Advice from the Top 1% of Software Engineers 

links: K2.codes/

18 years and you can still feel the excitement radiating off of the last dude

The last person would literally be the best to have as a work colleague. Wonderful man

XT's advice will change my software engineering career: "Most people can do that (become a software engineer) but NOT EVERYONE can become a good one. To be a good software engineer, the most important thing is that you try to understand things how it works, you really really try hard to understand HOW IT WORKS, MAKE IT WORK"

The last guy is one of those rare engineers that are just so chill but smart AF and can dream up solutions to problems other engineers can't even dream of. Funny enough, Google seems to be VERY good at hiring and retaining these types of people.

The difference in advice given by XT vs other engineers is very phenomenal

XT is one of those people that can break down any complex concept into plain English. I had a Chinese professor who explained things thoroughly in a such a simple way. It wouldn't get boring for 3 hours long. It would be great to work for people like XT, I feel like, although people like him will surely challenge you, but that's the only way to grow professionally.

Absolute respect for XT. Being valued and putting people in the right place. This is what all companies must realize fundamentally.

XT has been with Google almost 18 years and it seems like he has developed such wisdom in just telling how it is. It is not often when you talk to managers/software engineers that have been at a company that long so genuine and happy.

I'm impressed by XT's passion in what he is doing after 18 years. I imagine most people after 18 years of working in one field would not share the same level of passion.

Best advise given by the guy who had 18 years tenure - Google is not the only good company, don’t define yourself based on your job… the earlier you learn this, the better for your well being

I adored XT!!! he is such an example of the spirit we should have when working for an amazing company! never stop learning and always try to understand how thing work!!

So glad I stumbled on this video as I was having a hard time securing an internship position. This kicked my motivation back up :)

Last person, despite having so much exprience, is so much humble.

man i gotta say i love how respectful and kind you are to everyone. i usually don’t enjoy these types of interviews but your attitude is refreshing to see brother! keep up the great content!

When you can remember the specific technical details of a project (or bug!) you worked on 17+ years ago, that's called passion. Knowing how things work (under the hood) is what separates average devs from good devs; passion is what separates good devs from great devs.

Xiangtian is such a sweet guy! 17 years and still so upbeat about his work. His advise is right. What do you want to do? Think how can you become better at it. If you do this, companies will come to you. If not google, then some other good company. Love what you do, grow and be where you are happy. Thank you for making and sharing this video.

XT's enthusiasm is infectious! Great advert for the company. They all were. Good job!

XT is an absolute legend, you can tell how much he loves his job he's so passionate and he was actually extremely good at explaining that issue to where I felt like I could understand what he was saying even though I do not have any background with coding.

XT was the only important part of all those interviews. It really must be amazing to have a guy like him as a Project Manager/ Tech lead.

Wow! I couldn’t have expected it be better! Thanks for making this video

I could hear XT talk all day. To be able to express thoughts so succinctly, so honest.

With 18 years of experience, XT can easily become a CTO in any company but he chose to stay in Google. That is dedication.

Love the work you've done. I'd love to see more content on google recruitments specifically for non-tech roles. Thanks.

This was such a good video, so many nice people and great perspectives and advice. Thank you for the video!

As an Amazonian, I would say that DO NOT expect to get an offer at a specific company. Just try your luck at all the nice companies out there and go to the one that lands. I got rejected by over 10 companies but they served as interview practice which helped me land the role at Amazon. Looking back, if all the companies that rejected had given me an offer, Amazon would've been the best option for me still.

Watched about 30% in and then skipped to see XT's interview. Very good advice, and it applies to many industries, not only Software Engineering. Understanding the fundamentals and how things work behind the scenes, this will give you the ability to really problem solve, design, and troubleshoot your specific platform/product. An example would be when designing a house, you must understand not only the building materials, but also soil conditions and how soil behaves in that region from season to season. A more complicated example is understanding differential equations and inverse kinematics so well that you can write out at least the equations for operating a single joint robot by hand. Anything beyond that and I'm turning to Matlab. There will be upwards of 100+ variables with 4 joints if you include moments of inertia, accelerations per COM, centers of masses (COM), sensory feedback from things like rotary encoders, angular acceleration, limits on maximum angle per joint, etc. The point is, if you understood the physics & math behind that, you would be able to pull off things like Boston Robotics does. The dances are all just mathematics & coding when you break it down. One interview with a woman who programs some of the dancing talked about how you just play with the equations to get the movements you want.

Yes, that’s the best advice so far. Many people only know how to use things but don’t really understand how they work.

Xiangtian is exactly like one of my favorite computer science professors. Also a Chinese(I'm Chinese myself), when talking about algorithms and some topic in cs, his face will always light up and have infinite words about them. Amazing. I hope I can be an engineer like them, being passionate about things I love all the time, and always inspirational to next generation.

I could watch the interview with XT for hours. On top of his personality he has a lot to share. Love that guy❤

Besides being wholesome, XT explained that empty cache problem masterfully, what a cool guy

I loved my time at Google, was really happy there. I agree with XT that it's more about who you work with and what you are working on that makes a role satisfying

Thanks for including different kinds of people, men, women, younger, older, seniors, juniors... love seeing the variety

Great 2mins by XT. The sheer passion and enthusiasm says it all

XT sounds exactly like my machine learning professor! He is the professor with the highest funding in my university and his enthusiasm is fantastic.

This is such a motivation! Great video Kevin

People like XT is why I love programming, honestly we could all learn a bit from him. We should approach challenges with genuine passion and curiosity, and spend less time thinking about competition and our relationship with colleagues.

Wow that last guy was really humble and explained a lot from his experience. Thanks Kevin 😊👍

XT is very articulate, I'm not particularly interested in working for google or being a software engineer, but I enjoyed his insight

I think XT gave the best advice & the wholesome moment is dude remembers first projects bugs

XT gave me the real and useful advices for me as a sophomore pursuing software engineer career, great talk and I did really appreciate this. Thanks from Vietnam.

you can understand why XT has been there for 18 years. he loves what he does. you can just feel it in his voice and expressions, and the advice.

That problem of different languages working only after second load and it's explanation by XT is amazing. Even with 18 years in Google and so down to earth.

Absolutely respect the guy called XT; he is not just sharing how to join Google, but also share the insights on how to be a software engineer in a good manner. I really hope to have the chance to work with this amazing person someday.

Awesome interview! I came back to this channel after many years and I found those interview leetcode playlists gone. :( Those were really very educative.

XT is a Legend. Thank you Kevin for the awesome experience sharing.

XT is good vibes! This is the type of person I would love to work with if I was at Google. Great personality. These are the folks that make awesome team members and coworkers.

He reminds me of a supervisor I had, my supervisor would never give up and find a solution for clients she will know a lot about the company since she is been there for 20 plus years but something I admired of her is that even when she knew a lot of operations of the company she was always open to learn from her subordinates.

Hey! *ERIC* , What's your name?

XT made my day, what a fun and humble guy.

I have never heard of someone passing any FAANG interview without getting the questions correct. When my friends and I went through the process, we passed every round until we did not solve a certain question optimally. I do not feel like the advice being given is genuine about you don't have to get the question correct. That or some people must get really lucky with their interviewer. My friend even solved every question correct and still got rejected. At least that is what he told me.

God dang it, XT was SOOO wise. Thank you so much for that little piece of advice

thank you so much for the subtitles, English is not my first language so it was a bit hard to understand what XT was saying but his advices are great!

Kevin, you know what you gotta do next, a full review with XT!

Thank you @Kevin, this is a really nice video. I am glad you chose this format. I must say XT needs his own channel, the man is very wise!

Amazing how 18 years ago google found such a gem of an employee. Passionate, enthusiastic, sociable, and clearly very bright

That last guy is such a bright light in this world, I wish more people were like him!!

This video is taken in front of the MP1 building, which is one of the buildings I interned at Google this summer. I did not get an return offer after my internship and it breaks my heart. I have left the Bay Area for a while now and seeing this video really makes me miss the time I spent there. I thing I learnt from this is that just doing leetcode is not enough and I must practice on my CS skills. Hope I can come back one day! Thanks for your video ❤

The Indian guys were straight to the point and gave most practical answers. But best was the experienced person at the end. Good advice.

XT is very sweet! Thank you for valuable advice.

man the 18yr software engineer was precious, i've the same excitement when speaking of coding and i'm sure i'll have the same in 20yrs. I would have ask him what he thought about AI and their possible role in replacing developers.

The guy that's been there for 17 years, I love his story about the bug he had. It's the best feeling to troubleshoot a problem and figure it all out.

last guy is so kind and generous 😊😊😊 and you also my friend who is patient listening to him 😅

Really cool! Thanks for the insights

I teach middle school CS. I will use this one for the start of my Advanced Game Design, (Pygame) class from now on. Thank You, Kevin

Everyone can be a software engineer but not everyone can be a good one. How to become a good one? Try to understand deeply on how things work. Really Try! Thanks for the valuable advice XT!

XT stands out... he is definitely a great mentor for sure. Lucky engineers who work under him.

Dude Ashatoth gives such sick answers and energy. Sounds like he really knows what he's doing and is really confident

XT's a genius. I love the passion he has for his job.

Love XT and his expressions. 😹😹👏🏽 Great advice too. Amazing video Kevin!!! 🤝🏽

The last interview with Xiangtian was really insightful, this kind of guy has wisdom and knowledge we all can learn.. overall great interviews!

Imagine that guy worked for 18 years and got layed off with just a cold hearted email 😞

I have watched XT's interview almost 10 times and I am not bored. He must be a sweet guy to work with.

XT picked all eyes for sure great advice be yourself ❤

Didn't Google just layoff 12000 people via email?

I love the video man .. please do more of these but from different companies including startups Also like the part where you ask them about the technologies to use I think thats very important especially for confused starters like me..Thanks man

More interviews with XT please!!

Love all the responses. Love the person who has completed 18 years. Totally. thank you!!

I love how XT explained the localization issue.

*I am really happy to watch this video, especially the views of XT, XT is a senior engineer and he is so humble, I am so happy and i feel like I am at google now* 🚀🤗

Love this video! XT is incredible

XT was really enjoyable to listen to. His advice resonates off of his personality and you can tell it’s genuine

All fun and games until your badge stops working and you get emailed a link to a news article saying google is laying people off

Last person’s worldview was amazing and so much to learn from. Thanks Kevin!

Thank you very much for reminding me how lucky I am working for G as a software engineer, during the hard time now, I hope I can go through with G, I will try my best.

"Just calm down" thanks for the mind blowing advice

XT was so nice! Loved every interview. Thanks for sharing Kevin :)

thanks alot for uploading this video, loved the answers from engineers and XT is great & cool guy

The advices given by the software engineers at Google in the video are: Allison: Keep trying, never give up in your quest to get into Google. Eric: Don't stress out too much over preparing for the interview, it's not all about solving leetcode problems. Another Engineer: Be yourself during the interviewing process, and don't spend too much time on leetcode. Ashutosh: Work on your basics, and understanding some cool concepts. Focus on threading, parallelization, and similar concepts. Yusuf: Show that you have problem-solving abilities. You don't have to get the question exactly right, but showing that you understand the processes and algorithms would make a difference. Another Engineer: You should be able to use the Java collection framework and data structures well to be able to solve problems. Shantanu: If you have the basics down, you can crack the interview. Other companies might ask trick questions, but Google focuses more on the basics. Another Engineer: Don't give up if you don't find a suitable role immediately. Sometimes even more perfect roles come up. Equity: Understand how things work. Try hard to understand how to make things work. Look at the kind of interview questions Google asks and prepare for them, but focus most on what you want to do as an engineer. Think about the skill sets you want to have and grow them. These tips are a summary of the personal advice given by different software engineers at Google. They all had a common theme about focusing on basic concepts, problem solving, and personal growth. They also emphasized the importance of being yourself and not giving up.

As a software developer, I appreciate the latest one Googler's advice. I hope I can find my dream job and devote my energy for a long time to a company.

I hope to be as humble and excited as XT after almost 18 years at the company!

XT is an awesome man, so humble and passionate about his business, I wish I have him as my mentor

Great interviews !

The last guy is really inspiring. A true master of his work as you would seen those elder martial arts masters in movies

The last guy was so nice and humble

Starting my Software Engineering journey in 2023 and already got a Google shirt I found in a thrift store. I also know what I want to do when I finish my course and I'm ready for the challenge!

Real advice: If you want to work in tech, rethink what boxes you check (this includes your name, if you think those survey questions are anonymous.)

XT's talk was soooo wholesome💫

07:50 "I just look at the code just by staring stari sta sta sta sta" 😂. I love XT!

THE TECH LEAD SPOTTED AT 4:48!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!