real interview stories, told over a cup of tea ♡
Interview Experiences
3935 interview stories from candidates at 857 companies: how each round went, what was asked and how it ended. Every company page links to practice questions in the same style.
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3935 results
- Four Onsite Rounds, Verbal Offer in Under a MonthTuro · Software Engineer · Onsite · Feb 2026Offer
Background I got a referral, and as soon as the role opened they scheduled a call directly. (My personal takeaway: right now applying early matters more than being strong.) Timeline: 01/13 Applied 01/15 Recruiter call 01/15 OA 01/28-01/29 Four rounds of virtual onsite 02/06 Verbal offer Interview Experience Recruiter call Simple questions about my background, how long I've been working, what this…
- Four Rounds, Rejected on the Second AttemptSoFi · Software Engineer · Onsite · Feb 2026Rejected
This was my second time trying to get into SoFi. This time I interviewed with the Invest team. I thought the conversations went well, but I still got rejected. The market really is brutal right now. There were 4 rounds total: a phone screen plus three virtual onsite (VO) rounds. Phone screen: OOD principles, and implementing a multi-threaded task executor. I was given a class TaskExecutor that im…
- Four Stages and a Red Flag for One DatabaseGlovo · Software Engineer · Onsite · Feb 2026Offer
Intro I have three years of experience as a software engineer. Before moving back to Spain I spent a whole year not working. What I wanted next was a job that really motivated me, among strong engineers. Glovo, the food delivery business owned by Delivery Hero, looked like a quick-moving, ambitious place, so that is where I aimed. The loop The stages were a phone screen, live coding, system desig…
- Four SystemVerilog Rounds and a Fast Offer (Plus a Google DV Rejection)Apple · Design Verification Engineer · Intern · Technical Screen · Feb 2026Offer
Apple Timeline: 2/10 – Went to my school's Apple Intern Networking Event, chatted with the hiring manager for a bit, and got a same-day 30-minute interview that afternoon. 2/11 – HR reached out with a positive signal and scheduled three more rounds (back to back, though one got rescheduled). 2/16, 2/19 – Interviews. 2/24 – Followed up by email; HR said they were still syncing. 2/27 – Offer call.…
- Glean (CA) Backend Engineer interview: multiple one-hour DSA roundsGlean (CA) · Backend Engineer · Other · Feb 2026
I started with an introductory round with the hiring manager and then met with the head of engineering. After that came multiple coding and DSA rounds, each lasting around an hour. The setup felt condensed but clear. They moved from conversation into hands-on technical evaluation pretty quickly. The process was described as difficult, and the structure reflected that. Instead of one challenge, I…
- Good Feedback, Then Rejected by Hiring CommitteeMeta · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Feb 2026Rejected
Meta Sr SDE. Phone Screen LC: Si Jiu Ba (coded/obscured problem name; the original title was not stated) LC: Yi Er Jiu (same — coded form) Onsite Coding (scheduled after 4/16, seems like both rounds were AI Coding by then) LC: San San Jiu (coded form) LC: Yao Liu Wu Ling (coded form) — only the parent was given, pretty abstract; I ended up working it out with the interviewer on the whiteboard AI-…
- Great Technical Screen, Then the Role Got PausedYahoo · Machine Learning Engineer · Senior+ · Technical Screen · Feb 2026
Yahoo News interview (April), Round 1. Question 1: Talk about your background and one of your projects in detail — they dug deep into one particular project. Key points for the answer (aim for a total of 3–6 minutes) and my own suggestions: Quick background (20–30s): one sentence on the role, your responsibilities on the team, and list 1–2 projects. Deep-dive framework (3–4 minutes, using STAR):…
- Grilled on ETL and LLM Claims After Admitting No Pricing BackgroundNatoora · Data Analyst · Technical Screen · Feb 2026
The interviewer cared a lot about how real and grounded the projects on my resume were, especially the logic behind the data flow (Data Infrastructure). If you have flashy words like LangChain or LLM on your resume, you need to be ready to get asked "why didn't you just use plain SQL/Python?" Interview Process Recap The interviewer first confirmed whether I had pricing experience — I said straigh…
- HackerRank, Code Review and a Past-Project Deep Dive, Then an OfferStripe · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Other · Feb 2026Offer
Stripe Staff+ Engineer I ended up with an offer from Stripe worth roughly $1M in total comp. Background I come from big tech, with time spent on ML infrastructure, payments and other large-scale systems. Preparation What helped: An online system design course: System design practice. I tried to solve each problem by myself before opening any reference answer, and when my design had holes compared…
- Headway Software Engineer interview: unclear onsite design expectationsHeadway · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Feb 2026
My process started with a recruiter touchpoint, followed by a technical screen and then a three-round onsite. Scheduling and feedback were responsive, but the actual evaluation didn't line up with what I expected. The onsite design segment especially didn't feel like a classic system design round. The constraints made it hard to tell what direction they wanted, so I spent more time guessing than…
- HubSpot Software Engineer interview with a panel-style mock scenarioHubSpot · Software Engineer · Feb 2026
My process started with a recruiter screen about motivation and fit. I then had a hiring manager round focused more on competencies, including how I'd handled different situations and explained my thinking, than on technical trivia. The next step was a panel-style mock scenario. The pattern stayed consistent: recruiter first, then deeper competency questions, followed by a panel scenario. It wasn…
- IMC Software Engineer interview with coding, system design, and team fitIMC · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Feb 2026
The process was structured and felt comprehensive. After applying, I completed an online activity and then had an initial screening call. The technical portion moved into coding interviews where I could choose the programming language. The work combined problem-solving discussions with system design questions. There were also team fit and culture checks, along with a feedback step where they revi…
- Interviewing While Layoff News Broke, LC 215 and LC 236 With Follow-upsMeta · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Feb 2026In progress
I was in the middle of interviewing when the news broke about a big round of layoffs. Setting AI aside, the questions for the traditional software engineer track seem to be getting harder and harder. I got in through a referral from an alum, so the process into Meta went pretty smoothly. The pace was actually pretty fast — it took about two weeks to get through the first two rounds. The whole int…
- Lucid Motors Software Engineer interview leading to an Engineer 2 offerLucid Motors · Software Engineer · Senior+ · HR Screen · Feb 2026Offer
I went through a recruiter screening and then one-on-one interviews with people who would have been on my team. One interview was delayed because someone no-showed, and I had to reach out to get it rescheduled. The recruiter communication was where things soured. The process ended with an offer, but it was for an Engineer 2 position instead of the senior level I had interviewed for. The recruiter…
- Manager Round Ran Long After a Slow OACapital One · Machine Learning Engineer · Online Assessment · Feb 2026
This company is really annoying about it — you have to grind through an obnoxiously long OA before they'll even schedule the hiring manager interview. After I finished the OA, I actually had to remind the recruiter myself before they moved things forward. Let me talk about the manager interview. It was basically pure conversation. The manager seemed like a nice guy. He mostly asked what I'm curre…
- Northrop Grumman Software Engineer final round: limited technical discussion and quick rejectionNorthrop Grumman · Software Engineer · HR Screen · Feb 2026Rejected
My process started with a recruiter screen. About a week later, I sat through what was essentially the final round. That conversation mixed behavioral questions with only a few technical prompts. I don't remember anyone asking me to go deeply into my background, and the technical part never became a real technical discussion. The interview felt fairly light overall, and the timeline moved quickly…
- Northrop Grumman Software Engineer, panel with C++ and fundamentals questionsNorthrop Grumman · Software Engineer · Other · Feb 2026
After the initial steps, I had a panel-style technical conversation with several senior engineers. It covered behavioral questions and technical fundamentals, including data structures and algorithms and databases. There was also a clear C++ focus. We discussed my past experience in the context of how I approach problem-solving, then moved into C++ fundamentals and basic scenario-based questions.…
- OA With Two Coding Questions and an All-or-Nothing Pass BarSquarepoint · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Feb 2026
Just finished the Squarepoint OA, sharing the two coding questions. The first question was about maximizing store revenue. Given n items, each with quantity[i] representing the remaining stock, the price equals the quantity. There are m customers, each buying one item, and the goal is to maximize revenue. I solved it with a max heap — each time popping the largest, selling it, then pushing it bac…
- OA, HR Screen, and a Three-Interview Onsite DayInterSystems · Software Engineer · New Grad · Onsite · Feb 2026Offer
I applied around early September 2025, and got the OA right away — not sure if it was automatic. The OA was strange, it had three parts, including SAT-math-style questions, I don't remember it too clearly. In October they scheduled an HR call, which just asked some basic information and confirmed my graduation date and things like that. Around mid-November they asked for my interview availability…
- One Hour Live-Debugging Their AI Chat CodebaseSupio · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Feb 2026
A personal injury law AI startup in Seattle. One hour of debugging. The interviewer emails you a source code repository, you run it locally yourself, and fix the issues. You need to be reasonably familiar with how to work with some AI APIs. It's a chat interface. Bug 1: the console showed "API key invalid." The cause: a wrong API key. Bug 2: after sending a request in the chat box, the response t…
- Onsite ML System Design for the Home Feed RecommenderDoorDash · Data Scientist · Onsite · Feb 2026
Problem background: design a store recommendation system similar to the app's home page. Interview process & core follow-ups: Overall architecture and hard constraints The scenario given right away was home page recommendation. User input is extremely sparse — basically just the User ID and current location. The system has a couple of hard constraints: the stores surfaced must be within delivery…
- Oura Backend Engineer interview: CodeSignal timing made the assessment feel unreliableOura · Backend Engineer · Online Assessment · Feb 2026
I started with a CodeSignal assessment that was supposed to be a straightforward skills check, but the timing threw me off. The whole thing moved way too fast. There wasn’t enough time to slow down, understand the problem properly, and implement a solid solution. The question itself wasn’t described as wildly complicated, but the time limit made it hard to demonstrate capability instead of simply…
- Passed a 15-Minute Vibe-Check CallxAI · Machine Learning Engineer · Technical Screen · Feb 2026In progress
xAI's 15-minute call. The interviewer started by introducing himself and giving a quick overview of the team. Then I introduced myself, talked about what I'm working on right now, and went deep into my project — walked him through the whole thing end to end. He asked about challenges and I answered that too. After all of that, he suddenly threw in a more basic question: what's the difference betw…
- Passed Both Codings, Failed Both System DesignsConfluent · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Feb 2026Rejected
The technical screening round overall was pretty simple. They give you a function query signature and have you determine whether there's a registered function that matches it. Later on this expands to cases involving optional arguments and variable number of arguments. The onsite had four rounds total. The first coding round was to implement something like printing the last N lines of a file, alo…
- Passed General Hiring, Failed the C++ Onsite RoundGoogle · Machine Learning Engineer · Onsite · Feb 2026In progress
Timeline: HR reached out around 1/20, interviews started around 2/10 — 4 rounds total: AI/ML technical knowledge, 2 rounds of coding, and 1 round of BQ. AI/ML Round The interviewer pulled AI/ML related content from my resume and dug into it. This round felt pretty new — the interviewer even said it was their first time doing an AI/ML round, so the pace was relatively friendly and I felt like they…
- Passed the Coding Rounds, Then Rejected After a Mandarin-Only Screen for a US RoleTubitv · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Feb 2026Rejected
I mass-applied online in March, and this is how the interview came about. The process was: Round one: coding — a log parser question, identical to one that's already been posted on the forum. I didn't actually get it running successfully during the interview, but the interviewer said at the end that I was on the right track. I ended up passing this round anyway. Round two: "cache design." This wa…
- Passed the Tech Rounds, Failed the EM Round, Redid Team MatchRobinhood · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Feb 2026
I interviewed for Senior Software Engineer on the Competitor Insights team. I passed the technical rounds, but failed the EM round because I lacked frontend experience. The recruiter agreed to let me redo team match, so I talked to the Experimentation team as well. Round 1: Hiring Manager We covered the usual collaboration and communication questions, and I was also asked a lot of questions about…
- Phone Screen Plus a Five-Round Onsite Full of Probability QuestionsLinkedIn · Machine Learning Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Feb 2026
The phone screen was 1hr, there was a lot of content, but it was all questions that had already shown up in other interview reports. Coding - biased coin Input: A method getRandom01Biased() that generates a random integer in [0, 1], where 0 is generated with probability p and 1 is generated with probability (1-p) Output: A method getRandom06Uniform() that generates a random integer in [0, 6] with…
- Positive Feedback, Rejected for Background MismatchPlaid · Software Engineer · Onsite · Feb 2026Rejected
All the interviewers seemed pretty nice, but my impression was that they weren't that technically strong — didn't come across as too sharp. Phone screen: a coupon question and a new question I don't remember too well. They gave you a JSON mapping a bunch of routing numbers to bank names and had you process it — I forget exactly what the task was, but basically you just used various hashmaps to ch…
- Product Sense, Experiment Design, and SQL in 45 MinutesInstacart · Data Scientist · Technical Screen · Feb 2026
Overall the experience was good. The interviewer was very nice and the conversation flowed smoothly. In 45 minutes we covered product sense, experiment design, experiment analysis, and SQL. Question 1 How to investigate a metric decline. Pretty standard question. Seasonality, product changes, user segments, external competition — anything reasonable works. Question 2 If you were launching a new p…
