Ask HN: Not able to clear FAANG EM onsite rounds
I think I'm getting tangled in some of their trap questions. I might be wrong to call them a trap, but I believe it is. My two Systems Design interviews went really well. Sharing one scenario based question with you -
Interviewer: What you will do if you found your team is struggling?
Me: I will talk with - all the stakeholders and team members - to find out what's blocking them
Interviewer: Let's say - I'm your manager and I tell you - your team is not able to ship. What you will do?
Me: I'd still talk with my team and understand what's holding them from shipping. It could be missing devops pipeline, maybe requirements are changing, maybe priority is not clear, maybe scope is not clearly defined.
Interviewer: Let's say PMs are always changing the requirements. What you will do?
Me: I'd get an agreement from PMs: once stories are refined or in the sprint, then they can't change it. For any updates\changes, they'd have to create a new story and put it in the backlog.
Interviewer: If they'd still change it then?
Me: I'll express my unhappiness and ask them - why they continue to change it when we had an agreement? I'd be tough with my follow-up but still respectful and keep the tone conversational. I might escalate it to their manager and will also keep you update about the situation.
Something similar happened to me, when I was interviewing with a startup. I cleared their 7 interview rounds. Their recruiter told me - they want to do one more round. He also said - the feedback so far has been positive and encouraging. In that additional and last interview round (although, he told me it's not an interview; just a conversation) - the interviewer, my would-be-manager asked me similar questions like the above, and I was rejected after that.