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
- A Random Grab-Bag of Math and Estimation QuestionsZoox · Data Scientist · Onsite · Nov 2025
Overall it wasn't too hard, and the interviewer was very friendly. The interviewer had a slide deck, and the questions were picked from it at random. A 15x20 foot floor — if you tile it with tiles that are 1 square yard each, how many tiles do you need? An account has $1,000 in it, doubling every year. How much money is there after 20 years? Sitting by a window looking at the moon, estimate your…
- A Schema-less SQL Retention Question in the HM ScreenChime · Data Scientist · Technical Screen · Nov 2025Rejected
The first round was just a recruiter screen — they asked roughly about what I'd worked on before. The second round was the HM screen. They changed the process this year: the first round is now a one-hour session split into two parts, 30 minutes chatting about my background and 30 minutes writing SQL. Their SQL question was a format I hadn't run into before — they only gave two tables: users and t…
- Aced Every Round, Rejected at Hiring CommitteeApple · Software Engineer · New Grad · Onsite · Nov 2025Rejected
The behavioral questions were all situational ones — things like what you'd do if a coworker disappeared and stopped doing their work. But it was all pretty relaxed. The interviewer even said he'd already gathered everything he needed. It felt good overall. Coding round 1 was an intervals problem — similar to one I'd seen in a previous report, where you're given a bunch of [start, end] intervals…
- Auction Theory and a 32-Ball Tournament PuzzlePoint72 · Quantitative Researcher · Intern · Technical Screen · Nov 2025
Hiring process: five rounds total. This was round one. Behavioral Self-introduction Why do you want to do quant? Share the trading strategies you know Talk about your previous relevant internship experience Math questions Question 1: Second-price auction Two people are bidding on an item. Rules: Whoever bids the highest gets the item. The winner doesn't pay their own bid — they pay the other bidd…
- BairesDev Backend Engineer interview with junior-level expectations and technical lead discussionBairesDev · Backend Engineer · Nov 2025
I entered the process expecting something aligned with the role, but it quickly felt disrespectful and poorly scoped. During the interview, the recruiter seemed impatient and interrupted my answers, moving to other topics before I could finish. That made it difficult to stay comfortable. Although the job was described as junior, the expectations felt closer to full mastery of advanced technologie…
- Betting Strategy and Election Fund AllocationIMC · Quantitative Trader · Intern · Technical Screen · Nov 2025
Q1: Betting game. The setup was a series of matches with their odds and match times. Each group of matches could be treated as independent. I would receive two events, meaning inside information or statistics, and had to decide from each event whether to change my bet on a particular match. I also needed to calculate my profit and loss. During the final review, I had to explain my betting strateg…
- Boeing Software Engineer interview with HackerRank and panel roundsBoeing · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Nov 2025
I went through a fairly standard entry-level process that began with a recruiter conversation and moved quickly into a technical assessment. We discussed the role and reviewed my resume, and the recruiter explained what the process would look like. About a week later, I had a screen that combined behavioral prompts with a coding component. The technical assessment used a HackerRank-style platform…
- Boeing Software Engineer interview: C++17, concurrency, and architectureBoeing · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Nov 2025
I entered the process through an in-person recruiting event where I met the hiring manager. The next step was an online assessment that felt similar to HackerRank. One problem asked me to work with a decimal-to-binary print format. After that, I had an hour-long interview over Zoom. The Zoom session started with questions about my resume and background. The rest of the hour became a slide-deck di…
- Boeing Software Engineer interview: waiting for the technical roundBoeing · Software Engineer · Nov 2025
My first interview for the role went well, and I was told I would move on to a technical interview. I spent time trying to understand what Boeing usually asks in that round because the first conversation gave me little detail about the format beyond the expectation that it would be technical. Although I felt good about how the initial call went, the uncertainty about what would come next stayed w…
- Bombed the Live Bug-Free Hotel Split-Stay ProblemAirbnb · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Nov 2025Rejected
The interviewer got on the call and, without saying a word, immediately dropped a problem on me. I think I'd seen fragments of this one on the forum before — the hotel split stay problem. But I'd only ever seen little snippets of the description and didn't remember the actual problem in much detail, so I basically treated it as a brand new question. The gist of the problem: it's about booking roo…
- Brex Software Engineer interview delayed for months before I took another offerBrex · Software Engineer · Nov 2025Offer
My process stretched on for months and felt completely disorganized. The recruiter sometimes couldn't get a response from the hiring team for more than a week, so I was left waiting without any real momentum. The interview steps never lined up cleanly because of the delays. What I remember most is the lack of updates and the way the timeline kept slipping. By the time anything finally moved, I'd…
- Circle Internet Financial Software Engineer: CodeSignal verification and timing problemsCircle Internet Financial · Software Engineer · Take-home Project · Nov 2025Rejected
I went through several coding-gated processes where logistics, timing, or platform trust issues affected my candidacy. One take-home CodeSignal evaluation had four steps, and I completed most of it. CodeSignal invalidated the assessment because of suspected copying or screen-sharing behavior. After receiving an online assessment invitation in another process, I waited weeks to hear from a recruit…
- Clipboard Health Software Engineer take-home PR reviewClipboard Health · Software Engineer · Take-home Project · Nov 2025
I completed an async take-home PR-style submission. I cloned the repository, followed the specification, created a pull request, and submitted it. The review felt abrupt, and the feedback didn’t clearly explain what I should change. I received a rejection citing "attention to detail" and saying that I hadn’t followed the task requirements, but it didn’t include specific pointers. I didn’t move fo…
- Confluent Software Engineer interview with system design and DSA roundsConfluent · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Nov 2025
My process had three segments. First, I completed a qualifying technical round. Then came the heavier middle section: three rounds combining system design with DSA, with the DSA portion mostly resembling LeetCode medium difficulty. The final segment was a behavioral round with a senior manager. The process felt difficult because the middle block required sustained technical thinking across severa…
- Confluent Software Engineer interview with two technical rounds and harder follow-upsConfluent · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Nov 2025Rejected
My interview had a small set of core stages: recruiter coordination, two technical interviews, and a manager round. The problems were medium overall, with some harder follow-ups that required me to stay sharp after I thought I’d settled into the first question. I had a generally positive impression of the process. The recruiters were responsive and supportive, and it took only a few weeks from my…
- Drw Holdings Quantitative Analyst interview: probability, Fermi questions, and a market-making gameDrw Holdings · Quantitative Analyst · Online Assessment · Nov 2025Rejected
My process started with an online assessment and then moved to a video interview. The OA felt manageable compared with some of the harsher versions I'd heard about. It covered linear algebra and probability, and the live interview extended those topics into more traditional quant reasoning. The interview included expected value and basic probability questions, a few Fermi-style problems, and some…
- Drw Holdings Software Engineer interview with a 2.5-hour Codility assessment and superdayDrw Holdings · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Nov 2025Rejected
I went through an online assessment and technical sequence that moved quickly from testing to rejection, with very little positive feedback. The Codility OA was LeetCode-style. The technical interview covered algorithms and data structures, along with operating systems, networking, and system-design topics. In one version of the process, the final stage was a superday after the first technical ro…
- Drw Holdings Software Engineer interview with a 45-minute C++ technical roundDrw Holdings · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Nov 2025Rejected
I ran into a C++-heavy interview loop where the main challenge was low-level correctness and syntax rather than just LeetCode-style problem solving. The process started with an assessment and then a short first interview. In a 45-minute C++ technical interview, I was tested on C++ knowledge and low-level details, with less emphasis on pure LeetCode. In a similar journey, I solved a LeetCode-like…
- Duolingo Software Engineer interview with a one-hour technical roundDuolingo · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Nov 2025
Once I reached that stage, the process had a strong final-round feel. It followed a kind of superday structure, starting with an online assessment on a Zoom call and ending with a behavioral round that included a couple of STAR-style questions about my experience. The decisions felt quick and decisive. As I progressed, the rounds looked like a shortlist process for engineers and finalists. There…
- Duolingo Software Engineer interview with CodeSignal and pair codingDuolingo · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Nov 2025
The earliest stages were fairly smooth and lightweight compared with what I expected. I started with an online CodeSignal assessment, then had a short behavioral screen focused mainly on how I worked and handled team situations. In another run through the process, the coding assessment was also relatively manageable. It covered a subset of questions, including basic graph traversal and string or…
- Final Round Focused Entirely on My Solo Full-Stack ProjectBloomberg · Software Engineer · Onsite · Nov 2025Offer
Hey, sharing my interview experience from Bloomberg's final round today. We did about 2 minutes of small talk to open, then the HM went straight in: "I'm particularly interested in this full stack project you did for a real client. Let's focus mostly on that, I'd like to understand how you work." As soon as I heard that I knew this round wasn't about how strong my technical skills were, it was ab…
- Five SQL Questions and a Rehashed User ID PuzzleGlean · Data Scientist · Technical Screen · Nov 2025
I haven't seen an interview post about this company, so let me be the first. There were 5 SQL questions, and the interviewer was a DS. The questions themselves weren't that hard, but a lot of the open discussion was pretty tricky. Two tables: users with user_id, signup_date, and login with user_id, browser, date. A few of the questions stuck with me: Calculate login DAU, and if there are days wit…
- Four-Part Onsite With a Code Review and Whiteboard System DesignDisney · Lead Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Nov 2025In progress
The Mouse House onsite! They've started doing in-person onsites now, so the last two interviews were at the Seattle office. I was interviewing for Lead Software Engineer (Frontend). The second round had four parts total. The first part was a half-hour chat with a Senior TPM, mainly to get a sense of your working style and see your collaboration style. The second part was a code review with a Prin…
- Full Loop, No Offer After System Design Ran LongWarner Bros Discovery · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Nov 2025Rejected
My Warner Bros. Discovery interview process, which dragged on for over a month, is finally over. CNN division - JS Senior Full Stack HR screening - they got to know my background, my reasons for job searching, and touched on a few technical-related questions. Technical Screening - live coding, with two Senior developers on the other side. Very simple: given an array and an integer k, shift left b…
- Gusto Software Engineer interview with a Codesignal GCA-style assessmentGusto · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Nov 2025
After I applied, I moved forward only after completing a Codesignal GCA-style assessment that wasn’t automatic. Once I passed, I had two technical rounds with LeetCode-style questions drawn from the company’s tagged topics. The rounds felt sequential and fairly structured. I solved each problem, reviewed my approach, and moved to the next step after clearing the previous one. After the technical…
- Implementing sin(x) by Hand on the Phone ScreenSnapchat · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Nov 2025In progress
Phone interview with Snapchat. The interviewer was pretty good to talk to — the whole process went well, he gave hints promptly, and he was pretty chatty. I did so-so, I feel like I still need more practice, I stumbled a bit. It started with a self-introduction, then a behavioral question about how to make decisions when the information you have is limited — not hard if you prepare well. The tech…
- Lead Scoring Case Twice, Offer in Two WeeksIBM · Data Scientist · Intern · Technical Screen · Nov 2025Offer
After I submitted my application, the OA went out automatically — one Python question and one SQL question, nothing too hard. First round (mainly asked about my resume, a deep dive into the ML project on my resume, and a case): What's your experience of building a statistical model and machine learning model? What kinds of variables/features did you use? Did the client only care about the results…
- Notion Labs Software Engineer interview: TypeScript team and canceled virtual onsiteNotion Labs · Software Engineer · HR Screen · Nov 2025Rejected
The process felt scripted from the start. A recruiter matched me with a team whose role required TypeScript, even though I hadn't applied specifically to that team. After a phone screen that sounded positive, I heard nothing for two weeks, including after I followed up. When I finally heard back, I had a conversation with the hiring manager. He was surprised to learn that the technical step had a…
- OA, Tech Screen, and Two Team-Match Calls for an ML PhD Intern OfferMeta · Software Engineer · Intern · Onsite · Nov 2025Offer
I finally landed the 26 summer offer that had been hanging over me. The role is SDE, ML PhD intern. Timeline: Oct 14: HR reached out Oct 24: OA + Tech Screening Nov 2: Two Team Match interviews Nov 10: Moved into the hiring process Nov 26: Offer The OA was basically the same questions people have already shared here, randomly pulled from the question bank — nothing harder than a Hard. Technical I…
- One Interviewer No-Show, One Walked Out Mid-InterviewC3 AI · Software Engineer · Onsite · Nov 2025Rejected
I mass-applied online, and HR reached out to set up an interview directly — there was no HR phone screen first. They never shared the job details or the salary range, and went straight to scheduling a 30-minute behavioral round with the hiring manager. The behavioral round with the manager went okay. I asked him about salary and he had no idea about anything. After getting through the behavioral…
