Unfortunately I got laid off by my old company a few weeks ago. Through a good friend's referral, I got an interview for a LinkedIn Staff Data Engineer - Information Security role. The interviewer was really friendly — the whole thing was very warm and supportive. The interview was an hour total.
We started with some small talk, then he asked two questions:
- Tell me about a project you worked on, and what the impacts of this project are.
- Tell me a time when you have to remove yourself from a project (for example, you go on vacation, you're the only person who has knowledge on this project and what would you do?)
Then it was LeetCode 716, Max Stack.
One thing to watch out for: you need to update self.max at every single step (this is really important!!!). The interviewer was great — he kept giving me hints and guiding me along, and said LinkedIn's whole thing is a collaborative working culture, so he was happy to work through the question with me. I ended up writing the whole thing out, and got it all correct.
The interviewer even said, "you did a good job, and I really like your positive energy. The recruiter will reach out to you regarding the next step." Then the very next day I got a rejection email...
Maybe it's because my OOP experience isn't strong enough yet. Also, even though the title is Data Engineer, I feel like the role is really more of a Software Engineer position — mainly responsible for network infra alerting, cybersecurity, and detection engineering. The interviewer mentioned their team also writes Java and Golang, so I guess I'm just not quite qualified for that yet...
Wishing everyone lots of interviews in 2026, and good luck to all!!
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