Round 1 (possibly a bar raiser):
The interviewer gave me 2 BQs and 2 coding questions.
BQ1: tell me about your project... follow up...
BQ2: don't remember.
Coding1: given an int array where only one number appears an odd number of times, find and return that number. I used a hash table -> follow-up: how do you optimize the space complexity to O(1)? I got stuck on this one for a while, we went back and forth a lot, and finally with a hint I worked out the answer they wanted. I didn't think of the bit manipulation solution.
Coding2: Valid Sudoku. I gave a one-pass solution directly, and kept communicating my thinking actively the whole time.
Round 2:
2 BQs, one coding question: design an LRU cache.
BQ: don't remember, but it also seemed to start with talking about a project. Not much follow-up.
Coding: Implement LRU cache.
Round 3:
The whole round was BQs, 3 of them. Constant challenging, constant follow-up. Partway through the interviewer even said he thought I was searching for the answer online, because I'd paused to think for about ten seconds. Anyway, it was nonstop follow-up the whole way, but I answered every question, and he said he got what he wanted out of it.
BQ1: tell me about your favorite project. Results..., metrics... difficulties; -> follow-up, challenge on details... dive deep... find the root cause...
BQ2: tell me about a time you had to work outside your comfort zone... kept challenging... kept asking.
BQ3: tell me about a time you had to deal with critical feedback. Same thing, kept following up on details...
Basically I'd get interrupted after a few sentences, then more follow-up, keep going.
Interview experience: the first round felt pretty good. The second round was stone-faced the whole way through, not great. The third round was nonstop follow-up and challenging on details — neutral overall.
Discussion
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