10 Most difficult Software Engineering Interviews, Ranked

Of the 22 companies I interviewed with, right here is my rating of the 10 most complicated interviews I went as a result of. I ranked the issues of the interviews based mostly on 3 things: the number of thoughts asked in just a time restrict, the complexity of the challenges, and the novelty of the troubles.

10. Palantir

The interview was quite regular and involved live coding and process structure questions.

The interesting component was candidates have been asked to take in lunch with latest employees and other candidates. It was a bit perplexing, and while the recruiter said the lunch wasn’t an analysis, I in some way felt like it was. Taking in lunch with candidates was also a bit unusual considering the fact that I puzzled no matter if I was competing from this person.

9. Airtable

I had a just take-property assignment that took around four several hours to full, but they paid me for it. The challenging element was crafting the code and generating it pretty readable. For the duration of the interview, I also experienced to present my work in an hourlong session to a panel of two or three interviewers.

I genuinely preferred my interview practical experience at Airtable and ended up signing up for the firm. It was a little firm then, and I don’t forget I bought a possibility to discuss to leadership like the CTO, which was quite wonderful.

8. Google

Google’s algorithm queries ended up much more complex than Airtable’s and Palantir’s.

Individually, I considered Google’s job interview system was the most outdated one particular in contrast to other people on this listing. I only wrote code on the whiteboard and did not generate any code are living on a pc. There also appeared to be a lack of coordination in issue variety. For example, I encountered comparable thoughts in the very same data composition niche.

Remarkably, I wasn’t requested any behavioral queries, both.

7. Meta

The Meta interview was remarkably light, with only four rounds in comparison to the regular 5 or 6 at other organizations. The issues were being product or service-focused, these types of as planning a dwell commenting part on Facebook, relatively than purely coding-based.

I try to remember asking the recruiter why the interviews have been lighter than other organizations, and they described that cutting down the range of rounds didn’t impact the high quality of hires but made the procedure less tiring for candidates they could also shell out much less business methods on interviews.

6. Uber

The tough component of the job interview was that so several duties ended up squeezed in at the moment, so I did not have time to acquire opportunity responses — I was not equipped to know irrespective of whether I did nicely or not. Immediately after completing the initially section, we swiftly moved to aspect two. In the course of element a few, when I was midway finished, they announced that the time was up.

There was a psychological dynamic heading into it — if I picked up on any signal on how I was undertaking, no make any difference how little, I obtained some momentum to deal with the rest of the job interview. Over-all, it was a really rigorous interview practical experience.

One particular fascinating detail was that Uber experienced a session with “Bar Raiser” interviewers. The session introduced a distinctive workforce from the business into the hiring approach. They are properly trained rigorously to eliminate any biases from the selecting course of action and make sure new hires surpass the normal set by other friends in similar roles.

5. Cruise

The job interview procedure was normal, which include algorithm and method design and style inquiries and a behavioral 1.

On the other hand, what produced it tricky wasn’t the actual interview — I experienced a migraine through the interview and the medicine did not function. This was a lesson for me: although I could not be in a fantastic atmosphere, I ought to have handle over what I can.

In hindsight, I want I experienced rescheduled, and I consider the recruiting team would have been happy to do that.

4. Checkr

The coding job interview was rigorous — I had to sit in the place and code for two hours while remaining noticed and questioned by interviewers.

What created it even more durable was I experienced to write a thoroughly working piece of code, not just an algorithm, meaning the code experienced to function.

3. Zoox

Zoox asks intensive math issues in addition to standard code interviews. For instance, they questioned how to measure the length from the Earth to the Moon working with resources like a protractor and ruler.

It involves intense math capabilities, this kind of as trigonometry. I would say in most program engineering interviews, candidates don’t get requested about these kinds of math concerns at all.

2. Stripe

The range of problems made the interview tough. Thoughts ranged from resolving bugs and writing code working with an present API to talking by way of a complex style with no coding.

In addition to that, interviews at Stripe are much much more of a genuine-globe situation, which makes it more difficult, far too. I try to remember there was a dilemma about working with a simplified model of Stripe’s API to make a product for detecting fraud in orders and payments.

I give a 10/10 ranking for the in general interview approach, even though, due to the fact I felt the interviewers at Stripe requested all the proper concerns, and the job interview itself was most identical to what a true-life coding experience would be like as a computer software engineer.

1. Airbnb

I experienced two rounds of technical cell phone screens and an on-internet site job interview, wherever they requested notoriously hard algorithm inquiries. The inquiries have been market, and I experienced to produce and operate code within just 50 minutes.

For instance, a person question involved a rooftop with a one of a kind shape, and I wanted to estimate how prolonged it would take to fill it with h2o, thinking about its many dips, like hills and valleys. For a problem like this, I had to change it into a facts framework in code, and then generate a functionality to compute the fill-up time.

Airbnb also went two ranges deeper in behavioral rounds than other tech organizations. They asked me about jobs I had labored on and my determination-making course of action. The stress practically produced me sense like it was a genuine interrogation.

The Airbnb workplace is quite awesome, with meeting rooms that resemble well-known Airbnb listings.

The recruiting workforce was cooperative and straightforward to get the job done with, also.

Modify your expectations in today’s task sector

In addition to the most tricky interviews mentioned previously mentioned, the least complicated ones I skilled had been WeWork, Zillow, and Zume. Nevertheless, I don’t consider an straightforward job interview necessarily signifies a reduced expertise bar at the enterprise — it could be for the reason that I had well prepared particularly for the queries they asked that working day.

From my knowledge with career browsing, I consider everybody can get great at interviewing with enough practice. In modern task market place, though, I suggest occupation seekers adjust their expectations. I you should not consider I’d land 18 offers right now simply because the selecting ecosystem is so aggressive I would almost certainly only get 50 % as many.

It is very important for position seekers to constantly deal with complications each individual working day and operationalize their task search system. I usually propose sustaining a calendar that permits recruiters to program interviews specifically from it, alternatively of emailing back again and forth.

I also consider it really is essential to be very clear about the recruitment timeline with each company. For occasion, if you’re persistently not able to get earlier the résumé stage with sure firms, compile a list of individuals organizations and try to get introductions to them.

If you do the job in Significant Tech and want to share your experience, e-mail Jennifer Eum at [email protected].