Forward Deployed Engineering Interview Course - Aced (formerly Exponent)

In the coming weeks, Exponent is becoming Aced.

Curriculum

Features

Forward Deployed Engineering Interviews

Land your next role in forward deployed engineering (FDE) at top companies like Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, and startups. Learn from mock interviews, frameworks, and advice from senior candidates. Perfect your system design, coding, and behavioral interviews.

Featured videos

Start with a free lesson, then unlock all 83 video lessons.

\ \ Free\ \ Know the Rules So You Can Break Them](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/breaking-interview-rules/index.html) \ \ Members\ \ Understand the FDE Role Before You Interview for It](/content/upgrade?course=forward-deployed-engineering&src=course/index.html) \ \ Members\ \ Design System to Improve NYC Traffic](/content/upgrade?course=forward-deployed-engineering&src=course/index.html)

Interview prep trusted by 1M+ candidates who've landed jobs at

\ \ Unlock all lessons\ \ 83 videos · AI mocks · certificate\ \ Get access — $12/mo](/content/upgrade?course=forward-deployed-engineering&src=course/index.html)

What you'll find in this course

9 courses

83 videos

67 hours

FDE Introduction

2 modules

6 lessons

4 videos

Learn what an FDE is, how the role differs across companies, and what their interview processes look like. Then figure out exactly what to prep for based on the interview process you're facing.

Overview

2 lessons

Welcome to the Forward-Deployed Engineer Interview Prep Course!\ \ Free The FDE Interview Process

Fireside Chats

4 lessons·4 videos

\ \ What Hiring Managers Look for When Building an FDE Team](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/intro-fde-interviews/hiring-managers-on-building-fde/index.html) \ \ Understand the FDE Role Before You Interview for It](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/intro-fde-interviews/understanding-fde/index.html) \ \ Is the FDE Role Right for You?](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/intro-fde-interviews/should-you-pick-fde/index.html) \ \ How to Win the LangChain Deployed Engineer Interview](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/intro-fde-interviews/langchain-deployed-engineer-interview/index.html)

Decomposition Questions

2 modules

6 lessons

2 videos

Learn how to answer the most challenging round in the FDE loop: decomposition questions. Pioneered by Palantir (also known as open-ended questions) and now popular at other companies, these questions reward a specific way of thinking. Demystify what interviewers are looking for, and see how real FDEs answer these questions themselves.

Overview

3 lessons

What are Decomposition Questions?\ \ Free How to Answer Decomposition Questions Rubric for Decomposition Questions

Mock Interviews & Practice

3 lessons·2 videos

\ \ Design Sync System Between Employee Record Systems](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/decomposition/decomp-employee-record-sync/index.html) \ \ Design System to Improve NYC Traffic](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/decomposition/decomp-improve-nyc-traffic/index.html) Design Field Catalog\ \ Coming soon

Practical Coding Interviews

4 modules

13 lessons

3 videos

This course covers new practical and AI-assisted coding interviews, where engineers are expected to build, extend, and debug realistic codebases and work alongside coding agents.

Overview

2 lessons·1 video

Introduction\ \ Free \ \ Bonus: AI-Assisted Coding Round at Meta](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/practical-coding-interviews/bonus-ai-assisted-coding-round-at-meta/index.html)

Building New Projects

1 new4 lessons·1 video

Building New Projects \ \ Web Crawler](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/practical-coding-interviews/web-crawler-project/index.html) Parse CSV Transactions\ \ New Find Duplicate Files

Extending Codebases

3 new4 lessons·1 video

Extending Codebases Build a Rate Limiter\ \ New \ \ Key-Value Store with TTL\ \ New](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/practical-coding-interviews/kv-store-ttl/index.html) Movie Recommendation API\ \ New

Debugging

2 new3 lessons

Debugging Interviews Debug API Errors in Production\ \ New Debug Loyalty Points System\ \ New

Behavioral Questions for Forward-Deployed Engineers

4 modules

28 lessons

14 videos

A customer sits on the other side of most of the FDE job, so interviewers are deciding whether they can trust you in the room with one. We'll teach you the three question types and how to answer the customer-facing ones even if you've never held a customer-facing title.

Fast Track (Start Here)

5 lessons

In a rush? This is your minimum viable prep.

Introduction to Behavioral Questions Avoiding Downleveling Approaching the 3 Question Types How to Answer Customer Interaction Questions Answering Customer Interaction Questions Without Experience

Theory

7 lessons·5 videos·46 min

Avoid the most common mistakes. Discover what interviewers are actually searching for.

\ \ Why Engineers Fail Interviews](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/why-engineers-fail-interviews/index.html) \ \ The Question Beneath the Question](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/question-beneath/index.html) Measuring Culture Fit Demonstrating Impact \ \ Introducing Yourself: Do's and Don'ts](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/introducing-yourself-dos-donts/index.html) \ \ "Why Our Company?"](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/why-our-company/index.html) \ \ Prevent Instant Rejection](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/non-obvious-dealbreakers/index.html)

Tactics

5 lessons·2 videos·29 min

Execute these practical steps for success in "must know" scenarios.

\ \ Know the Rules So You Can Break Them\ \ Free](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/breaking-interview-rules/index.html) Types of Interviewers Sharing the Optimal Level of Detail \ \ Stop Sounding Like a Robot\ \ Free](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/sounding-like-robot/index.html) Reversing a Downlevel Offer\ \ Free

Mock Interviews and Practice

11 lessons·7 videos

\ \ Pushing Back on Clients, End-to-End Technical Wins, Cross-Functional Work](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/push-back-client-technical-cross-functional/index.html) Why FDE?\ \ Coming soon Challenging Deployment\ \ Coming soon Customer Pushing Scope of Work\ \ Coming soon Customer Feedback to Core Product Improvement\ \ Coming soon \ \ Demonstrating Ownership (Part 1)](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/demonstrating-ownership/index.html) \ \ Demonstrating Ownership (Part 2: Analysis)](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/analysis-demonstrating-ownership/index.html) \ \ Be Seen as a Senior Engineer (Part 1: Mock Interview)](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/behavioral-senior-engineer/index.html) \ \ Be Seen as a Senior Engineer (Part 2: Analysis)](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/analysis-senior-engineer/index.html) \ \ Do You Meet the Senior+ Bar? (Part 1)](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/senior-plus-faang/index.html) \ \ Do You Meet the Senior+ Bar? (Part 2: Analysis)](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/fde-behavioral/analysis-senior-plus-faang/index.html)

Project Deep Dives for Forward-Deployed Engineers

4 lessons

A full 45 minutes on one project you already built, judged on technical depth as much as business impact. We'll show you how to pick the right project, structure your slides, and answer the follow-ups interviewers use to stump you.

What are FDE Project Deep Dives?\ \ Free How to Choose Your Project How to Prepare Your Project Presentation Tips From Interviewers

Take-Home Assignments for Forward Deployed Engineers

Coming soon

Ace both the take-home and the presentation with our guide. Get guidance on when and how to use AI to enhance your work, plus the inside scoop on take-home assignments at popular companies.

System Design Interviews

11 modules

71 lessons

32 videos

Learn how to answer the latest system design questions across product, infrastructure, and AI domains. Features in-depth video examples, written breakdowns, and helpful reference patterns. Watch senior engineers and managers answer these questions in mock interview videos.

Overview

5 lessons·1 video

Introduction to the System Design Interview\ \ Free \ \ How to Answer System Design Interview Questions](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/intro-architecture/index.html) The Must-Know System Design Patterns\ \ Free Rubric for System Design Interviews How to Use a Whiteboard in System Design Interviews\ \ Free

Read-Heavy Systems

6 lessons·4 videos

Read-Heavy Systems \ \ Design a URL Shortener](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/url-shortener/index.html) \ \ Design Typeahead for Search Box](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-typeahead-search-box/index.html) \ \ Design Instagram](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/mock-interview-design-instagram/index.html) \ \ Design Twitter](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-twitter-video/index.html) Design the Reddit Homepage

Event-Driven Systems

4 lessons·3 videos

Event-Driven and Pub/Sub Architectures \ \ Design a Distributed Message Queue](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/mock-interview-design-a-distributed-message-queue/index.html) \ \ Design Webhook Delivery](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-webhook-delivery/index.html) \ \ Design Uber Eats](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-uber-eats/index.html)

Async Jobs and Workers

4 lessons·2 videos

Async Jobs and Workers \ \ Design a Web Crawler](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-web-crawler/index.html) Design a Job Scheduler \ \ Design App that Downloads User Data](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-app-downloads-user-data/index.html)

Distributed Data Storage & Partitioning

6 lessons·4 videos

Partitioned and Distributed Storage \ \ Design a Key Value Store](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-key-value-store/index.html) \ \ Design a Rate Limiter](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-rate-limiter/index.html) \ \ Design a Distributed LRU Cache](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-a-distributed-lru-cache/index.html) \ \ Design Dropbox](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-dropbox/index.html) Design Distributed Storage (S3)

Transactional Systems

4 lessons·3 videos

Transactional Systems \ \ Design Ticketmaster](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-ticketmaster/index.html) \ \ Design a Hotel Booking System](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/mock-interview-design-a-hotel-booking-service/index.html) \ \ Design a Parking Garage](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-parking-garage/index.html)

Batch Processing and Data Pipelines

6 lessons·4 videos

Batch Processing and Data Pipelines \ \ Design a Metrics and Logging Service](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-metrics-logging/index.html) \ \ Design an Application Performance Monitoring System](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-application-performance-monitoring-system/index.html) Design a Document Processing Pipeline \ \ Design Zillow](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-zillow/index.html) \ \ Design a Weather App](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-weather-app/index.html)

Real-Time and Collaborative Systems

6 lessons·4 videos

Real-Time and Collaborative Systems \ \ Design Facebook Messenger](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/facebook-messenger-whatsapp/index.html) \ \ Design WhatsApp](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-whatsapp/index.html) \ \ Design Chess.com](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-chess-com/index.html) Design Slack \ \ Design Google Docs](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-google-docs/index.html)

Media Streaming and Content Delivery

5 lessons·3 videos

Media Streaming and Content Delivery \ \ Design YouTube](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-youtube/index.html) \ \ Design Netflix](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-netflix/index.html) \ \ Design TikTok](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-tiktok/index.html) Design Twitch

Agentic AI Systems

7 lessons·2 videos

Agentic AI Architectures \ \ Design an AI-Powered Customer Support System](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-an-ai-powered-customer-support-system/index.html) \ \ Design ChatGPT](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/design-chatgpt/index.html) File Uploader for AI Chat App Design an LLM Query Batching System Design Claude Code Design a Real-Time Voice AI

Appendix: System Design Concepts

18 lessons·2 videos

System Design Glossary Top Engineering Blogs Caching CDNs Web Protocol Questions \ \ APIs](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/system-design-apis/index.html) Load Balancing\ \ Free \ \ CAP Theorem](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/system-design-interviews/cap-theorem/index.html) SQL vs. NoSQL Database Sharding Replication Consistent Hashing Asynchronous Processing Encryption Authentication and Authorization Cloud Architecture Availability Reliability

Software Engineering Coding Questions

15 modules

118 lessons

28 videos

Review fundamental SWE concepts to help you tackle programming problems with confidence. Master the key data structures and algorithms in a variety of real coding questions and expert videos.

Overview

6 lessons·5 videos

Tips for Acing Technical Coding Interviews \ \ Choosing the Right Language for Your Technical Interview](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/choosing-the-right-language-for-your-technical-interview/index.html) \ \ Practice: Move Zeros to End of Array\ \ FreeEasy](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/move-zeros-to-end-of-array-practice/index.html) \ \ Practice: Remove Duplicates in String\ \ FreeMedium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/remove-duplicates-in-string-practice/index.html) \ \ Practice: Contiguous Subarray Sum\ \ FreeHard](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/contiguous-subarray-sum-practice/index.html) \ \ Bonus: AI-Assisted Coding Round at Meta](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/bonus-ai-assisted-coding-round-at-meta/index.html)

Fast Track

6 lessons·5 hr

In a rush? This is your minimum viable prep.

How to Prep for a Coding Interview Fast\ \ Free Arrays, Two Pointers, Stacks, and Sliding Window\ \ Free Binary Search, Heaps, and Intervals\ \ Free Linked Lists, Trees, and Tries\ \ Free Backtracking, Graphs, and DP\ \ Free How to Answer Any Coding Interview Question\ \ Free

Time & Space Complexity

4 lessons

Understanding Big O Notation Analyzing Time Complexity Analyzing Space Complexity Optimizing Your Algorithms

Coding Patterns

8 lessons

Introduction to Coding Patterns\ \ Free Two Pointer\ \ Free Prefix Sum Tortoise & Hare Sliding Window Two Pass Bit Manipulation Cyclic Sort

Arrays

12 lessons·5 videos

Arrays\ \ Free \ \ Move Zeros to End of Array\ \ FreeEasy](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/move-zeros-to-end-of-array/index.html) \ \ Three Sum\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/three-sum/index.html) \ \ Merge Intervals\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/merge-intervals/index.html) Group Anagrams\ \ Medium \ \ Product of Array Except Self\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/product-of-array-except-self/index.html) Copy a Spiral Matrix\ \ Medium Maximum Subarray Sum\ \ Medium Container with Most Water\ \ Medium Task Scheduler\ \ Medium Trap Rain Water\ \ Hard \ \ Contiguous Subarray Sum\ \ FreeHard](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/contiguous-subarray-sum/index.html)

Hash Tables

6 lessons·1 video

Hash Tables Maximum Profit\ \ FreeEasy Difference of Arrays\ \ Easy Smallest Missing Integer\ \ Easy Two Sum\ \ Easy \ \ Boggle Board\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/boggle-board/index.html)

Searching & Sorting

8 lessons·1 video

Sorting Algorithms Binary Search Number Finder\ \ Easy Find the Duplicates\ \ Easy K-Messed Array Sort\ \ Medium \ \ Rotations in Circularly Sorted Array\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/rotations-in-circularly-sorted-array/index.html) Koko Eating Bananas\ \ Medium Find the Peak Element\ \ Medium

String Manipulation

9 lessons·3 videos

Most Common Words\ \ FreeEasy Valid Palindrome\ \ Easy Validate IP Address\ \ Medium Decrypt Message\ \ Medium \ \ Minimum Window Substring\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/minimum-window-substring/index.html) \ \ Serialize and Deserialize Strings\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/serialize-deserialize-strings/index.html) Longest Substring Without Repeat\ \ Medium \ \ Remove Duplicates in String\ \ FreeMedium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/remove-duplicates-in-string/index.html) Longest Palindromic Substring\ \ Medium

Graphs

9 lessons·3 videos

Graphs Graph Search Degrees of Friendship\ \ FreeEasy \ \ Sentence Similarity\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/sentence-similarity/index.html) \ \ Number of Islands\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/number-islands/index.html) Rotting Oranges\ \ Medium Course Schedule\ \ Medium \ \ Edit Distance\ \ Hard](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/edit-distance/index.html) Redundant Connection\ \ Medium

Trees

9 lessons·1 video

Trees Balanced Tree\ \ Medium \ \ Diameter of a Tree\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/diameter-tree/index.html) Validate Binary Search Tree\ \ Medium Construct Binary Tree\ \ Medium Implement Trie\ \ Medium Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree\ \ Medium Find Largest Smaller BST Key\ \ FreeHard BST Successor Search\ \ FreeHard

Stacks & Queues

8 lessons·1 video

Stacks Queues Min Stack\ \ Medium Reverse a Sentence\ \ Easy Valid Parentheses\ \ Easy Daily Temperatures\ \ Medium Shortest Cell Path\ \ Medium \ \ Conversion Ratios\ \ Hard](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/conversion-ratios/index.html)

Linked Lists

6 lessons·2 videos

Linked Lists Reverse Linked List\ \ Easy Linked List Cycle\ \ Easy \ \ Merge Sort Doubly Linked List\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/merge-sort-doubly-linked-list/index.html) \ \ Merge Linked Lists\ \ Hard](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/merge-linked-lists/index.html) LRU Cache\ \ Hard

Heaps

5 lessons·2 videos

Heaps Find Largest Numbers\ \ Medium \ \ Buy and Sell Stock\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/buy-sell-stock/index.html) Find Median from Data Stream\ \ Hard \ \ Meta Onsite Coding Round (Kth Largest Element in an Array and Minimum Remove to Make Valid Parentheses)](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/meta-onsite-coding-round-kth-largest-element-in-an-array-and-minimum-remove-to-make-valid-parentheses/index.html)

Recursion & Backtracking

12 lessons·2 videos

Recursion Fibonacci Numbers\ \ Easy \ \ Generate Parentheses\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/generate-parentheses/index.html) Subsets\ \ Medium Sales Path\ \ Medium Flatten a Dictionary\ \ Medium Build a Calculator\ \ FreeMedium Permutations\ \ Medium Combination Sum\ \ Medium \ \ Implement Promise.all()\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/implement-promiseall/index.html) Sudoku Solver\ \ Hard Build a Basic Regex Parser\ \ Hard

Dynamic Programming

10 lessons·2 videos

Dynamic Programming Climbing Stairs\ \ Easy Prime Numbers\ \ FreeMedium \ \ Knapsack Problem\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/knapsack-problem/index.html) List the Difference Between Two Strings\ \ Medium \ \ Target Sum\ \ Medium](/content/courses/forward-deployed-engineering/swe-practice/target-sum/index.html) Coin Change\ \ Medium Partition Equal Subset Sum\ \ Medium DNA Sequence\ \ Hard Unique Paths\ \ Medium

Generative AI Interviews

4 modules

16 lessons

Ace your interviews at AI-first and AI-powered companies. Learn to explain how Gen AI really works, where it fails, and how to use it responsibly. Understand how top tech companies build and deploy AI products and how generative AI works in production, from LLMs and RAG systems to real-world deployment.

Overview

5 lessons

Welcome to Exponent’s Generative AI Course\ \ Free What is Generative AI? Generative AI Glossary Top AI Companies to Work For\ \ Free What’s next in Generative AI?

Understanding Generative AI

6 lessons

How Gen AI Knowledge is Tested in Interviews\ \ Free How Generative AI Works (Without the Jargon) Generative AI and Hallucinations Generative AI and Security Generative AI Evaluation Bias, Fairness, and Responsible AI\ \ Coming soon

Using Generative AI

5 lessons

How Prompt Engineering is Tested in Interviews\ \ Coming soon How to Approach Prompt Engineering in Interviews How to Vibe Code in an Interview Walkthrough: AI Prototyping Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Mock Interviews

Coming soon

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