The Screenshot That Sparked a Dream: My Google Interview Journey

Here's a screenshot of the ever-exciting Google referral page.

I’m incredibly grateful to a friend from my university’s Computer Science department who kindly referred me. Thanks to that, I had the amazing opportunity to go through four onsite interviews with Google.

In the end, I accepted an offer from another company and moved to a different country instead of the U.S., but the entire journey was an unforgettable and genuinely enjoyable experience as a software engineer.

LA Santa Monica Beach

This photo is of Santa Monica Beach in LA. It was also the background of the beach in GTA5.

LA is in Southern California. I had an interview at Apple's Longbeach office a few years ago. I was curious about this photo and looked it up.

I didn't get in, but I want to go on a trip someday and visit Santa Monica Beach, which was the background of GTA5.

Epic Games Headquarter in Cary, NC and Fortnite

This is the headquarters building of Epic Games located in Cary, NC.

I've been enjoying Epic's games since Jazz Jack Rabbit.

Recently, I went through the final interview as a Senior Mobile Platform Engineer but unfortunately didn't make it in the end.

However, it was truly a great experience and I could tell that the company is at the top tier technologically.

Unreal Engine is a multi-platform solution that can be used not only for mobile and PC but also for vehicle QNX systems, and the interview questions went deep into Linux knowledge.

The interview was more challenging than any I've experienced with FAANG big tech companies.

 

Golden Gate Bridge Photo

 A scene from the Silicon Valley drama

One day, I will get a job as a software engineer in Silicon Valley, move here with my family, and take a picture here.

Android add custom bitmap to Fresco image library cache

fun addCache(key: String, bitmap: Bitmap) {
    // add cache to memory
    val cacheKey = SimpleCacheKey(key)
    val imagePipeline = Fresco.getImagePipeline()
    val closeableBitmap = CloseableStaticBitmap(
        bitmap,
        {
            it.recycle()
        },
        ImmutableQualityInfo.FULL_QUALITY,
        0, 0
    )

    imagePipeline.bitmapMemoryCache.cache(cacheKey, CloseableReference.of(closeableBitmap))

    // add cache to disk
    val stream = ByteArrayOutputStream()
    bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, stream)
    val byteArray = stream.toByteArray()
    Fresco.getImagePipelineFactory().mainFileCache.insert(cacheKey) { outputStream ->
        outputStream.write(byteArray)
    }
}