Bloomberg Software Engineer Interview Experience — Simplified Grep, Friend-Request Math, and a BQ Round

Bloomberg·Software Engineer·Dec 2025
HR ScreenTechnical Screenmedium

Round 1: implement a simplified version of grep — find lines in a file containing a specific string, and also account for extensibility to flags. I just honestly clarified requirements first, then wrote the parsing plus the string matching. The focus of this problem isn't really the algorithm, it's whether you can write clean, extensible code.

Round 2: given an array of ages, compute the total number of friend requests that satisfy a specific age condition. My approach: count the frequency of each age, then iterate over all pairs of ages. For each pair (A, B), check whether B falls in the range (0.5×A+7, A] and A ≥ B. If it holds, count the requests — for the same age you need to exclude a person requesting themselves, and for different ages you just multiply the frequencies directly.

Round 3 was mainly behavioral, fairly standard questions — I'd suggest leaning heavily on the STAR framework when preparing. The behavioral round isn't really chasing a perfectly polished script, it's more about whether the candidate is self-driven and has an ownership mentality.

"Tell me about a proud project."
"How did you handle negative feedback?"
"Describe a conflict resolution."
"When did you deliver beyond your responsibility?"

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Interview at a glance

Company
Bloomberg
Role
Software Engineer
Rounds
Technical Screen → HR Screen
Difficulty
medium
Interview date
Dec 2025
Questions from this interview
3 questions

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