Recruiter Call
Questions:
- Discussed background, location, visa status (OPT), experience, projects, technologies, and mentorship/leadership experience.
Candidate's Approach
No approach provided.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Screening Round – Dec 23, 2024
Questions:
- Given a directory path and starting directory, return the final directory after following the path. (Classic stack-based problem with edge cases like
/./,~, etc.) - Diameter of a binary tree—return nodes count instead of edges.
Candidate's Approach
No approach provided.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Virtual Onsite – Round 1 - Coding (Jan 24, 2025)
Questions:
- Given course prerequisite pairs
[[1,0],[2,1],[3,1]], return the max courses you can complete. (Topological sort variation, checking for cycles.) - Count subarrays whose sum equals a given target (elements may have negatives included).
Candidate's Approach
No approach provided.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Virtual Onsite – Round 2 (Behavioral)
Questions:
- Critical feedback you gave/received
- Disagreement with a manager
- A time you were right but had to convince others
Candidate's Approach
Used the STAR method wherever possible. Went well!
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Virtual Onsite – Round 3 - Coding (Jan 31, 2025)
Questions:
- Implement
a^b(a power b) using only+,-,/,*. - Merge three sorted arrays into one sorted, unique array (removing duplicates).
Candidate's Approach
Used recursion, handling negative b, and edge cases (a=0, b<0, etc.). Initially solved merging in two passes, then optimized to a three-pointer approach.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Virtual Onsite – Round 4 (System Design)
Questions:
- Design a news feed system (like FB/Instagram).
Candidate's Approach
Listed functional & non-functional requirements, designed HLD, explained edge cases like fan-out for celebrity accounts, discussed DB choices for media storage, and detailed API design + data models.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Result – Rejected (Feb 4, 2025)
Feedback: Recruiter stated, "Feedback is confidential, but it’s not positive." When asked for areas of improvement, the response was, "All rounds need improvement."
Candidate's Approach
Felt upset but acknowledged the need to improve speed in coding to fit all requirements within the time constraints.
Interviewer's Feedback
No feedback provided.
Key Takeaways
-
Coding rounds are FAST. You need to:
- Solve two questions optimally
- Dry-run thoroughly
- Explain time-space complexity
- Finish ALL of this in 35-40 mins
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System Design (for Product) = API & Data Models focus. Less about distributed systems, more about data flow & API design.
-
Mock interviews matter. Practicing timed mocks can improve pacing.
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Interviewer styles vary A LOT. Adapt quickly to different styles.
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Time management is crucial. Knowing when to go deep vs. when to move on is a needed skill, especially for system design.