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
- Plaid Customer Success Engineer interview with an email technical assessmentPlaid · Customer Success Engineer · Apr 2026
I interviewed about two weeks before I heard back, and the process felt pretty lightweight. I started with a technical assessment over email, followed by an interview with the hiring manager. What stood out was how the hiring manager handled the conversation. It didn’t feel much like a discussion. It felt more like I was expected to work through a list of questions while they answered whatever I…
- Power Day With Three Back-to-Back Case StudiesCapital One · Data Scientist · Onsite · Apr 2026
Mini Case About streaming subscriptions: a new streaming service is launching, calculate the break-even point. Asked whether the break-even user count I calculated was reasonable — if not, what could be done to make it happen. Power Day Case #1 was the original weather insurance case Asked what factors to consider when it comes to the target customer Premium prepaid for 12 months: $30/month. Serv…
- Project Manager at Epic: four-hour collaboration and communication sessionEpic Systems · Project Manager · Apr 2026
I went into Epic expecting a fairly normal interview, but the main experience was a four-hour online session centered on collaboration and communication. It started with an information component, especially since I was being considered for multiple roles. There was a separate overview for each role, so I spent time learning the scope before the interactive parts. The core activities began with a…
- QuadTree Screen That I Ended EarlyUber · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026Rejected
They asked me how to build a QuadTree. There's a similar problem on LeetCode (the original post referenced it in a garbled, obfuscated way, probably to dodge the forum's keyword filter), but the interview version wasn't limited to just 0s and 1s — the description given was pretty high-level, and I had to implement the data structure from scratch by hand. I'd solved this problem more than once, th…
- Recruiter Went Silent, LRU Cache Blank-OutXPeng · Data Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026Rejected
I've always dreamed of working at a self-driving company! These days, anyone who can still put their heart into working in autonomous driving really has passion for it. But unfortunately I didn't manage to make the most of my interview opportunity with XPeng :( I don't think their recruiter was very professional. I emailed the recruiter to ask if there was an interview prep guide, and after the P…
- Referral Graphs and a Job SchedulerRobinhood · Software Engineer · Onsite · Apr 2026Rejected
The applicant reports completing Robinhood’s three-hour onsite across three separate days. A referral-count coding problem went smoothly, but the project discussion was harder: the applicant struggled to explain the system’s complexity and scalability after the interviewer exhausted questions about business logic. The report advises preparing useful starting points for a deeper technical conversa…
- Rejected After a Forced-JS Coding ScreeneBay · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Technical Screen · Apr 2026Rejected
The recruiter only mentioned that the interview would cover algorithms and data structures, with no mention of a language requirement at all. Then right at the start of the interview, the interviewer told me I could only use JavaScript or TypeScript. I said I was more comfortable in Python, but I was still made to use JS/TS. This was the first time I've ever been forced into a specific language l…
- Rejected After the HR Motivation QuestionAnthropic · Software Engineer · Senior+ · HR Screen · Apr 2026Rejected
My process ended at the HR interview before I reached any technical interview. The recruiter asked why I wanted to choose Anthropic. After I answered, the recruiter's expression looked noncommittal. Sure enough, I received a rejection a few days later. I have ten years of experience and was interviewing for a technical role, so I was really frustrated that a poor answer to "Why Anthropic?" was en…
- Rejected at the ML System Design RoundCohere · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026Rejected
I interviewed for a role on the agent platform team. The process was: OA -> HM call (behavioral) -> system design -> VO (two rounds of debugging and coding). The OA was basic Python string parsing. The only tricky part was the last question, where the argument you're passed is callable — you need to print the function's name, its input/output format, and the expected result. You need to know whic…
- Remitly Software Engineer interview with a high-frequency banking promptRemitly · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026
My first step was an early technical prompt that was much broader than I expected for an initial stage. I had to build something like a high-frequency banking system from scratch, which meant thinking beyond one algorithm and covering the moving parts end to end. It was comprehensive, but once I broke the problem down, I could see a way through it. The next round was a live interview with behavio…
- Rivian Software Engineer interview: project discussion and high-voltage experienceRivian · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026
My screening was laid-back and centered mostly on my resume and projects. I talked through my previous work, and the first interview went into more detailed technical questions related to one of my projects. I was also asked about my high-voltage experience. There were some additional technical questions, but they weren’t overly complicated. It felt like they were checking whether my past work tr…
- Rocket Lab Systems Engineer interview with four rounds and a technical coding assessmentRocket Lab · Systems Engineer · HR Screen · Apr 2026
I had a fairly straightforward interview process. The steps felt organized, even though the timeline varied. It started with a recruiter conversation about behavioral topics and my background. The later rounds followed a simple structure. Overall, it seemed to involve four rounds, and there wasn't a self-style presentation unless you were interviewing for an internship track. The technical portio…
- Samsara Software Engineer, HTML parsing and simple system designSamsara · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026Offer
After several recruiter conversations, the process moved through technical discussions, a system design exercise, and a cultural fit check. The recruiting team kept everything organized, and the interviews felt efficient and coherent. One early step was described as a quick verification call with the recruiter. The system design exercise was supposed to be simple rather than elaborate. I also got…
- Scale Software Engineer interview with a time-pressured technical screenScale · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026Rejected
My interview process was drawn out. It started well enough, but the ending left a sour feeling. I first had a recruiting call, followed by a technical screen after some preparation from the recruiter. The last part was the most exhausting. The final round was a loop with many interviews, and my experience varied by interviewer. Some seemed distracted or disorganized, which made the day feel longe…
- Scale Software Engineer live coding interview implementing a card gameScale · Software Engineer · Online Assessment · Apr 2026In progress
After I cleared an initial online assessment, my next step was a 60-minute live coding interview. I was surprised that it wasn't a traditional algorithm question. Instead, I had to implement a unique card game with enough rules to turn it into a real build exercise. I had to translate the problem into working code, and the time limit forced me to stay organized. I passed that round and moved into…
- Scaling an Appointment Booking SystemGarner Health · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026
My Garner Health interview was a system design round. The first question was to design an appointment booking system where patients could search for doctors and book appointments. I discussed the core Patient, Doctor, and Appointment data models; how to query a doctor's available time slots; and how to book or cancel an appointment. The design also needed to prevent multiple patients from booking…
- ServiceTitan Software Engineer interview with async/await and system designServiceTitan · Software Engineer · HR Screen · Apr 2026Rejected
My process started with a recruiter screen and then moved into three technical rounds. In the first two, I spent long sessions pair programming. I implemented a custom data structure from an interface, then worked on parallel processing with async/await. The difficulty felt medium or easier, and the interviewers were fair and clear, so I could collaborate and ask questions as I went. The third ro…
- Seven-Part Research Onsite, Offer a Week LaterOpenAI · Machine Learning Engineer · Onsite · Apr 2026Offer
You can find my phone screen writeup in a separate post. Since this was a recruiter reach-out, once I passed the phone screen I went straight to onsite with the team that wanted to interview me. The onsite was split into the following parts: Collaboration interview — we talked about the current SOTA in my research direction, its pros and cons, whether I had relevant technical experience, and how…
- Strong Start, Onsite Set Up to FailAirbnb · Software Engineer · Onsite · Apr 2026Rejected
Sharing my full Airbnb loop. A friend's classmate referred me in, and I got a response the very next day. Here's the weird thing: the first round was a phone screen with the hiring manager — an HM based somewhere else — 30 minutes, and it went really well. He was a genuinely nice guy, and you could tell right away he was a good manager. What he worked on matched well with my background too, and I…
- Strong-Hire Feedback, Rejected at the Hiring CommitteeDatabricks · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Onsite · Apr 2026Rejected
I just got the update — rejected at HC. I really can't help venting about this: they set expectations so high and then tell you you got rejected at the hiring committee stage. I was interviewing for a senior fullstack role. Phone screen was mid-June — the classic high-frequency anagram LeetCode question. I finished in 20 minutes, wrote my own test, and as soon as it passed, that was it — call ove…
- Stubhub Software Engineer interview with repeated scheduling problemsStubhub · Software Engineer · HR Screen · Apr 2026Rejected
The process started with scheduling, and it quickly became clear that it wasn't being handled with much care. The recruiter didn't show up for the originally scheduled interview at all. After I reached out to reschedule, I didn't get a real response. I joined the rescheduled call anyway, only for the recruiter to arrive late and act as if the situation was an inconvenience rather than something t…
- Superday, a Buggy PR Review, and a 90-Day Team Match WaitJ.P. Morgan · Software Engineer · Onsite · Apr 2026In progress
Applied at the end of May, got the OA the same day, and finished it within three days — two medium-difficulty questions. Got an email from HR pretty quickly saying I passed the OA, asking for my resume and LinkedIn. A day later they called to schedule the superday. The call was only a few minutes, didn't ask about my work experience at all — I had prepared a self-introduction but never got to use…
- System Design Prep With No Cloud BackgroundCapital One · Software Engineer · Senior+ · Other · Apr 2026Offer
Heading into this loop I honestly wasn't sure I'd make it through. I figured I could be a borderline candidate at best, and part of me expected to flop outright. The reason was simple: I've never really worked hands-on with cloud. My general software engineering background carries over, but it isn't the same, and I feared that unfamiliar terminology would trip me up or that I'd come across like s…
- System Design, a Dasher Debugging Round, and an AI Pair-Programming RoundDoorDash · Software Engineer · Onsite · Apr 2026
SD round - from the prep notes, a food review system. Debug round - also from the prep notes. The question was about adding a dasher and randomly picking a dasher. The bugs included, roughly: A boundary issue when the map is empty A logic issue: when you delete a randomly-selected key from the map, you need to move the last element into the deleted slot and update the index. If you don't handle t…
- Temperature Models, Interpolation, and Streaming RegressionCitadel · Data Scientist · Technical Screen · Apr 2026
First question Background You are given daily temperature data for P towns and daily temperature data for New York City over the same N days. Write functions to answer several questions. Part One — five questions Q1: Which place, either one of the towns or New York City, has the greatest temperature variation, measured by standard deviation? Q2: When Town2's temperature is between 90 and 100 degr…
- The Voleon Group Data Scientist interview on Python and modelingThe Voleon Group · Data Scientist · Apr 2026
I went through a fairly typical multi-round process, with a couple of technical and coding interviews in Python followed by a behavioral round. The technical portion was thorough and broad. It covered several aspects of data cleaning and modeling instead of focusing on one narrow skill. The Python and pandas questions were manageable, depending on the interviewer. The work wasn't presented as imp…
- The Voleon Group Data Scientist interview with about an hour and a half of live codingThe Voleon Group · Data Scientist · Apr 2026
The first interview centered on live coding, and that shaped how I approached the rest of the day. It wasn't a verbal question-and-answer session where I could rely on talking through concepts. I had to implement the work and reason through it in real time. The topics included data manipulation, EDA, and modeling. They were checking whether I could connect the statistics to the actual constructio…
- The Voleon Group Data Scientist: pleasant interviews, below-market offerThe Voleon Group · Data Scientist · Apr 2026Offer
The interviews were organized, and the conversations themselves were pleasant. I genuinely liked the people I met. The structure had the same feel. The technical and communication portions weren't chaotic, and after each step I felt that the interviewers understood me. The process hit a hard wall when compensation came up. Even though I was moving forward as a potential hire, the pay they offered…
- The Voleon Group Quantitative Analyst interview on statistics and machine learningThe Voleon Group · Quantitative Analyst · Onsite · Apr 2026
My process started with a phone screening with another PhD. The conversation quickly turned to statistics and math questions, and it felt direct and high level. I also got the sense that the interviewer wasn't especially enthusiastic about the day-to-day work, so I asked directly about flexibility and how new hires were assigned. I was told the role wasn't very flexible and that initial group pla…
- The Voleon Group Software Engineer interview with a 45-minute LeetCode screenThe Voleon Group · Software Engineer · Technical Screen · Apr 2026Rejected
After a short recruiter screening, I entered a structured technical process. The first technical screen began with a quick behavioral check, with just enough time to walk through my background, and then moved straight into a LeetCode-style coding problem. I had about 45 minutes and had to write the code end to end, including handling input and output. The rest of the process consisted of coding-h…
