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Role: Senior Software Engineer (E4)

College: Tier-2/3 university

Interview Date: Summer 2024

Interview Type: Full-Time (Virtual Onsite)

Result: Offer

Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Rounds: 5 (Screening, Virtual Onsite - Coding 1, Coding 2, System Design, Behavioral)

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms (BFS/DFS, time complexity optimization), System Design (chat application), Behavioral

Experience:

This candidate with 5 years of experience received an offer for an E4 Senior Software Engineer role. They noted that they did not clear all interviews perfectly but still received an offer.

Screening Interview (45 min): Two coding questions were asked: one easy and one medium. The easy question was completed flawlessly. The medium question was a variation of a popular problem, and the candidate realized this during implementation. The interviewer asked follow-up questions about the problem and general algorithm questions (e.g., BFS vs. DFS, tradeoffs). The dry run for the second question was slow due to a complex example, but both questions were solved optimally.

Virtual Onsite - Coding 1 (45 min): Again, two questions: one easy and one medium. The easy one was solved flawlessly in 10 minutes. For the medium question, the candidate initially proposed an O(N³) solution, optimized it to O(N²), and then, after some effort, to O(N). The candidate felt their code might have missed some edge cases and there was a more efficient O(1) space solution.

Virtual Onsite - Coding 2 (45 min): Two questions: one medium and one easy with many edge cases. The medium question was solved without issues. The candidate struggled with the easy question, making bugs and failing to clarify edge cases. Despite this, both questions were generally solved optimally.

Virtual Onsite - System Design (45 min): The task was to design a chat application. The candidate felt they did well, covering core features, scalability, and handling various aspects like message storage, delivery, and notifications.

Virtual Onsite - Behavioral (45 min): This was a relaxed round where the candidate connected well with the interviewer. Questions were well-suited to their experience, and they had stories that could be considered for an E5 level. The candidate reflected that they might have talked too much about failures and areas for improvement.