Katkat

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

  • Hacker Rank OA With an AI-Assisted Coding QuestionGoogle · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Apr 2026
    In progress

    As the title says, I applied around the end of February this year. Last Tuesday I did the hiring assessment, and right after that the OA got sent out. It's a Hacker Rank test, and it feels pretty different from the CodeSignal OA that the earlier new-grad wave got, so I wanted to write it up and share. There are two questions total, and they explicitly said some questions let you use an AI tool, w…

  • HubSpot Backend Engineer: CodeSignal, systems design, and project deep diveHubSpot · Backend Engineer · Online Assessment · Apr 2026
    Offer

    I went through a fairly classic HubSpot SWE process that started with an online assessment. Mine was a CodeSignal-style test. I also saw that there was an option to skip the OA if I had a recent score from another company. Either way, the early technical assessment was the first filter. After that, I had a short recruiter chat and then a longer technical sequence. The technical portion was split…

  • HubSpot Software Engineer interview with two systems design roundsHubSpot · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Apr 2026

    I went through a loop in which an online assessment led into human interviews, and the technical work focused heavily on system design. After the initial coding assessment, I had multiple rounds, including two separate systems design interviews and a coding interview. I spent most of the process working through architecture questions. One systems design discussion centered on a streaming platform…

  • After I got through the early stages, the process seemed to be moving normally. I completed what I believed was round two and waited for the next step. The silence afterward threw me off. I never received an official message saying that I hadn’t made it to round three. Instead, I was left to infer what had happened, with no real closure. The lack of communication made the experience drag on even…

  • In-Person Technical Test With Eight Mixed ProblemsGarmin · Software Engineer · Intern · Onsite · Apr 2026

    First round was a technical test that was held at the company. There were simple questions about OOP and DSA, logic and SQL. There were 8 problems. 2 of them asked me to describe the OOP principles and to identify which ones are relevant for a described situation. Then there were 2 coding problems about a square matrix (n x n). It was a circular matrix that started the indexing from the middle of…

  • Karat Software Engineer interview with a rigid one-hour technical screenKarat · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026

    My first contact involved scheduling and then a technical screen. The format felt time-boxed and rigid. I had a hard one-hour window, and the interaction style made it difficult to build momentum. We started with a quick setup where I was asked to explain my background in about a minute. The rest of the session became a quiz with multiple abstract scenarios, and I had to come up with solutions. A…

  • My first contact was a quick recruiter screen. After that, I received the CodeSignal link for the online assessment. Once I completed it, the process moved into a longer onsite structure covering past work, technical thinking, and collaboration. The onsite included several technical and behavioral interviews. In one round, I went deep into past work and system design decisions, explaining the arc…

  • LLD in the Screening Round, Top-K Design in the Behavioral Round, OfferMicrosoft · Software Engineer · Onsite · Apr 2026
    Offer

    Update: I got an offer for a Microsoft L61 role after about 5 months of prepping and interviewing. My background is in trading platforms. I built strategies for traders and also did some infra work where latency mattered a lot. I wanted to move to big tech to work on products at scale, to have a stronger name on my resume, and of course for the better pay :) For prep I did the usual. LeetCode for…

  • LRU Cache with a TTL Twist, Passed With Unfinished CodeBytedance · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026
    In progress

    TikTok engineer position, first round (technical screen). A variant of the classic LRU Cache problem (LeetCode 146). First the interviewer introduced themselves, then asked me to introduce myself. Then the interviewer asked: why are you looking to switch jobs, and why TikTok. Then it was on to coding — the classic LRU Cache problem, but with an extra requirement: support for TTL. Specifically, TT…

  • Lucid Motors Software Engineer interview on motion planning and controlsLucid Motors · Software Engineer · Other · Apr 2026

    The interviews focused heavily on motion planning and controls from the beginning. The hiring process felt organized, and the technical questions were reasonable, but I was expected to think as if I were actually designing the systems. I had to cover system design along with coding related to motion planning and control. I wasn’t only asked to name components. I had to explain how I would structu…

  • Missed the OA's Iterative-DFS Trick But Still AdvancedUber · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026
    In progress

    Today's technical screen: 5-minute self-introduction, then 20 minutes of coding: Given a 2D grid with empty cells, robots, obstacles, and a target like [1, 1, 2, 2] — this represents each robot's distance to the nearest obstacle in the up, left, down, right directions respectively, indexed accordingly. Output a list of robot locations that fit this criteria. Then a 30-minute deep dive on one of m…

  • ML Fundamentals, Transformers, and a Botched Course ScheduleSnapchat · Machine Learning Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026
    Rejected

    The overall process was a standard technical phone screen: they first asked some ML fundamentals and project-related concepts, then asked about transformers, and finished with an algorithm question. Overall I felt the interviewer cared a lot about how solid your fundamentals are, especially ML concepts and coding correctness. The first part was ML fundamentals, mainly about overfitting and how to…

  • Motion Thresholds Across Multiple CamerasVerkada · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026
    Rejected

    I could not answer Part 2 and was rejected. Part 1 — Single Camera Imagine that a camera installed in your building can detect motion. The camera outputs a stream of timestamps and a value indicating the motion intensity at each time. You collect this data and want to determine the periods when the motion was at or above a given threshold. Write a function that takes an array of sorted (timestamp…

  • Nailed Every Round, Still RejectedAttentive · Software Engineer · New Grad · Onsite · Apr 2026
    Rejected

    This was the last round — three interviews back to back: coding + debug + HM. Coding: the interviewer had a straight face the whole time. Gave me LeetCode 1209, first simplified k down to k=3, and I solved it fast — covered edge cases and asked all the clarifying questions. The interviewer saw there was a lot of time left and started following up: first asked how to change it back from 3 to gener…

  • Navan Software Engineer: four-interview onsite for a fullstack roleNavan · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026

    I went through a fairly structured sequence for a fullstack role. After the earlier steps, I had a frontend-focused round, then a hiring manager discussion, and eventually an onsite with multiple interviews. The frontend round focused specifically on that part of the stack, while the hiring manager conversation centered on my experience and how it matched the role. The onsite was the longest part…

  • New "Most Like Me / Least Like Me" FormatGoogle · Online Assessment · Apr 2026

    There's a change — a new question type: "Most like me / Least like me"!!! I'd read another poster's thread on this before and replied there too. (Putting everything together here so people don't miss it!) I just finished the newest GHA as of 5/xx/2026. Part one is the "Most like me" and "Least like me" questions — each one gives you three statements, and they're all positive things, so it's reall…

  • New AI Coding, Debug, and Integration QuestionsStripe · Software Engineer · Onsite · Apr 2026

    Kind of speechless — I ran into new questions on both the integration round and the debug round, and I also got to try out the newest AI coding format. This was for the Java track. AI coding: In HackerRank, there's an AI chat box where you write prompts based on the requirements to get the code solved. If you try to write it by hand yourself, there's about an 80% chance you won't finish in time —…

  • Notion Labs Solutions Engineer interview with delayed updates after the final roundNotion Labs · Solutions Engineer · HR Screen · Apr 2026

    My early interactions were polite, but the process dragged and became difficult to follow. I had a recruiter screen, a conversation with the hiring manager, and a product demo as part of the standard flow. The recruiter also helped me prepare for the different rounds, which was useful. What threw me off was how slow everything moved and how little I understood about where I stood. At one point, I…

  • One-Day Loop After Three Uber AttemptsAmazon · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Apr 2026
    Offer

    I didn't prepare for Amazon alone. What I brought into that loop came out of several earlier tries and a long stretch of studying. I went after Uber three separate times before this. The first time I got through only 1 of the 4 interviews, the second time 3 of 4, and the third time 2 of 4. By the time Amazon rolled around, I had put in plenty of hours grinding LeetCode-style problems. The thing t…

  • Onsite Went Fine, Hiring Manager Call Was DiscouragingLyft · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Apr 2026

    First, the technical screen. It was a sliding window LeetCode hard, but honestly not that hard — it was just 76, Minimum Window Substring. Next came the onsite, three rounds total. The first round was coding. The first 15 minutes were spent talking about past projects, then 60 minutes on the problem, and the last 15 minutes was free-form chat. The problem: given a set of jobs, each with a start t…

  • Overqualified for One Team, Four-Round Onsite With AnotherCarvana · Software Engineer · Onsite · Apr 2026
    Rejected

    This was a mass application, general backend. Carvana is a used-car sales app based in Tempe. I was first matched to a team doing finance. Round 1 A problem from a coding-practice site — the problem name was written in disguised characters so I can't tell exactly what it was — plus a behavioral question. I only wrote out the conversion for numbers under 999; for the ≥1000 case I just explained it…

  • Painter's Partition Screen, Same-Day Two-Round Loop, Then the AA RoundMicrosoft · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Apr 2026

    I applied for a Senior Software Engineer opening through the careers portal. About a week later a recruiter phoned to set up a technical screen, and the screen itself took place a week after that. This was my first ever Microsoft interview, so I was thrilled and nervous in equal measure. Technical Screen round The screen was a single coding problem, labelled LeetCode easy. I didn't recognize it a…

  • Passed a Four-Round AI-Enabled Onsite, Team Match Still in LimboMeta · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Apr 2026
    In progress

    Position: Software Engineer, Product Result: Target E5 Pass The OA was pretty old at this point, but the questions are in the forum's question bank. The recruiter waived my phone screen and put me straight into the onsite. The onsite was 4 rounds total. AI-Enabled System Design Billed as "AI-Enabled," but the interviewer seemed to be doing this format for the first time — his question bank wasn't…

  • Passed the Screen, Then the Full Loop Was CancelledMeta · Engineering Manager · Senior+ · Technical Screen · Apr 2026

    This one began well. A recruiter contacted me first, and she was friendly, professional and really helpful. In this market it is hard to even get a recruiter to notice you, so that alone felt like a big deal. They were flexible about scheduling, and I booked my screening for the EM1 role about two weeks out. To get ready I used an online interview prep course. I worked through all of the top syst…

  • Passed Two Screens, Stuck on No HeadcountDatabricks · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026
    No response

    I had two phone interviews (technical screens). Round 1 was probably a new question from the interviewer — really hard. Given a set of node groups (e.g. [[1],[2,3],[4,5,6]]), connect all the groups into one connected graph. The way to connect: pick one node at random from each of two different groups and build an edge between them. The final graph needs to be connected, using the minimum number o…

  • Periodic Table Word Puzzle Phone Screen, Two Onsite DSA RoundsGoogle · Software Engineer · Onsite · Apr 2026

    Phone Interview Given all the element symbols from the periodic table and a target word, return the total number of possible ways to compose that word using the element symbols. For example, "Physics" can be composed in the following ways: P - H - Y - Si - C - S P - H - Y - Si - Cs P - H - Y - S - I - C - S P - H - Y - S - I - Cs Onsite Round 1 (DSA) Given n players (numbered 0 to n - 1) and a se…

  • Phone Screen and Onsite Reject, Struggling With the AI-Coding RoundsRippling · Software Engineer · Onsite · Apr 2026
    Rejected

    First round phone screen: I picked AI coding, and it was the logger question that's been posted on the forum. Roughly: the first question was to implement the following functionality, where each feature could be triggered and then print out the logger: Removes all occurrences of a configured string before printing. Truncates the message to a max number of characters before printing. Capitalizes t…

  • Phone Screen Passed, Rejected After a Four-Round Virtual OnsiteWaymo · Software Engineer · Onsite · Apr 2026
    Rejected

    I got rejected after the full Waymo loop. Posting this so the people after me can avoid the same landmine. Before the interview I looked through the forum and there seemed to be hardly any Waymo reports. After finishing, I do feel there is no fixed question bank, it all depends on what the interviewer feels like asking that day. The phone screen was a variant of the number-of-islands problem, and…

  • Phone Screen, Onsite, and Way Too Many Reference ChecksOpenAI · Software Engineer · Onsite · Apr 2026

    I interviewed in April, and only got around to writing this up today. Hope it helps. Phone screen: Coding: Contagion — basically the same as the version posted on the forum. Part 1: only an infected state, how long until everyone gets infected. Part 2: building on part 1, add an immune state. Part 3: after being infected, you become immune after D days — how long until it stabilizes. Part 4: add…

  • Piecewise Interpolation, Temperature Prediction, and Streaming Linear Regression on the OATwo Sigma · Data Scientist · Online Assessment · Apr 2026

    This Two Sigma research OA is also an old question that's been floating around on the forum. Question 1: You're given a bunch of discrete points that connect into a polyline. Now you're given an x, and you need to compute the corresponding y. If x falls between two points, do linear interpolation; if it falls outside the range, extend the line segments on either end to compute it. The question ma…