Switching from Software Engineer to Data Engineer Because of Leetcode

Question

SDE of 2+YoE here. The question says it all. I have been interviewing couple of months only to be rejected in the coding round because of these leetcode questions. (I am based in India where the coding rounds are brutal). I have solved some 200 problems but when it comes to interview setting, I am failing because I generally take long time to solve problems. That time constraint pressure is the reason why I am not getting any offers. I am stuck in a really terrible role. So I am quite desperate now. But my PoV is that even if I am able to grind Leetcode now, I cannot keep doing that until 10 years down the line. I love to build OSS projects, build architectures, do side projects instead of grinding trick problems.Has any one ever made the switch from SDE to DE for the same reason?

philomath_mn · Accepted Answer

Some DE jobs have leetcode interviews, some SDE jobs don't have leetcode interviews. So don't switch tracks for that reason.But if comes down to no job or a DE job then I'd take the DE job.

qd011 · Answer

Seems like a very bad reason to switch. Data engineering is different (and much worse than SWE in my opinion), and it's not like you're certain that you can avoid LC interviews if you try to switch.

austin-cheney · Answer

Kind of. I just switched from senior software engineer to junior data engineer. I did it because this position is work from home and honestly all JavaScript positions at this point are junior positions.
90% of JavaScript jobs now are really React positions or Angular plus Java positions. If you need React/Angular and spend all your time over-engineering how to put text on screen and at this point cannot figure out Node you are a supremely overpaid junior. After working with overpaid juniors at the last job and getting laid off from it, it feels like a broken house of cards ready to fold at any time.
So, after refusing to go back to work in that line of work for 5 months a recruiter for this data science job found me and I super easily qualified. There was no leet code nonsense. This current project uses a low code enterprise suite for data science and service delivery and starts with up to 6 weeks training to certify in the platform.

solardev · Answer

I don't know what it's like in India, but here in the US I've never been asked a leetcode question a single time in any interview over 10+ years of web dev experience.
Maybe it's just the role (web) or the industry (small/med businesses and nonprofits) or the specialization (frontend), but it's been possible for me to get employment without ever touching leetcode.
I've worked with several Indian colleagues too, and as far a I know they didn't have to grind either. It's for an American company though.
Can you consider other types of businesses like that in India? Or does everyone, even the non tech businesses, do this?

itg · Answer

Are there companies in India that don't focus on leetcode style problems during the interview process? Maybe you can target those if they exist.

itsoktocry · Answer

I can't believe this is still a thing in 2023. You have to be on a run of bad luck, most companies don't operate this way.

girishso · Answer

You can try applying to small companies, they probably won&rsquo;t have coding rounds.

gigafuture · Answer

You've only been interviewing for a couple of months? Sweet summer child.I would keep at it with leetcode. There are more positions for SWEs.

Switching from Software Engineer to Data Engineer Because of Leetcode

Some DE jobs have leetcode interviews, some SDE jobs don't have leetcode interviews. So don't switch tracks for that reason.
But if comes down to no job or a DE job then I'd take the DE job.

Seems like a very bad reason to switch. Data engineering is different (and much worse than SWE in my opinion), and it's not like you're certain that you can avoid LC interviews if you try to switch.

Are there companies in India that don't focus on leetcode style problems during the interview process? Maybe you can target those if they exist.

I can't believe this is still a thing in 2023. You have to be on a run of bad luck, most companies don't operate this way.

You can try applying to small companies, they probably won’t have coding rounds.

You've only been interviewing for a couple of months? Sweet summer child.
I would keep at it with leetcode. There are more positions for SWEs.