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.
- 3935
- Experiences
- 857
- Companies
- 532
- Offers
3935 results
- Seven Rounds Over Two Months, No OfferSnapchat · Technical Program Manager · Onsite · Jun 2025Rejected
Sharing my Snap TPM interview from a while back. Round 1 with the HM: A quick 30-minute chat with the hiring manager, mainly talking through two projects I'd worked on before and digging into the details. They also gave me a heads-up on what to focus on in each of the following rounds. Round 2, with the HM again: This round was more free-form — the HM asked a wide range of questions covering stat…
- Aurora Innovation Software Engineer interview with four virtual onsite roundsAurora Innovation · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · May 2025
I started with a recruiter call, followed by a technical discussion with the hiring manager. There was no coding in that round. We talked through my experience and how it fit the role. After that, I had a DSA-style technical round with one coding problem that didn't feel especially hard. The virtual onsite had four rounds: a behavioral interview with the hiring manager, a technical interview abou…
- Aurora Innovation Software Engineer interview with unpredictable hiring-manager criteriaAurora Innovation · Software Engineer · Other · May 2025
My hiring manager interview stood out because it felt unpredictable and, frankly, capricious. I had more directly relevant experience and stronger credentials, but the conversation didn't reflect that consistently. The recruiter experience also differed from what I expected. I felt pushed to frame the process in a way that didn't match how I believed they were judging fit. By the end, it was clea…
- Chainlink Labs Software Engineer interview: multi-stage process with system design and executive discussionChainlink Labs · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · May 2025Rejected
My process felt long and multi-stage, with several steps to narrow things down. It started with recruiter touchpoints, followed by several technical interviews with engineers. The difficulty was serious rather than casual. I worked through algorithm questions and then moved into system design, including distributed-systems concepts. As I progressed, the technical rounds became more focused on arc…
- Gusto Software Engineer interview, take-home and pair sessionGusto · Software Engineer · Take-home Project · May 2025Offer
My process felt rigorous and time-heavy. It stood out because it involved more than a single technical screen, with multiple signals being collected. I was surprised by how much effort the interview required overall, including a take-home component, follow-up work, and extended technical work that didn't feel proportional to the compensation. The questions were framed as "real work," but they wer…
- Passed the Third Round the Same AfternoonUber · Program Manager · Senior+ · Onsite · May 2025Offer
Last Friday I had my third-round interview for a Senior Program Manager role at Uber's San Francisco office. Worth reading if you have a liberal-arts, business, or other non-tech background. Interview length: 45 minutes Questions asked: Intro Why Uber Why U... Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years Your biggest, proudest project A story backed by data and metrics Uber Eats vs. DoorDash Small case…
- Rokt Software Engineer aptitude assessment with 40 questions in 30 minutesRokt · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · May 2025Rejected
I started with an aptitude-style assessment to qualify for the initial screening. It was a timed, third-party test with 40 questions, and I had to finish it in under 30 minutes. The questions felt focused on puzzles and patterns, with some mental math mixed in. After I completed it, I never got the sense that there had been a meaningful conversation behind the scenes. My application moved to a ti…
- Rokt Software Engineer interview with a full-day bar raiserRokt · Software Engineer · Other · May 2025
The later stage became the most memorable part of my process, and not in a good way. After the earlier rounds, I was brought into an Amazon-style bar raiser interview. The tone felt scripted and as if the decision had already been made. The interviewer began by asking me to walk through a specific period from my resume. They mostly stayed quiet and gave very little feedback while I spoke. There w…
- Rokt Software Engineer interview with coding, system design, and behavioral roundsRokt · Software Engineer · Other · May 2025No response
My process dragged on much longer than it should have. Recruiters were difficult to reach and gave me incorrect information about what the interviews would involve. Some interviewers also came across as though they didn't want to be there. At times, the whole process felt cold and stressful instead of inviting. Communication problems kept making the process feel unreliable. In some interviews, th…
- A TV-Show Cancellation Case, Then a Power Day Invite in 90 MinutesCapital One · Data Scientist · Technical Screen · Apr 2025In progress
Q1 - They asked the TV series case: assume you're the CEO of this company, and the company currently has a TV show called Analyst. When you're deciding whether to cancel this show, what factors do you need to consider? I answered from the revenue and cost angle. After I finished, the interviewer asked a follow-up, something like "do you think you need to consider the market situation?" I got what…
- Aurora Innovation Software Engineer interview, visa sponsorshipAurora Innovation · Software Engineer · Apr 2025
The process started when the hiring manager reached out directly for basic details, including my background and visa status. When I said I’d need visa sponsorship, I was told they’d have to double-check. A few days later, I heard that they couldn’t sponsor, and the process ended there. It was short and abrupt, with the outcome determined more by eligibility than interview performance. I didn’t ge…
- Rocket Lab Cloud Engineer interview, onsite trivia questionsRocket Lab · Cloud Engineer · Onsite · Apr 2025Rejected
I arrived enthusiastic for the onsite, but the experience felt misaligned from the start. The interview moved away from the role and into trivia-style questions from other disciplines and roles, including questions from panelists who joined remotely. Instead of evaluating my software engineering fit as a whole, it became a cross-functional Q&A where the questions didn’t feel relevant to the job d…
- Three Case Rounds in One Power DayCapital One · Onsite · Apr 2025Offer
This is my May interview experience. Since one of the cases hadn't been posted on the forum before, it took me a while to write this up. Round 1: Product case — this was similar to what's already on the forum. Round 2: They asked about the $300 over-limit transaction case, which has also shown up on the forum before. My attachment has it too. Round 3: This was a case I hadn't seen before, and I f…
- TikTok Ecosystem Questions, Rejected Two Days LaterBytedance · Product Manager · Technical Screen · Apr 2025Rejected
The first step was a take-home assignment with three questions: one about TikTok's ecosystem, and two more that were kind of behavioral-style. About a week after I submitted it, they scheduled an interview with me. They didn't say how many rounds there would be. I was originally scheduled with a director, but then got rescheduled to a team lead instead. The interview was entirely in English, and…
- Chime Product Manager interview: five rounds with case panelsChime · Product Manager · HR Screen · Mar 2025
I remember this process as an intense stretch. I spoke with a lot of people, and every round took real mental effort. It included a recruiter screen, a hiring manager conversation, and two full rounds of panel interviews, for five rounds altogether. The panels were demanding, with case-focused sessions in each one, and the final step was a conversation at the CPO level. The hiring manager experie…
- Chime Product Manager interview: organizational structure, emerging technologies, and case studyChime · Product Manager · Other · Mar 2025
Round 1 set the tone quickly with three interviews. I started with a conversation about organizational structure, then worked through an emerging technologies prompt that required me to generate many ideas and prioritize them. The third part was a case study that felt designed to test how I’d turn my thinking into decisions. The part I remember most is how concentrated and targeted that first sta…
- Chime Software Engineer interview with a complex game-design questionChime · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Mar 2025
I had a difficult start when a phone screen turned into an extremely complex game-design question that I couldn't get clear enough to understand. The recruiter call came first. During the technical phone screen, I was asked to design a game with complicated rules. The interviewer struggled to explain how the game worked, and the prompt felt unrealistic without prior knowledge. I didn't make it to…
- Discord Software Engineer interview: DS&A coding and virtual onsiteDiscord · Software Engineer · HR Screen · Mar 2025
I went through a more traditional data structures and algorithms interview process at Discord. It started with recruiter and initial screens, followed by a coding stage and then an onsite. The technical bar felt more focused on knowledge than on building an application. After the initial conversation, I moved into a coding step. The technical interview focused on data structures and algorithms. I…
- Discord Software Engineer interview: React component live codingDiscord · Software Engineer · HR Screen · Mar 2025
I interviewed for a Software Engineer role with a front-end-focused live coding component that let me work interactively on screen. The recruiter screen was a short phone call about my background. For the live coding round, I had to design and implement a relatively small React component while sharing my screen. In one case, the interviewer helped keep the expectations clear, and we had a back-an…
- Discord Software Engineer interview: technical questions in the first screenDiscord · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Mar 2025
I had an early-stage Discord interview that combined recruiter outreach with technical and behavioral questions, but it didn't progress further. After I was emailed to apply, I scheduled a screening call. I answered technical questions along with standard behavioral questions. I didn't receive an offer, and the experience showed me that the first screen could include hands-on technical checking r…
- Headway Software Engineer interview with role homework and employee interviewsHeadway · Software Engineer · HR Screen · Mar 2025
I went through a multi-step process that felt unusual in how quickly it ramped up. It started with a recruiter meeting where I answered basic questions. Then I was assigned homework tied to the role, which I had to complete before the next technical conversation. After that, I had a technical interview with the hiring manager. The format shifted again when I interviewed with current employees. Th…
- SQL, A/B Test Design, and a BTC Volatility CaseCoinbase · Data Scientist · Senior+ · Onsite · Mar 2025
Background: Bachelor's degree in China + Master's in the US, Statistics / Data track 3+ years of data analysis / risk-control experience (mostly finance-related) Applied for: Data Scientist – Risk / Product Analytics (remote) Overall Process HR Screen → SQL & Stats → Product Case → Hiring Manager → Team Fit The whole process took about 4 weeks. Not super fast, but the feedback at each stage was p…
- Windowed Map Coding Question, Rude InterviewerStackAdapt · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Mar 2025
The question was to implement a Windowed Map — a KV store with a time window. Data arrives at irregular intervals, and only the data within the most recent window size / time window is kept; anything outside the window is expired and no longer visible to the user. You need to implement 3 methods (as efficiently as possible): Get(key): if the key exists and hasn't expired, return the value; otherw…
- Airtable Full Stack Engineer interview: UI flow and hierarchical dataAirtable · Full Stack Engineer · Online Assessment · Feb 2025
I went through a longer interview loop that started with an online assessment and then moved quickly to a phone interview. The phone screen used an Airtable-style scenario. That set the tone for the live coding portion, where the questions were meant to feel realistic and the follow-ups focused on explaining my choices, not just producing working code. After that, I had several technical intervie…
- Circle Internet Financial Software Engineer interview: six-week wait after an OACircle Internet Financial · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Feb 2025Rejected
I ran into a long process where timing and recruiter follow-through became the deciding factors. I completed an online technical assessment that took more than an hour, then waited about six weeks before a recruiter reached out. The recruiter mainly focused on why I wanted to work at Circle. After another two weeks, I received a generic rejection email, even though I had scored 100% on the coding…
- Lucid Motors Software Engineer 4 to 5 hour panel interviewLucid Motors · Software Engineer · Other · Feb 2025
The sequence was straightforward. I started with a screening, then had a hiring manager interview, followed by a panel interview. The panel lasted around 4 to 5 hours, so it was a long day. The questions during the panel felt fair and thought-provoking. The interviewers communicated directly, and the process was well organized. I got the impression that they were testing how I reasoned and how cl…
- Lucid Motors Software Engineer interview with mechanics and vehicle body design questionsLucid Motors · Software Engineer · Other · Feb 2025
Recruiter outreach kicked things off quickly. I got a call to schedule the initial chat, and during that phone conversation, the recruiter explained what would happen next. They promised to follow up shortly after the interview, within about a day or two. The interview with the hiring manager felt fairly normal and even pleasant. We started with a resume review, then talked through my experience.…
- OA, Three Rounds, and a Sour TL RoundWeRide · Data Scientist · Intern · Onsite · Feb 2025
I applied for the PhD intern position. First I did the OA, which was pure coding. After that HR called, and then they referred me to a team interview — the team I ended up interviewing for was the DS metric team. There were three rounds total. Round 1 was coding, three questions. The first was a SQL question — I forgot what it was. The second was pandas: computing a sliding window average, specif…
- Round Two Expected-Value BrainteasersWorldQuant · Quantitative Researcher · Intern · Technical Screen · Feb 2025
The whole process has three rounds of interviews. This is round two. Interview content Behavioral Self-introduction How much I know about WorldQuant Walk through my past internship experience What I know about finance and investing Can you talk about your own investing experience? Why did you start investing? What did you learn from investing? Math questions Problem 1: Four boxes There are four b…
- Stubhub Software Engineer interview: Codility, CodeSignal, and resume-based technical screenStubhub · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Feb 2025Rejected
The process moved quickly into online testing and stopped just as fast. I took a Codility-style assessment with a limited time window and submitted everything before time ran out, but I never heard back. At another stage, I completed a CodeSignal assessment with several LeetCode-style questions. The focus was on getting working solutions rather than writing the most elegant algorithms. I ran out…
