Interview Experiences

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

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4433 stories

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MetaMachine Learning EngineerSenior+
Mar 2026

New AI-Coding Round on Compiler Optimization

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In progressOnsiteXP0
DoorDashSoftware Engineer
Mar 2026

Rejected After a Dasher Pay Coding Screen With No Starter Code

I got a question that's pretty common on the forum, a combination of a Bootstrap-style problem and DoorDash Pay. The interviewer didn't give me any starter code, just the description below. He said to assume I'm a downstream service and the data comes from upstream. The answer I wrote turned out to be correct, it's just that the data was test cases, not data mocked from an upstream interface. A f…

RejectedTechnical Screen0
BloombergSoftware Engineer
Mar 2026

Top K Frequent Elements Phone Screen

The first round was a standard phone technical screen — coding only, no behavioral questions. The difficulty is generally on the higher end of LeetCode medium, and the focus is on whether your data structure choice is reasonable and whether your code is clean. The question I got was to design a data structure that supports insert, delete, and returning the current Top K most frequent elements. Th…

Technical Screen0
MetaData Scientist
Mar 2026

SQL, AE, AR, and BH Rounds, Still Waiting to Hear Back

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In progressOnsiteXP0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Mar 2026

A Three-Round Phone Screen (Largest Island, Count Clouds, Find the Influencer), Then ChatGPT System Design

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Technical ScreenXP0
StripeSoftware EngineerSenior+
Mar 2026

New Coding Question, Debug Round, and a Team-Sync Rejection

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RejectedOnsiteXP0
BloombergSoftware Engineer
Mar 2026

Surprise Domain Quiz, Then a Sprawling Streaming System Design

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RejectedOnsiteXP0
CoinbaseSoftware Engineer
Mar 2026

Rejected After Onsite Over a Debugging Nitpick

Round 1: crypto order system, pretty similar to other write-ups already on the forum. I had to parse the input myself and write my own test cases. I got to level 2 — after I finished the tests, the output had no issues, but I wasn't given level 3. Round 2: the "generate NFT" question, also already posted on the forum. Also had to define and parse the input myself — I used JSON. I finished the fir…

RejectedOnsite0
MetaData Engineer
Mar 2026

Tech Screen Into a Four-Round Full Loop

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OnsiteXP0
MicrosoftSoftware Engineer
Mar 2026

Online Assessment with a Balanced-Window and Monotonic-Stack Problem

Q1 — problem You're given a permutation p of length n. For each k (1 ≤ k ≤ n), determine whether there's a contiguous subarray that is exactly a permutation of the numbers 1 through k (order doesn't matter). If one exists, call k "balanced." The final output is a length-n binary string, where the k-th digit says whether k is balanced. Q1 — approach The key isn't to enumerate subarrays — it's to f…

Online Assessment0
ShopifyMachine Learning Engineer
Mar 2026

AI-Assisted Coding Screen, Four Onsite Rounds, Then a Template Rejection

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RejectedOnsiteXP0
SalesforceSoftware Engineer
Mar 2026

Failed the Coding VO on LeetCode 1353

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RejectedTechnical ScreenXP0
AppleMachine Learning Engineer
Mar 2026

A UNet Debugging Question I Wasn't Ready For

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RejectedTechnical ScreenXP1
SnowflakeSoftware Engineer
Mar 2026

Two Phone Screens, Onsite, Rejected on Coding Signal Feedback

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RejectedOnsiteXP0
AxonSoftware Engineer
Mar 2026

System Design Stumble and a Grueling Behavioral Round

SD: This was about fulfillment center truck routing and container/inventory. I didn't perform well in this round — I started off saying too much fluff about FR/NFR, and the interviewer caught it and challenged me on it, which put me under time pressure. I wasn't very familiar with this problem, since I've never worked on anything fulfillment-related. Looking back, I realized it was basically a si…

Onsite0
GoogleSoftware EngineerNew Grad
Mar 2026

Timeline From OA to Team Matching

Sharing a timeline and prep experience, hoping team matching goes well for me. Timeline 9/30 - role opened, submitted with a referral that same day 11/16 - received the OA, finished it 11/19, 11/26 next step: submit transcript 1/6 - R1 coding + BQ 1/8 - notified R1 passed, submit transcript + updated resume 1/15 - visa call (asked about status, whether I'd applied for EAD before, etc.) 2/4 - Bay…

In progressOnsite0
Capital OneData Scientist
Mar 2026

A Four-Round Power Day Onsite

Timeline & Full Process Online application / referral -> Recruiter Screen (15-20 min) -> OA (Assessment): you can check other posts on the forum for what this looks like -> Power Day: four rounds back to back, 45-60 minutes each. Power Day Breakdown Round 1: Case Interview (Business Analyst Case) Scenario: you're given a concrete credit business scenario (for example, a credit-limit-increase stra…

Onsite0
UberEngineering ManagerSenior+
Mar 2026

Cart System Design Screen Plus Behavioral

I recently interviewed for a manager position at Uber. Overall the experience was pretty good — both interviewers were easy to talk to and felt pretty nice & chill (not quite what I expected from Uber based on my old stereotype, lol). Writing up the System Design question and what I think you need to prepare for it, as a reference for anyone else interviewing for something similar. 1) System Desi…

Technical Screen0
YahooMachine Learning EngineerSenior+
Feb 2026

Great Technical Screen, Then the Role Got Paused

Yahoo News interview (April), Round 1. Question 1: Talk about your background and one of your projects in detail — they dug deep into one particular project. Key points for the answer (aim for a total of 3–6 minutes) and my own suggestions: Quick background (20–30s): one sentence on the role, your responsibilities on the team, and list 1–2 projects. Deep-dive framework (3–4 minutes, using STAR):…

Technical Screen0
NooksSoftware Engineer
Feb 2026

Web Crawler BFS Screen, Twitter Design Onsite, Rejected

This is a small company in SF that does phone-sales tech (cold-calling/telemarketing technology). Phone screen: a BFS problem dressed up as a Web Crawler question. Follow-up: the BFS needs to make API calls — how do you avoid bottlenecks, DDOS attacks, and so on. Onsite: Live debugging: build a full-stack app for a "YouTube Party." This one was kind of fun — the problem is posted publicly on Gite…

RejectedOnsite0

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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