well too.

Except maybe for Uber, all those companies they listed failing at are objectively better at attracting attention to your resume than some no name, smaller company nobody's heard of.

Not just pay of course, although I'd be lying if it wasn't a factor at all. I'd be willing to jump ship for the same (or even less) pay if other characteristics of the new company made it worthwhile.

I'm aware things aren't perfect rainbows and unicorns there (or really, at any company). But the friends and excoworkers who've gotten into FAANG, and similar companies, absolutely love it. And not just for the pay.

Being rejected by Facebook in 2021 is probably a good thing

I know these positions exist in all companies. Find the unseemly but necessary work and deliver. The current CEO of Google worked on Google Toolbar and turned that into Chrome.

You could even go the contractor route for 2 years and try to lever that into a full time role.

The other thing way would be to spend a year diligently leetcoding...

I've had great pre-interview conversations with hiring managers discussing technical topics, several concluding with them saying that they'd love to have me on their team. Have had friends/excoworkers vouching for me sometimes. Then I go screw up on the leetcode interview, and that ends the story.

Pretty much have been drilling leetcode every day since my last failure at FB last year. (Bad) luck of the draw saw to it that I drew a question I couldn't tackle.

I did see a post somewhere about someone's recent experience getting jobs at tech companies with minimal to no leetcoding. However he states that the only way it was possible was because he already had FAANGs on his resume and some of these companies were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt due to this.

It’s still not worth sacrificing your moral compass, or if you prefer, your soul.

Sorry to say it but if I was a hiring manager and saw someone with senior experience applying for junior positions that's a red flag to me and I would be thinking they probably have big confidence problems.