I was reached out to by a recruiter, and the initial interview had two parts: one coding round and one networking round. For the coding portion, I was asked two LeetCode-style questions: matching parentheses and Battleship, including a follow-up question. I was able to solve both and explain my approach clearly. The networking portion, however, went much deeper than I expected. The interviewer asked detailed, foundational networking questions, and while I was able to answer some, I struggled with others. Looking back, I believe this is likely why I wasn’t selected to move forward to the next round. My biggest takeaway is this: while LeetCode preparation is important, networking fundamentals matter just as much—especially for roles that blend systems, infrastructure, or customer-facing engineering. If you understand the basics well and can clearly explain concepts from the ground up, you’ll be in a much stronger position.