Status: New grad,MS in Computer Science
Years of Experience : 0 years of Full-time [Had several technical/research internships]
Position: Software Engineer Bloomberg [Accepted]
Location: NYC, New York
Date: September 2020
Bloomberg Interview Experience
Applied mid-August and received an email to schedule a phone screen within 1 week.
The interview slots were only 2 days away.
Technical Phone Screen
Had solved around 350-ish problems on Leetcode till then.
Tried to solve as many Bloomberg-tagged questions on LC as possible within 2 days.
This was going to be my very first interview.
The interviewer did not show up and I was really upset. Within 1 hr of my scheduled time, the recruiter called me and apologized. He asked if I was free in the evening for the interview. I agreed.
This time the interviewer showed up on time and chatted a little while.
The first question was 1D Candy Crush.
I solved it using a stack approach.
The code ran perfectly.
The second question was an open ended design question.
It was somewhat of a restaurant delivery application (but similar to LFU, LC #460).
He wanted to know what data structures I would use. It was more of a discussion and not much coding.
Within 6 days I received the invite for virtual onsite.
Virtual Onsite
Round 1
The interviewer was really nice and friendly. He asked me a little about my resume and projects.
Then we moved on to coding.
First question:
Rotate List, LC #61
I first explained to him my approach through an example and we discussed certain edge cases.
Then I could code the solution and it ran smoothly.
Second question:
Not directly from Leetcode but similar to grid problems.
From the top-left corner I had to reach bottom-right in minimum steps and could go only right and down directions.
I discussed both DFS+memoization and BFS traversal for this problem.
The interviewer was very happy and asked me to code any one I am comfortable with. I coded the BFS algorithm.
Round 2
This time there were 2 interviewers. Both of them were less talkative but very polite.
First question:
Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters, LC #3
Again first I used an example to explain the algorithm and then coded it.
Second question:
Design Underground Subway System, LC #1396
I had read about this question in all previous posts and was completely prepared with all the data structures necessary.
After this round, they asked me to wait for the next 2 HR and Managerial rounds.
The HR round had basic questions regarding my immigration requirements, my graduation date, etc.
The Hiring Manager round was also a general chat about my projects and interest areas. No coding or design questions were asked.
Offer
After a very long wait I woke up in the morning to find a scheduled phone call with the recruiter.
During the call she told me about my offer and the email followed later that evening.
AWS Interview Experience
I got the chance to interview with AWS via GHC 2020.
Online Coding Round
First there were 2 online questions in Hackerrank Platform. Both were from the list :
https://leetcode.com/discuss/interview-question/344650/Amazon-Online-Assessment-Questions
I could solve both the questions with all test cases passed.
That day itself, I got the invite for the 3-rounds Virtual Onsite.
Round 1
The first question was Meeting Scheduler LC #1229. Unlike Bloomberg, AWS interviewers were more concerned with my coding than thought process. I still took about 2-3 mins to explain my approach and then coded the solution.
He was a little confused seeing my code and gave 5 test cases to run. After that, he was finally convinced.
There was about 20 minutes left. Surprisingly he did not ask LP, and asked a second coding question Meeting Rooms II LC #253.
Here, he was interested in my approach and data structures I would use. But he asked me not to code. We also discussed time and space complexities.
Round 2
The second round was with the Hiring Manager. This was my favourite round.
He asked me about 30 mins of LP and was so happy with my answers.
Finally he told me that "you have all the right answers, so I will ask you a very simple question".
And, the question was:
Two Sum LC #1
After this round I was very confident.
Round 3
In this round the interviewer was also very friendly.
The question was Alien Dictionary LC #269.
I explained the topological sorting in detail. After successfully completing it, he asked only 1-2 LP questions.
Offer
The recruiter emailed me the very next day saying I got the offer.
Final Points
I accepted the Bloomberg offer based on the compensation, work culture and my love for NYC !
Overall, I had completed about 440 questions on LC( Easy : 100 | Medium : 270 | Hard : 70 ). But, more than the quantity please focus on the quality. Your confidence is what counts. You might feel comfortable with coding problems after solving only 100. Try to make a template for yourself for DFS, Memoization, BFS, Topological Sort, etc.
This has been told in all other posts, but I would still re-iterate. Bloomberg focuses a lot on how you explain and communicate. You need to talk through each line of code. Keep the interviewer engaged.
I would say my experiences were not as hard as other LC posts. It was relatively smooth. But to everyone going through the same phase, we are in this together ! If we are graduating amidst such difficult conditions, there is something wonderful waiting for each one of us ahead.
All the very best to the entire LC community ! You guys helped me a lot through this journey. Thank you very much :)