Interview Experience Stories

Interview Process

The interview process consisted of an initial recruiter call, followed by a technical phone screen, and then 5 onsite interviews (conducted virtually due to COVID). The entire process took about 6 weeks from initial contact to offer.

Questions Asked

• Design a data structure to implement an LRU cache with O(1) operations
• Find the kth largest element in an unsorted array
• Design a distributed key-value store
• Implement a function to check if a binary tree is balanced
• Behavioral questions about teamwork and conflict resolution

Key Takeaways

The interviews were challenging but fair. The interviewers were friendly and provided hints when I got stuck. The system design interview was the most challenging for me, as I had to think about scalability, consistency, and fault tolerance. I made sure to communicate my thought process clearly throughout each interview, which I believe was crucial to my success.

Preparation Strategy

I spent 3 months preparing, focusing on LeetCode medium and hard problems (about 150 in total). I also studied system design using 'Designing Data-Intensive Applications' and 'System Design Interview' books. Mock interviews with friends who work at FAANG companies were incredibly helpful for getting realistic feedback.

Interview Process

The process included an online assessment with 2 coding problems, followed by a phone screen, and then 4 virtual onsite interviews. Each onsite interview had both technical and behavioral components, with a strong focus on Amazon's Leadership Principles.

Questions Asked

• Design a parking lot system
• Implement a function to find all anagrams in a string
• Design a notification service for a large e-commerce platform
• Find the longest path in a directed acyclic graph
• Many behavioral questions based on Leadership Principles

Key Takeaways

I believe I did well on the coding and system design portions, but struggled with some of the behavioral questions. I didn't have enough concrete examples prepared for questions related to 'Ownership' and 'Dive Deep' principles. The feedback I received mentioned that while my technical skills were strong, they had concerns about my leadership abilities and experience handling complex projects.

Preparation Strategy

I focused too much on technical preparation and not enough on behavioral questions. In retrospect, I should have prepared more STAR format stories for each of Amazon's Leadership Principles. I also should have practiced more system design questions specific to Amazon's scale and domain.

Interview Process

The process started with a recruiter screen, followed by a technical phone interview, and then a full day of virtual onsite interviews (4 rounds). The interviews covered coding, system design, and behavioral aspects. The entire process took about 4 weeks.

Questions Asked

• Design a URL shortening service
• Implement a function to serialize and deserialize a binary tree
• Find all possible combinations of a phone number's letters
• Design a distributed logging system
• Questions about handling disagreements and mentoring junior developers

Key Takeaways

The interviews at Microsoft were more conversational than I expected. Interviewers were interested in how I approached problems and my reasoning behind design decisions. The coding interviews focused not just on getting the right answer, but on writing clean, maintainable code. I was pleasantly surprised by how much the interviewers valued my questions about team culture and work-life balance.

Preparation Strategy

I prepared by solving medium LeetCode problems, focusing on trees, graphs, and dynamic programming. For system design, I practiced designing scalable systems and studied Microsoft's cloud services (Azure). I also prepared stories about my past experiences that demonstrated leadership, mentorship, and technical expertise.

Interview Process

The process consisted of an initial screening, followed by a technical phone interview, and then 5 virtual onsite interviews. The interviews covered coding, system design, behavioral aspects, and a deep dive into my past work.

Questions Asked

• Design Instagram's backend system
• Implement a function to find the median of two sorted arrays
• Design a real-time chat application
• Solve a complex graph problem involving connected components
• Questions about handling technical disagreements and driving impact

Key Takeaways

I struggled with the system design interview, particularly when discussing the trade-offs between different database choices and scaling strategies. I also didn't go deep enough into the implementation details during the 'deep dive' interview. The feedback indicated that while my coding skills were strong, they had concerns about my ability to design and implement large-scale systems at Meta's level.

Preparation Strategy

I underestimated the depth of system design knowledge required for a senior role at Meta. I should have spent more time understanding Meta's specific infrastructure and scaling challenges. Additionally, I should have prepared more concrete examples of how I've driven technical decisions and impact in my previous roles.

Interview Process

The process was surprisingly streamlined, with a recruiter call, a technical screen, and then a full day of virtual interviews (5 rounds). The interviews focused heavily on system design, architecture decisions, and cultural fit. The entire process took about 3 weeks.

Questions Asked

• Design Netflix's recommendation system
• Discuss approaches to A/B testing at scale
• Design a distributed content delivery network
• Questions about handling ambiguity and making decisions with incomplete information
• Discussions about Netflix's culture and values

Key Takeaways

Netflix's interview process was unique in its focus on cultural fit and technical judgment rather than algorithmic puzzles. The interviewers were more interested in how I approach problems, make trade-offs, and collaborate with others. The system design questions were open-ended and required thinking about real-world constraints and business requirements. I was impressed by how much the interviewers emphasized Netflix's culture of freedom and responsibility.

Preparation Strategy

I focused on understanding Netflix's technical infrastructure, particularly their microservices architecture and cloud deployment strategies. I also studied their culture deck thoroughly and prepared examples that demonstrated alignment with their values. For technical preparation, I focused more on system design and architecture patterns rather than algorithmic problems.

Interview Process

The process included a recruiter screen, a technical phone interview, and then 5 onsite interviews (conducted virtually). The interviews covered iOS-specific knowledge, general programming concepts, system design, and behavioral questions. The process took about 5 weeks.

Questions Asked

• Implement a custom UICollectionView layout
• Design a photo sharing application
• Optimize memory usage in a resource-intensive app
• Explain concurrency patterns in iOS
• Questions about attention to detail and user experience focus

Key Takeaways

Apple's interview process was heavily focused on both technical depth and design sensibility. The interviewers were particularly interested in my understanding of iOS frameworks, performance optimization, and user experience considerations. I was asked detailed questions about memory management, the view lifecycle, and concurrency patterns. What stood out was how much they valued clean, maintainable code and thoughtful UI/UX decisions.

Preparation Strategy

I prepared by reviewing iOS fundamentals, particularly focusing on UIKit, Core Data, and Swift language features. I also studied Apple's Human Interface Guidelines thoroughly and practiced explaining my design decisions. Mock interviews with other iOS developers were invaluable for getting feedback on my explanations of technical concepts.

Interview Process

The interview process consisted of a recruiter call, a technical assessment, and three rounds of virtual interviews. The interviews focused on cloud technologies, DevOps practices, and problem-solving skills. The entire process took about 4 weeks.

Questions Asked

• Design a CI/CD pipeline for a microservices architecture
• Troubleshoot a Kubernetes cluster issue scenario
• Explain strategies for secure cloud deployments
• Design a multi-region cloud architecture for high availability
• Questions about handling incidents and on-call responsibilities

Key Takeaways

The interviews at IBM were very practical and focused on real-world scenarios rather than theoretical concepts. I was asked to whiteboard solutions to specific cloud architecture problems and explain my reasoning. The interviewers were particularly interested in my experience with IBM Cloud, but were also open to discussing how my experience with other cloud providers could transfer. The cultural fit assessment focused on teamwork and continuous learning.

Preparation Strategy

I focused on refreshing my knowledge of cloud services, Kubernetes, and DevOps practices. I also studied IBM's cloud offerings and compared them with AWS and Azure, which I was more familiar with. Practice explaining complex technical concepts in simple terms was very helpful, as was reviewing common incident scenarios and how to handle them.

Interview Process

The process included a recruiter screen, a technical phone interview with coding, and then 4 virtual onsite interviews covering coding, system design, and behavioral aspects. The entire process took about 5 weeks.

Questions Asked

• Design Twitter's timeline service
• Implement a rate limiter
• Solve a problem involving distributed consensus
• Design a system to detect and prevent spam tweets
• Questions about scaling challenges and technical decision-making

Key Takeaways

I struggled with the system design portion, particularly when discussing how to handle Twitter's scale and real-time requirements. The interviewer kept pushing me to go deeper into the implementation details and trade-offs, which exposed gaps in my knowledge about distributed systems. The feedback indicated that while my coding skills were solid, they had concerns about my ability to design and scale systems to Twitter's requirements.

Preparation Strategy

I should have spent more time studying distributed systems concepts and real-time processing architectures. In retrospect, I would have focused more on understanding how social media platforms handle feed generation, real-time updates, and content delivery at scale. Mock system design interviews would have been very helpful in identifying these gaps earlier.