Interview Experiences

Real candidates, real loops: every round, what was asked, and how it ended.

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5 stories

Likes earn the author +10 XP for the first 3 likes each day

PayPalMachine Learning EngineerSenior+
Mar 2026

HR Never Got Interviewer Answers, Wrong Prep, Rejected

Locked — open it to unlock the full story with XP.

RejectedOnsiteXP0
PayPalData Scientist
Jan 2026

Bombed It but Still Got Bumped to the Final Round

Locked — open it to unlock the full story with XP.

In progressTechnical ScreenXP0
PayPalData Scientist
Jan 2026

Passed Two Fraud Rounds Despite a Rocky Performance

I applied to a few PayPal positions before Christmas, and two of my applications got recruiter calls. One of them was for a Fraud DS role and moved to interviews fast. The interviewer was someone from the same team based in India, and the interview was at 10:30pm Eastern. They asked about fraud, statistics, SQL, and Python. The second round was with the hiring manager, also based in India, at aro…

In progressOnsite0
PayPalData Scientist
Dec 2025

Two Brutal Phone Rounds on SQL, Python, and Airport Causal Inference

Overall impression: it was really hard. First there was a 15-minute recruiter call. They asked briefly about my current job, why I was looking, and my visa/status situation, then said they'd send an email with the interview process. The phone interviews were two rounds total, each 1 hour. Round 1: coding (including SQL and Python), plus a case study. The SQL question was built around drivers and…

Technical Screen0
PayPalData Scientist
Jul 2025

Three Back-to-Back Onsite Rounds and a SQL Standoff

Past experience, resume, explaining the role. Then they asked two case questions. Case 1: 3-level apartment plus 1 basement — find the best way to operate the elevator. Case 2: card risk — what will fraudsters do. Onsite: 3 rounds back-to-back. Risk/fraud scenario. Started off talking about my past experience, then the interviewer explained that this DS role isn't mainly about modeling. He gave m…

Onsite0

What are interview experiences?

An interview experience is a candidate's own account of a hiring loop — not a question bank entry. It tells you the shape of the process: how many rounds there were, what each round actually tested, how long the gaps between them ran, and what the recruiter said at the end. That context is the part a question list cannot give you.

How to read them

Weight recent write-ups more heavily — interview loops change, often within a year. Read several for the same company and role rather than one: a single account tells you what one interviewer asked, while five tell you what the bar is. Note the outcome badge too, since a rejection write-up usually explains the gap far more precisely than an offer one.

Share your own

Every published experience earns 50 XP, and each of the first 3 likes it receives in a day earns you 10 XP more. Likes must come from established accounts; like-for-like swaps and likes from your own second account are not paid. Write it while the details are fresh — the round order, the exact prompts, and how much time you were given are what the next reader needs.

Share your experience to earn XP