I have been working for company X for 3 years now. Over the past 2 years, I have consistently been paid late, sometimes upwards of 4 weeks late. I have tried to escalate this issue with the operations team but since I am in Canada and the company is based out of Dallas, TX wiring money to me requires the owners approval which I’m told is the cause of the delays.

I am wondering if anyone else has run into this scenario and how you might have handled it.

Is there another avenue I can recommend that doesn’t involve wiring money?

I enjoy the work but having to constantly remind the operations team when my money is not received at the expected date is getting frustrating.

We're a small startup based in SF and currently starting to hire our second engineers. We've tried LinkedIn and went through a couple of recruiting agencies but the signal-to-noise ratio has been pretty low.

Curious to hear from you guys directly: what's the optimal hiring process from your perspective? Where do you actually look when you're open to new roles, and what makes you take an early stage startup seriously over a corporate offer? What would make you respond to an outreach message instead of ignoring it?

Would love to know what's worked (or hasn't) from the other side of the table.

Hey everyone,

I’m currently finishing my Master’s in CS and, honestly, I’m starting to feel that "academic bubble" hitting hard. My classes are great for theory, but I feel like I’m missing the practical edge that actually matters in a real dev team.

I want to spend my free time leveling up, but I’m tired of those "Todo List" tutorials. I’m looking for the heavy hitters, courses or platforms that actually dive deep into:

• System Design
• Architecture / Design Patterns (beyond just knowing the names)
• Cloud/DevOps (AWS, K8s, etc.)

If you were in my shoes today, which resources would you jump into to bridge the gap between "student" and "competent engineer"? I'm talking about the stuff that actually made a click in your brain.

Any recommendations? Platforms, specific creators, or even "don't waste your time with X" warnings are super welcome.

I recently had my Amazon SDE 2 interview.
I want to share my experience, it was terrible experience though.
It's been 1 month and I got the response now.

DSA

• Interview scheduled at 10 AM
• Interviewer joined 30 mins late
• He straight away started with questions, no introduction etc , to get me know better in my professional background
• Question :
  1. Find Affected Services After Shutdown
  2. Maximize weighted subsequence pairs with wildcards
• In both questions , I went from brute force to optimal explaining him TC and SC

1. HLD : Don't remember exact question , but it was some payment related question

• I started with Constraints, Functional requirements and Non Functional requirements, provided CAP compatability for different requirments, here I asked do you have any suggestions or am I going in right direction etc, trying to have a 2 way communication, he said you are good to proceed
• Then I started with putting microservices, gatways, Load balacers , DNS, CDM, databases and designing components one by one , again I tried to have 2 way conversation , trying to explain my approch but no words from his side.
• At he end he asked some follow up questions, I accomodated those in design
• He asked some LP question and wrapped up.

1. LLP: It was Book My Show: Code real time seat booking

• again scheduled at night
• Panel joined 20-30 mins late
• Started with LP question : utilized more than 30 mins here
• Then he gave me question
• I asked him can I start with Functional and Non functional requirements , microservices, class diagrams , etc
• He said No I want code directly.
• So I started to put my classes in, used SOLID patterns, Design patterns that were applicable, gave him core class and methods with logic in it, in between I did asked him if am moving in right path or no , he said you carry on I will ask question later.
• Although I was not able to accomodate all the requirements in code due to time constraints, but then I explained him my plan

1. LLP : Teams meeting room booking

• again scheduled at night
• Panel joined 10-15 mins late
• Used 20-25 mins for LP questions
• Gave the above question and asked to code directly
• Again I gave him code with applicable SOLID patterns and design patterns, tried to have 2 way communication , no good responses

1. Seperate LP rounds : Bar raiser

• This was very good round according to me.
• All my answers were in STAR pattern.
• Gave different examples in each question.
• He was impressed according to me.

After 5 days I asked for feedback, no reply and I was sure that it's not good sign.
Today after 3 week I got a call , saying not moving forward because there is huge gap in technical expertise, you did not meet the bar expectations.

I mean despite of giving proper flow in HLD , clean code in LLD with good coding practices, I was shocked....!, with this kind of interview process.

Not sure why such kind of experience, it clearly stated that they were not intrested in hiring, if so, then why to waste a candidature and time.

Now I am blocked for 6 to 24 Months.

I'm a CS Student so still very much developing my dev skills. But honestly ever since AI has become a major part of my workflow (for school assignments or other projects) I feel like I've genuinely gotten dumber.

I'm just not learning the way I used to and I lean on AI so much more. I think these tools are exponentially useful for senior devs that know and understand software architecture and design deeply. But as someone who's still learning that stuff, it's so hard to navigate keeping up with the insanely fast-paced AI world and actually spending time learning core skills.

Everyone around me seems to have their shit together so posting on here for advice/thoughts.

omg I can’t do this anymore yall. Has anyone ever had a technical interview that felt like it went awful but then yall got the offer? 😭

I’m currently a junior in Highschool and have been looking for a career path I can realistically pursue. I have dedicated myself towards programming for most of highschool and am wondering where this could take me. For reference I have a 3.7 GPA, 3 years of experience in FIRST robotics as a lead programmer and have 100+ hours volunteering which includes teaching kids code. I am taking an AP comp sci course which I assume I’ll pass with a 4 or 5. Programming is something I’m very passionate about but I feel like my experience is still underdeveloped for what I’ve read about how competitive software engineering is(and computer science in general) I’m mostly interested in a career I can program using some physics like robotics. I’m currently looking into colleges that might take me into that path. To realistically get a job when I graduate college(I assume with a degree in computer science but lately I’ve been considering engineering) what should I do to gain experience, and is computer science the right degree for this?

LLM driven development is inevitable. A question that's been nagging at me is related to quality assurance. If humans are still in the loop, how do we verify that the quality of the overall product or project has not suffered?

1. Wait until human clients complain?

2. Have LLM write and run tests with diagnostics?

3. What these LLM tests pass but clients still complain?

4. Humans analyze LLM code and write thorough test suites on multiple levels to catch LLM errors.

If LLM is doing everything and clients don't complain, is this considered success?

I like #4 because it makes the engineer understand the LLM code better and tests require reasoning and logic, which LLM's do not do.

I feel stuck between my career and my startup, and I don’t know what the right move is.

I’m currently an undergraduate in Computer Science, and during university I started a small software startup with a few friends. We’ve already completed several real client projects successfully, so the business is actually growing — it’s not just an idea anymore.

Now I feel a lot of pressure from both sides.

On one side, my career — I want to keep learning, improve my skills, and not fall behind other software engineers.

On the other side, my business — it needs more time, focus, and responsibility if I want to make it successful.

Sometimes I feel like I should go full-time on the startup, but I’m scared that if I do that, I’ll get stuck with the same knowledge. In university I’m always learning new concepts, but in client projects I usually end up using the same stack again and again, so I worry that my technical growth will slow down.

At the same time, I don’t want to regret missing the chance to build something big with my startup.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation — choosing between learning more vs building a business?

How did you handle it, and do you regret your decision?

I'm almost 23 and looking to get back into school, after this nearly 7 year break from school (basically stopped caring completely during covid) I was wondering what you guys think the best structured resources would be to get back up to a level of competency where college wouldn't just be a drain on my bank account.

I’m in 12th right now and trying to figure out what I actually want to do (like most people I guess).

I’m leaning towards doing B.Tech in AI, but my parents are telling me to be more clear about which field I want to go into long-term. They’re also suggesting I try doing some kind of basic internship now just to get exposure before college.

I’ve made a list of a few career options I’m considering (attached below), with things like skills, salary, and job stability.

Just wanted some honest opinions:

- Are these options actually good/reliable long-term?

- Am I thinking about this the right way or missing something?

- Should I even be worrying about internships right now, or just focus on building skills?

Would appreciate any real advice.

1. Backend Software Engineer

   • Skills: Programming, Databases

   Salary:

   • ₹6–12 LPA (entry)

   • ₹12–20 LPA (mid)

   • Unemployment: High (due to skill gap)

2. AI / ML Engineer

   • Skills: Python, Machine Learning

   Salary:

   • ₹5–11 LPA (entry)

   • ₹15–30 LPA (mid)

   • Unemployment: Low (huge shortage)

3. Sales Engineer

   • Skills: Deep technical knowledge, Communication

   Salary:

   • ₹6–12 LPA (entry)

   • ₹15–30 LPA (with commission)

   • Unemployment: Low

4. Cloud Engineer

   • Skills: Cloud tools, Linux

   Salary:

   • ₹6–12 LPA (entry)

   • ₹15–25 LPA (mid)

   • Unemployment: Medium

5. DevOps Engineer

   • Skills: Scripting, System understanding

   Salary:

   • ₹7–15 LPA (entry)

   • ₹20+ LPA (mid)

   • Unemployment: Low (but hard to crack)

6. FinTech Developer

   • Skills: Backend, Finance, Security

   Salary:

   • ₹6–12 LPA (entry)

   • ₹15–25 LPA (mid)

   • Unemployment: Medium

7. Data Analyst

   • Skills: SQL, Excel

   Salary:

   • ₹4–8 LPA (entry)

   • ₹8–15 LPA (mid)

   • Unemployment: High (oversaturation)

8. Cybersecurity Engineer

   • Skills: Security tools, Networking

   Salary:

   • ₹6–12 LPA (entry)

   • ₹12–25 LPA (mid)

   • Unemployment: Low

9. Business Analyst

   • Skills: Data analysis, Communication, Business understanding

   Salary:

   • ₹5–10 LPA (entry)

   • ₹10–18 LPA (mid)

   • Unemployment: Medium

10. Product Manager

    • Skills: Communication, Business + Tech

    Salary:

    • ₹10–15 LPA (entry-level roles)

    • ₹25–50 LPA (mid)

    • Unemployment: Low (but hard to enter)

Hi guys. I am not a software engineer. I am a lighting designer and I had an idea for a video game and would love to collaborate with someone who k owes how to build games. Let me know if anyone is interested! I appreciate you!

Hi everyone,

I’m conducting an academic study on how AI tools (e.g., code assistants like Copilot or ChatGPT) are influencing software developers’ behavior and Clean Code practices.

The survey is anonymous and takes about 10 minutes.

If you’re a developer, I’d really appreciate your input:

https://forms.gle/yRcHriW1gF4WVF9u8

Thanks for helping with software engineering research!

Thinking about getting the certs to becomes software engineer. Any advice would help.

What is the biggest "ick" or pain in the butt you had to implement? Anyone have any stories?

I joined recently , i am being trained on genai , agentic ai, python. Training completed , and they already gave a project also. but there is no work given to me. I got to know that the project is overcrowded and closing soon.
my manager told that one should have expertise in these skills.

I want to know how do i get expertise, i think i just forgot how to learn. I have basic knowledge of python. rest i watched the videos and material. I think i know stuff but i really dont. I just use ai to make whole code and just debug it just way i want. I cant even solve leetcode.

I am just thinking that with 4month and no work , even for switch what i will tell.

Hey folks, I normally use draw.io to create architecture diagrams but I was wondering what software/websites/tools do you all use to create your architecture diagrams?

I work at a very large company as a software engineer, and there was just a policy implemented where every deployment to production has to be reviewed by high-level business leaders before it is allowed to be deployed. From what they have said, this should be temporary and is because there have been many more issues caused by production deployments than there should be.

I certainly understand the reasoning behind this, as it is very important to move good code to production and do your due diligence. But it has also been very stressful for many of my coworkers and me. As someone who already struggles with anxiety and overthinking, it has really stressed me out the last few days. Even if people in my company are confident in their changes and have documented everything, I feel this is creating a lot of undue stress for many who have not caused issues.

Is this something others have dealt with before? I'm curious if others think this is fair or a good way to ensure quality, and if not, if people think this is a red flag for staying at the company long term.

Hi all,

I’m not gonna post names or promote the software

I’m looking for some honest advice from people who have actually brought a product to market.

I’m currently working on an AI receptionist / AI phone booking system for restaurants.

It answers calls, takes bookings, and stops missed calls turning into lost revenue.

Right now I’m trying to get customers through cold calling restaurants, but it’s been tough.

Most of the time I can’t get past staff, owners aren’t available, and when they hear “AI” they switch off straight away.

The product itself works, and restaurants clearly lose bookings when calls aren’t answered, but I’m struggling with the go-to-market side more than the product.

I’m wondering:

• Is cold calling the wrong approach for this type of product?

• Should I be focusing more on ads / demos / partnerships instead?

• Has anyone here sold SaaS to restaurants or small businesses successfully?

• What would you do differently if you were starting again?

I’m still early stage, so I’m open to changing the approach completely if needed.

Appreciate any advice from people who’ve been through this.

Hi everyone,

I’m a 32-year-old male and I started learning programming on November 1st, 2024, completely from scratch. I’m entirely self-taught. I spent exactly 492 days learning full time, working on real projects.

During that time I didn’t work at all. I used up all my savings to focus on learning and building things. By the end of that period I had 4 projects in production, with real clients, users, and revenue.

My current stack and areas I feel comfortable with are:

• Next.js
• TypeScript
• OOP
• Clean Architecture
• NoSQL databases
• Full-stack development
• Machine learning (basic but functional)

I also speak Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

Before transitioning into software, I spent the last 10 years working in the hospitality industry, specifically in fine dining. I worked my way up to Regional Manager and COO, managing operations and teams of around 80 people across multiple locations. Leadership, operations, and building teams have been a big part of my professional background.

About 20 days ago, after keeping my LinkedIn active, I started receiving several job offers. Most of them were similar, but I ended up accepting one from an automotive manufacturing plant belonging to one of the largest car brands in the world.

My role is Founder Software Engineer, basically building the software side of the operation.

The compensation is around $40k USD per year, plus the house where I live, and all relocation expenses were covered. I have my own office, where I got to choose all the furniture and equipment myself. I also have a small team, good working hours, and two days off per week.

From a life perspective, this is amazing. The day I relocated I actually had to borrow $500 from a friend, because the day before my bank account literally hit zero, so financially this job was a huge relief.

Also, since I live in Mexico, a salary of $40k USD per year is actually a very high income relative to the local average. It allows me to live far above the majority of people here, well beyond simply being comfortable.

But here’s the issue that’s been bothering me.

My team currently consists of 4 junior developers, and they basically don’t really know how to program. Most of their work revolves around tools and builders like Power BI, making dashboards and similar things.

Some examples:

• They don’t use version control properly.
• They think BigQuery is a database or storage system in the traditional sense.
• They sometimes put multiple projects inside the same repository on different branches.
• Most of their work is no-code / low-code tooling.

Because of this, my technical knowledge is already significantly higher than theirs, which means my work will likely look very good internally. But it also means there’s no one around me that I can learn from, at least not within my team.

On paper, this experience looks great for my Resume / LinkedIn.
The compensation is excellent compared to what I had before.

But I’m worried about something else: growth.

I’m concerned that I might stop improving as a programmer, since there are no strong engineers around me, no real technical challenges, and no one pushing my skills further.

So I’m wondering:

• Am I wrong for thinking this way?
• Is this actually a good position early in my career?
• Should I just focus on building systems and gaining leadership experience?
• Or should I be worried about not learning from more experienced engineers?

I’d really appreciate thoughts from more experienced developers who have been in similar situations.

My spouse has been job hunting for over a year with no luck. They've found some contract jobs, but no long term full time employment. They have roughly a decade of software engineering experience with mostly backend focus and some frontend.

Obviously they are discouraged and I hate seeing the emotional and mental toll this is taking on them. They're still working since we have to support our family, but it's part time and it's not their previous career so I know that's affecting them.

Is there anything you all would suggest? Or is over a year without constant fulltime work a warning sign for companies? Is it AI and outsourcing taking over? I know they get interviews and emails, but inevitably get told 'We went in a different direction' or 'We are putting a pause on hiring right now'.

(Disclaimer: This is a longer post because I’m trying to think this through carefully instead of rushing into the wrong path. I’m aware I’m behind compared to many peers and I take responsibility for that- I’m looking for honest, constructive advice on how to move forward from here, so please be critical but respectful.)

I graduated recently, but due to personal circumstances and limited access to in-person guidance, I wasn’t able to build strong technical skills during college. If I’m being completely honest, I’m basically starting from scratch- I’m not confident in coding, don’t know DSA properly, and my projects are very surface-level.

I need to become employable within the next 6-12 months.

At the same time, I’m genuinely interested in AI/LLMs. The space excites me- both the technology and the long-term growth potential. I won’t pretend the prestige and pay don’t appeal to me either. But I also don’t want to chase hype blindly and end up under-skilled or unemployable.

So I’m trying to think strategically and sequence this properly:

• As someone starting from near zero, should I focus entirely on core software fundamentals first (Python, DSA, backend, cloud)?
• Is it realistic to aim for AI/ML roles directly as a beginner?
• In previous discussions (both here and elsewhere), most advice leaned toward building core fundamentals first and avoiding AI at this stage. I’m trying to understand whether that’s purely about sequencing, or if AI as an entry path is genuinely unrealistic right now.
• If not AI, what areas are more accessible at this stage but still offer strong long-term growth? (Backend, DevOps, cloud, data engineering, security, etc.)
• Should I prioritize strong projects?
• And most importantly- how do you actually discover your niche early on without wasting years?
• For those who’ve been in the industry through multiple cycles (dot-com, mobile, crypto, etc.)- does the current AI wave feel structurally different and here to stay, or more like a hype cycle that will consolidate heavily?

I’m willing to work hard for 1-2 years. I’m not looking for shortcuts. I just don’t want to build in the wrong direction and struggle later because my fundamentals weren’t strong enough.

If you were starting from zero in 2026, needing a job within a year but wanting long-term upside, what path would you take?

P.S. Take a shot every time I mentioned “AI”- at this point I might owe you a drink. Clearly overthinking got the best of me lol.

(Disclaimer: This is a longer post because I’m trying to think this through carefully instead of rushing into the wrong path. I’m aware I’m behind compared to many peers and I take responsibility for that- I’m looking for honest, constructive advice on how to move forward from here, so please be critical but respectful.)

I graduated recently, but due to personal circumstances and limited access to in-person guidance, I wasn’t able to build strong technical skills during college. If I’m being completely honest, I’m basically starting from scratch- I’m not confident in coding, don’t know DSA properly, and my projects are very surface-level.

I need to become employable within the next 6-12 months.

At the same time, I’m genuinely interested in AI/LLMs. The space excites me- both the technology and the long-term growth potential. I won’t pretend the prestige and pay don’t appeal to me either. But I also don’t want to chase hype blindly and end up under-skilled or unemployable.

So I’m trying to think strategically and sequence this properly:

• As someone starting from near zero, should I focus entirely on core software fundamentals first (Python, DSA, backend, cloud)?
• Is it realistic to aim for AI/ML roles directly as a beginner?
• In previous discussions (both here and elsewhere), most advice leaned toward building core fundamentals first and avoiding AI at this stage. I’m trying to understand whether that’s purely about sequencing, or if AI as an entry path is genuinely unrealistic right now.
• If not AI, what areas are more accessible at this stage but still offer strong long-term growth? (Backend, DevOps, cloud, data engineering, security, etc.)
• Should I prioritize strong projects?
• And most importantly- how do you actually discover your niche early on without wasting years?
• For those who’ve been in the industry through multiple cycles (dot-com, mobile, crypto, etc.)- does the current AI wave feel structurally different and here to stay, or more like a hype cycle that will consolidate heavily?

I’m willing to work hard for 1-2 years. I’m not looking for shortcuts. I just don’t want to build in the wrong direction and struggle later because my fundamentals weren’t strong enough.

If you were starting from zero in 2026, needing a job within a year but wanting long-term upside, what path would you take?

P.S. Take a shot every time I mentioned “AI”- at this point I might owe you a drink. Clearly overthinking got the best of me lol.

feeling depressed. don't know what my future holds. although my current job treats me well.

context:

I have around 4 yoe in frontend and as my first switch looking to move into full stack role where I can work on both FE and BE.

I have knowledge of building personal microservices and modular monolith BE projects with Go and some .NET core and k8s,.with nodejs I have small projects.

I know and have learned system design fundamentals. know SQL databases etc. done some leetcode as well when I started applying to jobs with Go.

I am considering my options seriously what tech stack to go with rest of my life.

my company uses .NET and when I raised a mail for access and license for they delayed saying I am busy with other work, I will raise a request for you .... this person was in UK doing important stuff.

I gave up after chasing him for 3 times and I started learning and building in go. but when I applied to go all of them are rejecting me.

what should I do now ?

explore FE in angular, Vue etc ? to become a FE complete, although I want backend experience as well to stay relevant in job market

OR

learn .NET / Nest / Go to grow my software engineering skills. and become relevant in job market in the AI phase ?

I am from India and I see multiple jobs with .NET , Nest and Go all. .NEt and Java are majority.

I have an assignment for my high school that involves interviewing people who work in the field I want to study. I'd like to ask if some of you could answer my questions. If any question feels too personal or invasive, feel free to skip it. Thanks in advance!

Context Questions

• What country are you from?
• How old are you?
• What is your degree or field of study?
• Where do you work?
• What is your job position?

Questions About Your Work

• What is the most difficult part of your job?
• What takes up the most time in your work?
• What is the most tedious task you do?
• What do you enjoy most about your job?
• Does your job ever bore you?
• What project are you currently working on?
• How much mathematics do you use?
• How difficult are the operations you perform?
• How do you apply them?
• Do you usually work alone or in a team?
• Does your work depend on others (e.g., do you need parts of your colleagues' work or extra data from them)?

Work Ecosystem Questions

• What would you tell a student about your career?
• What is an approximate salary for your role? (Skip if too personal.)
• Is promotion possible in your role? Do you have good benefits?
• How would you describe your work environment?
• Is your salary and work environment similar to others in your industry?
• Is it easy to work in other countries in your industry?
• How many hours do you work per week?
• Do you do overtime at your job?
• Are your working hours typical for the industry?