[Bahamut]

As someone who has done a lot of interviewing from the interviewer side at my current FAANG, it's usually obvious when someone has seen the question before - in the debriefs, the candidates who were honest have it noted out loud to the debrief panel & it makes them look good due to integrity, and those who were dishonest also get it noted as a significant negative.

Perhaps I evaluate differently than a lot of interviewers, but I'm primarily interested in figuring out if a candidate has the traits/skills that I'm looking for in a potential coworker - for us, the traits matter more than the skills even.

[swiftcoder]

I don't think I've ever been asked a question at a FAANG interview that isn't in one of the (legion of) "FAANG interview prep" books/sites that ex-FAANG engineers and interviewees constantly publish and update.

Your criteria here is likely unfairly dinging pretty much everyone who has done significant interview prep.

[Bahamut]

But significant interview prep hurts the primary job of the interviewer, which is to evaluate whether candidates would work well within the team/org - I don't mind if candidates do preparation or not, but the point isn't to try to find people who game the process, the point is to find out if a candidate is likely to be successful in the role. The problem is oftentimes it turns out that a lot of candidates who focus too heavily on preparation fail to demonstrate the qualities needed to be successful.

I don't give a particularly hard interview, candidates and interviewers who pair with me are all pretty happy with the session & almost always leave relaxed, which is usually targeted towards a certain set of leadership traits (and occasionally I'll do coding screens as well although I've been put on those less in general). My interview feedback also has generally been corroborated by other interviewers in debriefs as well, so it's not like it's in crazy land.

[weatherlite]

It's better to fake having not seen it than failing an unseen before question. No amount of honesty points will save you from failing a question. Sure if you are good enough that you pass unseen questions regularly go with honesty. If you are not, better to fake it. If FAANGs have problems with candidates knowing the questions maybe they should think of different interviews?

[Bahamut]

My coding question I give (in the occasion I am called upon to ask one to candidates) typically is not particularly unique, but practical - if someone wants to study for it, it doesn't really give them a notable edge given all the possible branching questions. The most notable tell if people did see the question prior though is if they jump right into talking about the problem without asking qualifying questions, implying that they are quite familiar with the problem & don't need me to qualify it & don't think to verify scenarios with me.

For my non-coding problems, I just create it from scratch depending on the position/needs & spend a bit of time navigating the scenario myself and store the question in my notes.

As to failing a question, failing a single question isn't necessarily a deal breaker in itself - it's showing a pattern of not meeting the bar that is. I may rate someone a 2 out of 4 if they didn't go into sufficient depth in a particular question I asked, but I probably won't stay in the way of hiring them if they did ok otherwise and that failure was just an aberration. Loss of integrity is perception that is likely to sour people on any upside of hiring though, and overcoming that bar is incredibly difficult - if someone is clearly rehearsed on a particular question and is dishonest about it, they're probably not getting a 3 or 4.