Interview Experiences

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

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4437 stories

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Point72Data Scientist
Oct 2025

HackerRank OA With a Circle-Geometry Question, Then a Coin-Flip Expectation Puzzle

OA 60-minute HackerRank test, 4 questions. Same format as most experience posts here — except question 3 was SQL, and for the other questions you could choose Python or R. But I'm pretty sure most people here just use Python. Date transformation Arbitrary shopping (there was an image attached) SQL question (pretty easy) Given the center and radius of two circles, write a function to determine the…

Technical Screen0
Point72Data Scientist
Oct 2025

HackerRank OA Then a Decision-Tree Phone Screen

OA 60 minutes, 4 questions on HackerRank. Same as most experience reports here, except the third question was SQL — for the others you could pick Python or R. But I'd guess most people here just use Python. Date transformation Arbitrary shopping (screenshot attached) SQL question (pretty easy) Given the centers and radii of two circles, write a function to determine their positional relationship…

Technical Screen0
Capital OneData Scientist
Oct 2025

A Vegan Burger Profitability Case

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Technical ScreenXP0
MetaData Scientist
Oct 2025

3 of 4 Onsite Rounds Done, Last Round Pushed Two Weeks

I finished 3 out of 4 rounds of my virtual onsite yesterday, so while it's still fresh in my memory, let me share the experience. The reason I only finished 3/4 is that right after the third round, the recruiter told me the final Technical session needed to be rescheduled — it ended up getting pushed two weeks out. Such a slow death (I originally wanted to get through the whole thing in one day,…

In progressOnsite0
MetaData Scientist
Oct 2025

Three Rounds Done, Final Technical Session Pushed Two Weeks Out

I finished 3 out of 4 rounds of my virtual onsite yesterday, so while it's still fresh in my memory, let me share my experience. The reason I only finished 3/4 is that after the third round, I found out the recruiter said the final Technical session needs to be rescheduled — it ended up getting pushed two weeks out. Such a slow death (I originally wanted to knock out the whole day in one go, spec…

In progressOnsite0
DoorDashData Scientist
Oct 2025

Seven Rounds Including a Take-Home Prediction Task

The interview process was as follows: Round 1: HackerRank assessment — SQL plus some data analysis questions. Round 2: HR screen — talked about why I was interested in DoorDash, my project experience, and why I was looking to switch jobs. Round 3: Hiring manager interview — mostly about my project experience, plus a DoorDash case question. Round 4: Take-home — given a DoorDash dataset to build a…

Onsite0
DoorDashData Scientist
Oct 2025

A Seven-Round Loop with a Take-Home and Three Manager Interviews

The interview process went like this: Round 1: HackerRank assessment — SQL plus some data analysis questions. Round 2: HR screen — talked about why I was interested in DD, my project experience, and why I was looking to switch jobs. Round 3: Hiring manager interview — mainly talked about project experience, plus a DoorDash case Q&A. Round 4: Take-home — given a DoorDash dataset to build a predict…

Onsite0
GoogleEngineering Analyst
Oct 2025

Trust Team Onsite, Two SQL Rounds and a BQ

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OnsiteXP0
MetaData Science Manager
Oct 2025

Six VO Rounds, None Matched the Forum's Question Bank

Since I looked at basically all the interview reports for the IC track, most of the time people are just going back and forth between the same cases from the past two years: AR, 4 cases: Restaurant recommendation IG shopping FB group/circle FB vs. IG AE, 4 cases: Fake accounts Fake news Comment distribution Ads inserted into the feed I've already summarized it like this, so go search the specific…

Onsite0
MetaData Scientist
Oct 2025

Six VO Rounds, Almost No Forum Case Overlap

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OnsiteXP0
NVIDIAData Scientist
Oct 2025

Two Phone Screens, a Six-Round Virtual Onsite, and an Offer

I want to talk about the mindset and the whole prep process for this interview. If you're not interested, feel free to skip straight to the write-up below. The most important thing: be humble and ask others for help (don't be shy about it — if you want to learn from people, you have to spend time building relationships. It's not about getting someone to hand you all the answers, it's about genuin…

OfferOnsite0
HBOSenior Data ScientistSenior+
Oct 2025

A Five-Interviewer Loop During a Reorg

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OnsiteXP0
HBOData ScientistSenior+
Oct 2025

Five Interviewers During a Company Reorg

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MetaData Scientist
Oct 2025

SQL Case Study on Launching a Notification Feature

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In progressTechnical ScreenXP0
MicrosoftData Scientist
Oct 2025

Four Weeks of Email Chaos, Then the Position Was Filled

Sharing a bizarre experience today: the Microsoft interviewer couldn't receive Gmail emails. I got notified four weeks ago for a coding screen round. I needed to provide 5 interview windows, so I replied, and then... nothing. I waited three days, followed up, and the interviewer said she never received my last email — checked her spam folder too, nothing there. But this one she got. So I gave new…

RejectedOther0
AmazonData Scientist
Oct 2025

Technical Screen With ML Basics and Leadership Principles Questions

Behavioral questions The questions the interviewer asked were fairly simple, roughly like this: Give me a story where you have limited time to finish a project Give me a story where you actively learn a new skill (Learn and Be Curious) Give me a story (where you showcase "Bias for Action") Give me a story (where you showcase "Ownership") I felt like while interviewing me, the interviewer might ha…

Technical Screen0
NetflixData Scientist
Oct 2025

Eleven Rounds, Two and a Half Months, and a Hiring Manager Swap

I just got an early update from the recruiter. The email said they're still gathering information, but "not a perfect fit, unfortunately." I interviewed 11 times total, met with 10 different people, and the whole process was absurd — it dragged on for two and a half months. Referral HR screening: Netflix culture, my background, why I'm job hunting First technical round: pure SQL, had to actually…

RejectedOnsite0
NetflixData Scientist
Oct 2025

11 Rounds, 10 People, and a Hiring Manager Swapped Mid-Loop

I just got an early update from the recruiter. The email said they're still gathering information, but unfortunately it's "not a perfect fit." I did 11 rounds in total and met 10 people. The whole process was absolutely ridiculous, spanning a full two and a half months. Referral HR screening: Netflix culture, personal background, why I'm job hunting First technical round: pure SQL, had to actuall…

RejectedOnsite0
GoogleData ScientistSenior+
Oct 2025

Cold-Called Into the DSR Track, All Strong Hire

I'd read a small handful of interview reports, and even those helped a lot. A bit of background first: I'm at a big company, I've been coasting for a few years, and it started to feel like I was wasting my time, so at the start of this year I decided to look for a new job. It wasn't smooth — I got rejected by hiring managers, rejected on coding or SQL, rejected at onsite, rejected at the final ro…

OfferOnsite0
VerkadaSoftware Engineer
Oct 2025

An Ambiguous WordGuess Coding Screen

Here's another question that wasn't from the interview-experience wiki: Need to throw an exception when the input isn't valid. The interviewer's description of the problem was really ambiguous. I spent forever trying to clarify it and still couldn't figure out what he actually wanted. Was I supposed to implement just this one function, or simulate the whole game? The interviewer kept being vague…

RejectedTechnical Screen0

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