#what should i focus on to get into FAANG/MAANG freshman year?

19 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

solar flame
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hey guys, im a junior in high school who's been studying programming for a bit

I've covered multiple topics in my time:
(I'm not an expert in these, I only have projects where I used them)

  • frontend dev (html, js, py)
  • backend dev (js, py, go, some rust)
  • devops (CI/CD, Jira, AWS EB, Docker)
  • ui/ux (figma)
  • little dsa (arrays,lists,dp,2-3ptrs,bs)
  • little bit of math (trig, calc)
  • 1 software dev internship (3mo)

Is there anything I'm missing to get into FAANG/MAANG? Should i specifically focus on something in particular?

I was thinking about kicking up my volunteering & internship hunt so I can improve my college resume and get into a good college. That will be detrimental to my personal project development + DSA studying, but it'll make me more of an attractive student to admit.

I don't know what to do.
Should I prioritize DSA & personal projects?or should i get as much "experience" as possible? (internships, volunteering, osc, hackathons, sports achievements)

any advice is appreciated!

jagged ice
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The interview will likely be DSA/leetcode questions, I would study more than a little of those

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I'm not sure how much of the other stuff (other than a language or two and your math) will actually help you in the interview

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And if you list that you know all of that stuff on your resume, you better know it pretty well because I would be suspect of a high schooler claiming to know all of those devops technologies, languages, and libraries

solar flame
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not well, enough actually use though

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like i can produce an app/workflow/etc with those technologies without too much difficulty
of course i'd have to look things up but when i listed my points i meant I can use when needed

solar flame
jagged ice
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If I asked you specific questions about a language or framework would you be able to answer them without looking them up

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If i asked you how goroutines work, and when you might use them could you tell me

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or if I asked you if you about rust and thread safety

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or why you might use docker

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That's the bar I usually think about when deciding whether or not to put it on my resume

solar flame
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I see, yeah
I guess I do have to educate myself on lots of things, probably won't add Rust since i'm not familiar enough to answer that question

solar flame
jagged ice
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I'm not sure about landing interviews for internships, I never had one, but I did end up in faang

solar flame
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ah, when did u grad & how long did it take u to get an entry lvl?

jagged ice
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2019, I had 2 yoe before I landed at faang

small rain
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you did say any advice ... detriment is a noun i think, and not typically used in that sentence like you've used it. when we strive for detail oriented work, or try to market ourselves as capable of it, we should be capable of demonstrating precise language. as a junior in hs, you can still take an ap english class if available and hopefully that will raise the bar on your expectation of quality so you wring out writing / grammar mistakes before you arrive in college.

colleges vary greatly in the quality of their liberal arts, especially if you go to a school known for engineering. it's possible that in college nobody will grade your english writing skills (they have foreigners that need to pass) and you will be left not knowing what you don't know. so ... fix problems regarding how you express yourself in english in high school if you can.

solar flame
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You're completely right, weird how i thought it was a verb. Impair or detrimental are better to use there.

Thank you though, great advice. I'm definitely kicking up my english studies, especially for the SAT