Mercor Software Engineer interview: 30-minute data structures and algorithms screen

MercorSoftware Engineer · May 2026

My first step was a phone screen with the team. It was a tightly structured, 30-minute Q&A focused mainly on data structures, algorithms, and code optimization. What stood out was how closely it stayed to fundamentals and reasoning. I left feeling that it tested whether I could think through tradeoffs clearly and tighten up implementations under time pressure. Given the short format, it still fel…

Shared by a candidate · reported May 2026. Interview formats change; use it as a guide, not a script.