Interview Experiences

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

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4514 stories

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ADCI - KarnatakaSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

ADCI - Karnataka Software Engineer Interview Experience: easy-to-medium coding with intense LP drilling

The interview began with LeetCode-style problems that were easy to medium, then became more intense through Leadership Principle drilling. About half the time went to LP follow-ups, while the other half went to coding-style questions in the usual LeetCode rhythm. That pattern repeated across two rounds. I was not answering leadership questions once and moving on. I had to explain how I would thin…

Technical Screen0
ADCI - KarnatakaSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

ADCI - Karnataka Software Engineer interview experience: three one-hour conversations

After an initial coding assessment, I had three one-hour interviews with different team members. The first was entirely coding. It moved quickly enough that I had to explain my reasoning as I went, though it never became chaotic. The second split its time between coding and behavioral questions, so I had to change gears while still working on a technical problem. The last was entirely behavioral…

Online Assessment0
ADCI - KarnatakaSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

ADCI - Karnataka Software Engineer interview experience: assessment through virtual onsite

I started with an online assessment and then moved into a virtual onsite. The onsite mixed coding, system design, and behavioral questions, along with discussion of my past experience and projects. Each round had a clear purpose even where the topics overlapped. Coding required the most active problem-solving. In system design, I had to explain tradeoffs and work through how I would tackle a larg…

OfferOnline Assessment0
BrowserstackSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Browserstack Software Engineer Interview Experience: four eliminatory technical, manager, and HR rounds

After a recruiter screen, I received a clear explanation of the process: four rounds with eliminatory checkpoints. There would be two technical rounds, a hiring-manager round, and an HR round. That made the process easy to understand on paper, but it also meant every step mattered because I could be filtered out before the end. I did not receive an offer, yet the experience matched what they told…

HR Screen0
TSMCSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

TSMC Software Engineer interview experience: two relaxed resume-focused rounds

This was a low-pressure experience. I had two rounds within a week, and the whole process felt pretty relaxed. It was not especially technical. Most of the conversation was about my resume, projects, and previous work. There were not many deep technical probes, but I still needed to explain what I had done and how I described my contributions. The difficulty felt mild, and the conversational atmo…

0
Hudson River TradingSoftware Engineer
Jul 2026

An Hour of Pure C++ Systems Questions, No Algorithms

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Technical ScreenXP0
AppleMachine Learning Engineer
Jul 2026

One Project, Grilled to the Bottom

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Technical ScreenPremium0
RevolutSoftware Engineer
Reported Jun 2026

Cursor-Assisted Coding, Insurance Design and a STAR Round

For roughly 8 years I've been an engineer at a single company, and most of that stretch was spent on its in-house tooling. I started there straight out of university, so I rarely touched the mainstream stack the wider industry runs on. I tried to keep learning on evenings and weekends, but that is no substitute for using the tools at work. Nearly 6 months ago I started interviewing, and it was a…

OfferOther0
DatadogSoftware Engineer
Jun 2026

Matching Queries Against a Log Stream

The first-round problem was query and log stream matching. I was given a stream containing two message types: Q: xxx was a query. Each query needed a unique ID, and I had to output an acknowledgment. L: xxx was a log. For each log, I had to output the IDs of all queries that it completely matched. The example input was: The expected output was: My approach was to use a HashMap<String, List<Intege…

Technical Screen0
IntuitSoftware EngineerSenior+
Jun 2026

75-Minute Screen With Plus One and an LLM-Agent System Design

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OfferTechnical ScreenPremium0
InstacartSoftware Engineer
Jun 2026

Hit With a Brand-New Question, Failed on BQ

A totally new question I'd never seen before, and I was the one who got hit with it. I feel like every question in this loop had a pretty large amount of code, so everyone should practice a lot. I think I failed because of the new question and the BQ — I prepared for BQ the Amazon way, but in practice it felt more like a casual conversation, and I wasn't quite ready for that. Coding round: the cl…

RejectedOnsite0
SalesforceSoftware Engineer
Jun 2026

DSA, LLD Watch Party, and an HM System Design

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OnsitePremium0
RipplingSoftware Engineer
Jun 2026

Designing a Google-News-Style System in a Phone Screen

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In progressTechnical ScreenPremium0
DatabricksSoftware Engineer
Jun 2026

A Sliding Window String Question in Tech Screening

I recently interviewed for a tech screening at Databricks — a string-related question that comes up a lot on the forum. The question itself was fairly simple, and I hope it helps whoever interviews after me. The question was roughly: given a longer string and a shorter pattern, find the earliest contiguous substring in the long string such that the substring contains exactly the same characters a…

Technical Screen0
MicrosoftData ScientistSenior+
Jun 2026

AI-Assisted ML Round, Rejected on Level Calibration

Background: about 4 years of YOE, full-stack DS at a startup. Timeline: Cold apply → recruiter reach out: 9 weeks Reach out → phone screen: 3 weeks Phone screen → onsite: 4 weeks (got the notice in the third week) Onsite → result: 5 weeks (I heard some people waited even longer) I'd long heard that Microsoft interviews move slowly, and now I've experienced it myself. Phone screen: resume walkthro…

RejectedOnsite0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
Jun 2026

Sunnyvale Onsite, No Hire Despite Optimal Solutions

I got a bad feeling at the onsite from the start, and sure enough, in the end I got a no hire even though I got optimal solutions on both questions plus the follow-ups. The stated reason was lack of communication. I feel like I got screwed, because the whole time I clarified everything first and then talked while I wrote, and the phone screen had explicitly said my communication was outstanding.…

RejectedOnsite0
BlinkSoftware EngineerSenior+
Jun 2026

OA Plus Four Design-Heavy Onsite Rounds

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OnsitePremium0
FlexportSoftware Engineer
Jun 2026

Onsite Word-Guessing Algorithm Question, No Offer

This year, all the onsite questions were new ones -- job hunting is really tough this year. Hoping this helps other people who are also job hunting. Phone screen: an algorithm question. Given a bunch of meeting start and end times, output the total time spent, counting any overlaps only once. Follow-up: if there's overlap, you'd need multiple meeting rooms -- find the minimum number of meeting ro…

RejectedOnsite0
Two SigmaSoftware EngineerNew Grad
Jun 2026

Two OA Questions, Advanced the Next Day

I applied for Two Sigma's New Grad SWE role. I didn't have much hope going in — not long after a mass application round, I got an OA invite: two problems to solve together in one time-limited session. Before applying I'd heard this company has a lot of rejection stories, so I specifically went and dug through the forum to do my homework. Several posts said the OA questions on the forum were the a…

In progressOnline Assessment0
AmazonSoftware Engineer
Jun 2026

A HackerRank OA With an AI-Assisted Bug-Hunting Question

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Online AssessmentPremium0

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.

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