Interview Glossary
25 essential terms used in tech interviews and compensation discussions. Each entry explains the meaning, common context, and links to related concepts and prep resources.
A Bar Raiser is an Amazon-specific interviewer role: a senior employee from outside the hiring team who has veto power on the hire decision.…
A behavioral interview is a 30-45 minute round focused on past experiences and soft skills, structured around questions like 'tell me about …
Blind 75 is a curated list of 75 essential LeetCode problems covering all major patterns. Originally posted on Blind (the anonymous workplac…
A debrief is the meeting (usually 1-2 days after the loop) where all interviewers and the hiring manager discuss the candidate and make a hi…
A downlevel is when the company offers the candidate a lower level than originally interviewed for. Often happens at L5/E5 candidates gettin…
FAANG is an acronym for Facebook (Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (Alphabet), historically used to refer to the most prestigious a…
A hiring committee is a group of senior employees (separate from the interviewing team) who review the full interview packet and make the fi…
LD usually means Low Diff (low difficulty) or Leadership/Design depending on context. On 1Point3Acres and Blind, 'LD' often refers to lower-…
Amazon's 16 Leadership Principles (LPs) are the framework Amazon uses for every behavioral question across hiring, promotion, and review. In…
LeetCode (leetcode.com) is the dominant online platform for coding interview practice, hosting 3,500+ problems tagged by company, topic, and…
LL is shorthand for Lower Level (a junior-leaning loop) or sometimes Linked List. In Amazon context, LL is also Leadership (vs LP for Leader…
An interview loop is the full set of interviews after the phone screen: typically 4-6 rounds in a single day (onsite or virtual onsite) cove…
MAANG is the updated version of FAANG after Facebook rebranded to Meta in 2021: Meta, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google. Some variants include …
NeetCode (neetcode.io) is a popular YouTube + website resource for coding interview prep, run by an ex-Google engineer. The NeetCode 150 lis…
An OA is an Online Assessment: a timed coding challenge sent to candidates before phone screens. Typically 60-120 minutes, 2-4 problems, aut…
Onsite refers to the in-person (or virtual onsite) loop after phone screen: 4-6 back-to-back rounds in a single day. Post-2020 most onsites …
A phone screen is a 45-60 minute technical interview conducted over phone or video call, typically the first live human round after OA. Usua…
RSU stands for Restricted Stock Unit: company stock granted as part of compensation, vesting over time (typically 4 years). The majority of …
A sign-on bonus is a one-time cash payment given to a new hire, typically $25K-$200K depending on level. Used to make offers competitive and…
STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) is the standard framework for structuring behavioral interview answers. Each story should hit all fou…
A system design interview is a 45-60 minute round where you design a large-scale distributed system (Twitter, Uber, TinyURL, etc.) on a whit…
Team match is a post-loop stage at companies like Google and Meta where the candidate (now approved by HC) is matched to a specific team. Us…
Total comp (TC) is the sum of base salary + bonus + RSU value (annualized) + sign-on bonus (annualized over 4 years). The standard comparabl…
TPS stands for Technical Phone Screen, used interchangeably with 'phone screen'. A 45-60 minute remote coding interview, usually one problem…
Vesting is the process by which an employee earns ownership of RSU grants over time. The standard FAANG vesting schedule is 4 years with a 1…
Related: Coding patterns · System design problems · All guides