# Tech Interviews With NeetCode ![rw-book-cover](https://readwise-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/static/images/article1.be68295a7e40.png) ## Metadata - Author: [[The Pragmatic Engineer]] - Full Title: Tech Interviews With NeetCode - Category: #articles - Summary: NeetCode, a former Amazon and Google engineer, built a popular platform to help people prepare for coding interviews. He believes deep expertise and hard problem-solving are still key skills, even with AI tools. Neet also says effort and motivation matter more than coding alone in today’s tech world. ## Highlights - **2. The CAP theorem’s “two of three” framing is widely taught but technically shaky.** Neet felt that is an awkward theorem that is incomplete, and felt validated when Martin Kleppmann [publicly criticized it too](https://substack.com/redirect/c40d5049-d1e0-4dd3-bde3-13dac2d90946?j=eyJ1IjoiNnk1cGEzIn0.uLkHlSpgEAOG6OfYp8t6nFzA14wcTzIgc-n4e_yYtz8). This is a good reminder that it’s worth thinking for yourself, and not accepting theorems as true, without understanding them. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kw58jnnwm2097z8syzqgjmme)) - **3. Amazon’s intense culture left Neet in afraid to ask for help – and that paradoxically, this helped him at Google.** At Neet’s first job, he became used to work alone and to never ask questions, and continued this working style at Google. At Gooogle, his Google manager read him as independent: and thanks to this independence, he got promoted very quickly from L3 to L4 (to the mid-level engineering role.) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kw58kp916xx5w48sdevszcx4)) - **6. Neet finds AI most valuable as a tech-debt and refactoring assistant.** Neet is using AI to clean up years of very bad code quality on the Neetcode backend. Doint so also validates his original decision to take shortcuts because they could later be corrected. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kw58qarb4adc5eck66acykgd)) - **8. Predictions of coding’s death haven’t materialized as expected.** Despite dramatic AI model improvements, Neet does not observe most engineers aren’t being laid off. In fact, he sees the opposite: devs doing more work than before! ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kw58r9aymg02q4vdh1rnb1kt))