Interview Experiences

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

Share yours, earn XP

9 stories

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

RedditSoftware Engineer
Sep 2026

A Word-Search Rule Clarified Too Late

The author reports an unsuccessful Reddit coding screen involving word search. After presenting the task, the interviewer remained quiet while the applicant worked. The author did not confirm the movement rules and implemented a more permissive search than the interviewer expected. A typo also consumed about ten minutes. Although the applicant’s own tests passed, the interviewer said near the end…

RejectedTechnical Screen0
RedditMachine Learning Engineer
Sep 2026

Onsite with a Cat/Dog Comment-Tree Filter and a Comment-Likelihood ML Design

Coding: seems like a new question? I had AI rewrite it: You are given a dictionary of Reddit comments. Each comment contains: id parent_comment body cat: whether the comment is about cats dog: whether the comment is about dogs Example input: Comments form a tree using parent_comment. There are two user modes: CAT_PERSON: does not want to see dog-related comments DOG_PERSON: does not want to see c…

Onsite0
RedditMachine Learning Engineer
Aug 2026

General Pooling and a Ranking Interview

I applied to a particular team while sending out lots of applications online. The first phone screen was a question from the forum: analyze a spent-hours dataset and predict clicks. Since I had prepared it, the interview went quite smoothly. A week after the interview, I still hadn't heard anything, so I logged into the candidate portal. The position I had applied for was gone, and the interview…

RejectedOnsite0
RedditMachine Learning Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Reddit Machine Learning Engineer interview experience: two DSA rounds

The interview was straightforward: two data-structures-and-algorithms rounds along with machine-learning knowledge. The interviewers were kind and easygoing, and one of them in particular made the conversation feel comfortable. The format matched what I expected for the role. There were no strange surprises, just a clean sequence with a relaxed tone. I did not receive an offer, but the interview…

Technical Screen0
RedditData ScientistSenior+
Jun 2026

Blindsided by a No-AB-Test Ads Case

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

RejectedOnsiteXP0
RedditMachine Learning Engineer
May 2026

Tennis Scoring OOD With Sets and Side Switching

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

Technical ScreenXP0
RedditBackend Engineer
May 2026

Load Balancer Deep-Dive and a One-Week Offer

General coding 1: the Report Chain problem General coding 2: the Tennis Game problem — afterward the interviewer also chatted with me a bit about the strategy pattern Backend programming: the Load Balancer problem: It's split into four parts, and they give you a codebase. Part 1: The load balancer keeps getting error code 500. You need to find the cause — the cause is that the LB has the hostname…

OfferTechnical Screen0
RedditMachine Learning Engineer
Feb 2026

Live Coding EDA and CTR Model, Then Ghosted by Recruiting

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

No responseTechnical ScreenXP0
RedditData Scientist
Dec 2025

Four Case Rounds With the Ads Team

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

OnsiteXP0

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