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
- BairesDev Software Engineer Interview Experience: Approved but placed on a waiting listBairesDev · Software Engineer · HR Screen · Jun 2026In progress
The journey had the feel of a complete pipeline: a short video presentation, tests on the company platform, an HR screening, a technical interview with engineering, and another conversation with a team leader. The technical interview focused on technology rather than live coding. Architecture and overall structure came up, but the questions remained general instead of going deep into a specific j…
- BairesDev Software Engineer interview: Python fundamentals and concurrencyBairesDev · Software Engineer · HR Screen · Jun 2026
My process picked up after I filled out my online profile. I had a short HR screening where the conversation moved between Spanish and English, and then I was scheduled for the technical interview. The technical round was entirely in English and lasted about forty minutes. It surprised me because it focused heavily on open-ended, textbook-style questions about core Python concepts. I was asked ab…
- Baker Hughes Software Engineer recorded HireVue and salary-range screenBaker Hughes · Software Engineer · Other · Jun 2026No response
The recruiter conversation focused heavily on salary expectations, especially whether I would accept the low end of the posted range, instead of fully exploring what the role required. The process then relied on recorded interviews. I completed a one-way HireVue-style screen with a handful of behavioral questions about motivation and STAR examples. A timer started as recording began, so I felt wa…
- Bank Of America Merrill Lynch Financial Analyst market leader and client role-playBank Of America Merrill Lynch · Financial Analyst · Jun 2026Offer
After a recruiter call, I waited about a week for a market-leader conversation and then had a final meeting with a regional executive. The structure was consistent, with the recruiter and leadership each pressure-testing my fit. The questions centered on personality: why I wanted the role, how work ethic appeared in my prior experience, what I thought the job involved, and how my background match…
- Bosch Software Engineer interview: missed response date after a technical interviewBosch · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Jun 2026
HR approached me and scheduled a technical interview with several people involved. Afterward, I was told I would hear back by a particular date. That date passed without the promised response, and the delay is what made the experience negative for me. I did not hear the outcome I had hoped for. More than that, I was frustrated by the lack of a proper reply. Waiting without clarity is hard enough,…
- Brillio Full Stack Engineer interview: a one-hour NodeJS group coding exerciseBrillio · Full Stack Engineer · Technical Screen · Jun 2026
The group interview format felt intense from the start. I was placed with about 20 other people and given a sheet containing a complex NodeJS coding problem. We had one hour to solve it on our own, with no talking allowed. When the hour was up, each person had to present a solution privately to the interviewer. That put a lot of pressure on me. I could not compare approaches with anyone while sol…
- Cadence Design Systems Software Engineer CEO final round followed by ghostingCadence Design Systems · Software Engineer · Jun 2026No response
The process started promisingly and reached a final conversation with the CEO. Along the way, I felt the team was engaged and that I was a strong match. I was told directly that they really wanted to hire me. After the CEO meeting, everything went quiet. I was completely ghosted and did not hear anything for months. I did not receive an offer. The interviews had gone well, but the lack of closure…
- Changing Requirements in the LLD Round and a Distributed Cache DesignAmazon · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Other · Jun 2026
I've been applying to SDE-2 roles at MAANG-tier companies for the better part of a year, and it was rough going. I collected plenty of instant rejections right at the start, and that made it clear I had to prepare much harder. On the DSA side I mostly stuck to the LeetCode Premium MAANG checklist. My LLD prep came from Medium articles and YouTube channels. Reading past interview experiences for t…
- Chime Software Engineer interview with coding, system design, and manager roundsChime · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Jun 2026
I went through a fairly standard Software Engineer process at Chime, with a recruiter conversation followed by coding, system design, manager, and product-style rounds. The difficulty was mostly average, although I had mixed feelings about how clearly some interviewers ran their sessions. The recruiter screen was a phone call about my background, the role, and expectations. The technical intervie…
- Cisco Software Engineer interview experienceCisco · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Jun 2026
The technical questions leaned toward systems thinking and networking fundamentals. I was asked about stack and heap basics, what causes segmentation faults, and how I would approach debugging a stack overflow. Networking came up too, including wireless concepts and the differences between OFDMA and OFDM. The conversation stayed informal. Even when the topics got detailed, I was encouraged to exp…
- Cloud Big Data Technologies Software Engineer Interview: A harder onsite coding roundCloud Big Data Technologies · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Jun 2026Rejected
I went through a Google-style, DSA-heavy loop that became much harder at the onsite level and ended in rejection. I passed the recruiter or phone screen, where the bar felt lower and the focus was role fit and coding ability. I then completed multiple DSA and coding interviews in a standard LeetCode-style format, with follow-ups about optimizing or implementing similar solutions. At the onsite, t…
- CoreAI Loop With an AI Coding Round, After 11 Loops in a YearMicrosoft · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Jun 2026Offer
A bit of background first. I spent 6 years at a big fintech, and most of that time went into building an internal experimentation platform. I want to be honest about the niche angle, because I think people assume the opposite of what happened. I never planned to specialize. I sent applications everywhere, senior backend roles, anything that looked decent. Only when I reviewed my own funnel at the…
- Cursor-Assisted Coding, Insurance Design and a STAR RoundRevolut · Software Engineer · Other · Jun 2026Offer
For roughly 8 years I've been an engineer at a single company, and most of that stretch was spent on its in-house tooling. I started there straight out of university, so I rarely touched the mainstream stack the wider industry runs on. I tried to keep learning on evenings and weekends, but that is no substitute for using the tools at work. Nearly 6 months ago I started interviewing, and it was a…
- Datadog Software Engineer Interview Experience: manager roleplay after recruiter screenDatadog · Software Engineer · Jun 2026Rejected
I applied through the job portal and a recruiter contacted me for a brief video call about my background, salary expectations, and basic fit. The next stage was more detailed: I met with two managers who dug into my experience. Near the end of that discussion, they switched to a practical roleplay scenario to test my hands on skills. It was direct and focused on what I could do rather than only w…
- Datadog Solutions Engineer Interview Experience: Deep technical final stageDatadog · Solutions Engineer · HR Screen · Jun 2026Rejected
I went through a standard multi-round Solutions Engineer process. It opened with an English-language HR conversation about who I was, whether I knew Datadog, and my salary expectations. Next came an online HackerRank test with prompts on SQL, Linux, containers, APIs, and installing and setting up a Datadog agent. I then met the hiring manager for behavioral questions with some technical content b…
- Deliveroo Account Executive Interview Experience: discouraging communicationDeliveroo · Account Executive · Jun 2026
I expected a fairly normal process, but it felt discouraging almost immediately. During the recruiter call, there was a long monologue and very little meaningful interaction. When it ended, I felt the decision had already been made. I was doing account work in my current role, so being told I was not "pure" enough for the job landed badly, especially when there was no room for questions. The lack…
- Dell Tech Laboratories Software Engineer Interview Experience: A delayed scheduleDell Tech Laboratories · Software Engineer · Jun 2026
The process felt streamlined overall. The HR contact was humble and responsive, including when I needed help scheduling around my availability. The frustrating part was the delay: I had to wait an entire day to complete the interview when it felt as though it could have happened sooner. Aside from that timing issue, the interaction did not seem especially complicated and the coordination was othe…
- Deutsche Bank Financial Analyst Interview Experience: defending valuation assumptionsDeutsche Bank · Financial Analyst · Technical Screen · Jun 2026
After an opening conversation where I introduced myself, the interviews moved quickly into technical territory. I was asked direct questions about valuation and how to justify assumptions: EBITDA multiples, DCF setup and its assumptions, plus multi step accounting work. The difficulty came from going beyond memorized answers; I felt they wanted to see that I understood the concepts. The second st…
- Distracted Interviewer Nitpicks a Binary SearchAmazon · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Jun 2026
First off, the interviewer was 30 minutes late. The scheduled time was already inconvenient, and then he pulls this on top of it. He started by going over my resume, and we talked for over half an hour. The interviewer was obviously distracted the whole time, kept asking me to re-explain things I had already explained, and wasted a lot of time going back and forth like that. Then out of nowhere h…
- Ernst & Young Consultant interview: assessment delays and silenceErnst & Young · Consultant · Jun 2026
After the initial recruiter step, I was asked early questions and told I would receive an evaluation afterward. Once I completed it, the process stalled for a long time. I reached out for an update and got silence back, which made the whole journey feel inefficient. Separately, I went through a longer, multi-stage path with video and a psychometric-style component. It never seemed to move much be…
- Ernst & Young Consultant interview: delayed evaluation responseErnst & Young · Consultant · Jun 2026Rejected
My first step was a short recruiter phone call. It felt as though the questions were being read from a checklist, and I got very little context about the role or the rest of the process. I had to try to get clarity from the conversation itself. I completed an evaluation they sent afterward, then waited for months with no update. When a response finally came, it was a generic rejection. The long s…
- Ernst & Young U.S. LLP Consultant interview: delayed HR rejectionErnst & Young U.S. LLP · Consultant · HR Screen · Jun 2026Rejected
My first step was a brief phone call with HR, and it felt mechanical. The interviewer seemed to be reading from a list, without giving me much detail about the role or what the rest of the process would involve. After that call, I heard nothing for months. When I finally received an email, it was a generic rejection with no real feedback. The interview did not feel technically difficult, but the…
- Ernst & Young U.S. LLP Consultant interview: virtual assessment processErnst & Young U.S. LLP · Consultant · Jun 2026
My process felt long and somewhat unfocused. I went through several stages, including a video-based step and an assessment, but neither seemed to take me far. Each one felt more like a formality than a route to a final decision. Although everything was virtual and involved several moving parts, it did not feel efficient. I did not receive an offer, and I remember thinking it could have moved fast…
- Finacle Software Engineer interview experience: microphone failure before assessmentFinacle · Software Engineer · Jun 2026Rejected
This attempt was brief because I was rejected at a pre-assessment stage. Before the second rejection appeared, a technical problem disrupted the first interview attempt: my microphone did not work, and that seemed to derail the process immediately. I later received follow-up communication with a survey/interview step, but I could not move forward. It felt as if the outcome was decided early by th…
- FIRSTNET GLOBAL Account Executive interview experience: sell-a-simple-item promptFIRSTNET GLOBAL · Account Executive · Other · Jun 2026
The interview was direct, and I appreciated that. They asked about my best and worst scenarios at work: how I got into each situation, what I did to handle the challenge, and what I did next once things improved. They also asked me to show sales skill in a practical way. I was put on the spot and asked to sell a simple item. They wanted specifics about the pitch and how I would talk through it as…
- FIRSTNET GLOBAL Software Engineer Interview: Project work and behavioral questionsFIRSTNET GLOBAL · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Jun 2026Rejected
I applied online and then completed a pre-employment assessment. The next steps included a phone screen, a technical round, and a behavioral round. The process kept returning to my project work: what I built, the challenges I ran into, and the people side of teamwork. The behavioral questions covered teamwork, conflict, and communication under pressure. The difficulty did not feel extreme. It see…
- Five Onsite Rounds, LPs Woven Into Every OneAmazon · Software Engineer · Onsite · Jun 2026
Preparing for Amazon took me a good amount of time, and threads on this forum helped a ton, so I'm back to turn in my homework. Before I get into it: the biggest difference between Amazon and other companies is that Leadership Principles aren't a separate round — they're baked into every single round. Across my five rounds, every one of them started with twenty to thirty minutes of LP questions b…
- General Dynamics Information Technology Software Engineer Interview Experience: a 30 minute panelGeneral Dynamics Information Technology · Software Engineer · Other · Jun 2026Offer
The process was unusually streamlined. I had a single 30 minute virtual panel with a program manager, a senior architect, and a VP. It was a quick, focused discussion with decision makers rather than a long run of screens. I did not have to wait through multiple rounds. I received an offer shortly after the call, which made the process feel efficient and low drama. It felt as if the team had a cl…
- General Mills Software Engineer Interview Experience: intrusive recruiter questionsGeneral Mills · Software Engineer · HR Screen · Jun 2026Rejected
My first contact was a recruiter call that shifted in an unexpected direction. The recruiter asked intrusive personal questions, including what my spouse and parents do and how many children I have. The conversation then moved to my salary history. What felt especially off was that it became an argument about that history without clear information about the engineering role or the salary range th…
- Google Backend Engineer interview: behavioral detail and impactGoogle · Backend Engineer · HR Screen · Jun 2026
I went through Google's behavioral and HR round for a Backend Engineer role, and it put surprising weight on the details. The conversation followed the familiar behavioral format: how I would respond, how clearly I could explain my thinking, and how I connected my experience to the kind of work Google cares about. I found that precision mattered more than simply sounding confident. I kept checkin…
