ELECTRONIC ARTS

Role: Backend Services Developer

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: August 23, 2021

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Offer (Declined)

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 4 rounds (Phone Screen + 3 Virtual Onsite rounds)

Topics Asked: Java, Data Structures, Algorithms, System Design Concepts, Coding (Graph-related)

Experience:

The candidate received an offer for a Backend Services Developer role at Electronic Arts, which they ultimately declined. The process included a phone screen and a virtual onsite.

Phone Screen:
This round was with the hiring manager and involved a discussion of the candidate's background. The interview primarily focused on Java questions, with no coding involved. The candidate felt it went "fairly well."

Virtual Onsite:
The "onsite" consisted of 3 rounds, each lasting one hour, spread across three days.

Round 1 (Coding):
The coding question was described as "not on LeetCode but similar style." The candidate was given a blank editor and a picture of a graph, and had to write all the code from scratch, including classes and input structures. No code execution was required. The interviewer was interactive, asking the candidate to walk through the logic, class design, and edge cases. The candidate led most of the discussion, and felt it "wasn't the best interview but went reasonably well."

Round 2:
This round was "very similar to my phone screen but very intense." It covered data structure knowledge, Java, and some high-level system design concepts. The interviewers asked many follow-up questions, requiring the candidate to think deeply and dive into topics until they were satisfied with the answers. There was no coding or system design involved in this round. The candidate considered this the "hardest round" because of the depth of the follow-up questions, emphasizing that clear communication was critical.

Round 3:
Two interactive interviewers were present. The discussion revolved around design and data structure choices. The candidate struggled to find the most optimal data structure but explained their thought process throughout. As time was running out, the interviewers asked for a brute-force solution, which the candidate provided and optimized slightly. Code execution was not required, but the interviewers thoroughly discussed the code and thought process.