I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Block (Saint Louis, MO)
Interview
The first discussion was with a recruiter about what the role would be, what Square was looking for, who Square is, and what I was looking for.
The discussion with the recruiter was cordial and informative. When I asked for information, the recruiter promptly provided the information in the form of email or Linkedin direct message. We scheduled the first round of the technical interviews which was done virtually through coderpad + any language I wished to use. The interview was described as a pair programming experience.
My technical interviewer called right on time and we got started working on the problem. My interviewer explained the problem with enough context for me to briefly explain it back, including what I thought were some corner cases.
The interview was scheduled for an hour so I worked on getting a working solution first, and emphasized in a few places how I would optimize later if we had the time. I made sure to cover the cases he wanted covering. I referenced the official documentation for the language I was using and mentioned to him whenever I was looking there and he didn't seem to have an issue with it. I used Java and didn't do anything fancy like lamdas since I wanted a working solution first. I did have a little trouble remembering how to declare and initialize a particular datastructure and since this was labeled as a pair programming exercise, I used my partner for help rather than google. I compiled and ran as I went along.
I had a working solution around 45 minutes when the interviewer asked for an enhancement. I didn't have the time to implement it but he asked what I would do. He seemed ok with my initial response. I mentioned several optimizations I would make and how I would include unit tests, etc. if I had more time to work.
I am not sure if my interviewer was unsatisfied with my initial solution, the speed at which I worked (development isn't a race), or how I mentioned I would handle the enhancement at the end. Or all of the above.
I was told I would hear back from the recruiter within 3 business days. A little over one week later, I received a rejection email from the recruiter. I politely asked for some feedback on the interview but received none.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
From an in-memory database (my choice of datastructure), implement two methods to insert and retrieve info from databases. Use these methods to cover 6 or so different use cases.
Inital take home, followed by extension interview, followed by a coding challenge, followed by system design interview.
The whole process took 3 months!
The interviewers are usually really nice and want you to do your best.
The interviewer was nice, and he is friendly and willing to give hint, the question has 2 follow-ups, it was hard to complete in time. The question was not a typical LeetCode
Phone screen and then a full day of interviews. 3 pair programming challenges, a system design review and a prior experience interview. There was also an onsite lunch with a person from the company.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
To design a hotel booking system. Pick any part (backend, frontend, database, api etc) and deepdive into that, explaining the decisions along the way.
