Chapter One

Describe your role as a Software Engineer intern at Riot. What did you work on?

I worked within the Service Availability initiative at Riot. They have quite a few different teams within this initiative, and I specifically worked on a couple of internal tools for one of the teams, primarily with Golang and Docker.

Describe a typical day at Riot? What is the work culture like?

Every day at Riot, to me, was great - something I was not used to in any of my past jobs. I'd usually get in around 9AM, work until Standup at 11AM, grab Lunch afterwards, do some work and/or meetings until about 6:30PM, grab dinner, and then head home or chill with other Rioters in the PC Bang (Korean style PC Cafe) and game the evening away. Riot's culture is one of the most unique I've ever encountered - everyone is a gamer. You can make jokes in the context of games, or use games as the basis for an analogy, etc, and people will mostly understand. It's so cool to me, to work somewhere where not only am I not the ONLY gamer, but where people can kick my ass in video games too.

What were some challenges you encountered as an intern at Riot?

One of the challenges is that my main project (a tool to create new regions of League for testing) ended up not quite going as planned. I (and my intern project partner) had to set up tons of meetings with managers and mentors to get extra help and direction, but honestly, this helped reinforce to me that people at Riot were very willing to help and mentor us when we needed it.

Do you have a different perspective on League of Legends now that you’ve helped work on it? If so, what is it?

I definitely do. Riot is very known for making decisions that are in the players' best interests, and after being on the inside, I can agree that this is truly how the decisions are made. I never once heard of making a decision to make a few more bucks or somehow cause stress for the players - nearly everything was decided based on what would provide a kickass player experience.

What was the interview process like? Do you have to play League of Legends to be considered for the role?

The interview process was very similar to other top tech companies - incredibly long. I applied in August, got a coding challenge (Hackerrank) a few days later, followed by 2x 2:1 phone interviews (one tech, one culture), and a "super day" onsite interview with 4 or 5 culture and tech interviews at the HQ - which they flew me out to at their expense. It was a great experience overall as you get to have a lot of awesome conversations with incredibly smart, humble, and talented people. After going to the HQ and interacting with so many awesome folks, i knew that even if I was denied, I would keep trying to get a job at Riot. You do not have to play League to be considered for the role, although I think it may raise a red flag if you have not at least played the game enough to where you could talk a little about it - if not League, you really do have to be a "core gamer" (i.e. someone who can empathize with other gamers and their challenges and experiences) in order to work at Riot. There's not much compromise on that.

If someone asked you "What was your crowning achievement at riot?" how would you reply?

I would say my achievement was turning my initial project failure into something usable for the team - we are all still in touch, and they are still using some of my code in production! This was a great feeling for me as I really felt like my code impacted Riot as well as players. Also, landing an awesome full-time position that I am super proud and honored to have received (and accepted).

Where do you see League of Legends in 10 years?

Honestly, I'm not super sure, but I am optimistic. I do think if Riot keeps playing their cards right that League can last. As a lifelong gamer, one of the most common things I see is that people wish they could keep re-playing a game over and over and keep investing hours while still getting rewarded for it. League (and other MOBAs) offer this unique opportunity where you can invest thousands of hours, and still get returns in the form of climbing up the ladders. And League is changed at least somewhat nearly every patch (which is often), keeping things fresh and constantly changing the meta.

Any advice or suggestions for our non-technical readers who want to get involved with software engineering?

This is kind of a tough question that I still don't think is solved among tech companies. Google has an awesome document titled "Guide to Technical Development" that provides a somewhat clear path towards getting and excelling at their interviews, and since Riot's are similar, it would be a great read for anyone: https://www.google.com/about/careers/students/guide-to-technical-development.html

Riot also has an Engineering Tech Blog in which some engineers share cool stuff they've done, as well as engaging with people who want to reply and give their two cents on things too, which is definitely worth a read: engineering.riotgames.com

If you want your startup to be interviewed, please reach out to me at taehong.min18@outlook.com. Thanks!