Interviewed with Google, Amazon, Blackrock, and Bloomberg.
Google rejected. Amazon and Blackrock rescinds their oral offer, and later told me to wait till some time, and no more response. Bloomberg offered a package of 198k/0/42k.
About me:
YOE: 5 years in banking technology. 1 year in AI/ML.
Education: MS in CS, top 20 CS school; MS in FE, top 2 FE school.
Location: NYC
Interview dates: mid March, mid April, late May.
Our team was rebuilding ever since I joined. (Hope it was not about me, lol, and definately not.) The outbreak of COVID-19 made it even worse and slow. We (not only me, but most of our team) barely see any future. Even though, our team try very hard to do PoCs and try to connect closely with our business team, we still have no blueprints for this year.
Interview Experience:
Blackrock, Senior SWE :
Phone screen late in Feb, a LC Medium question, and onsite early in March. Onsite was interesting and different from other tech companies. There were 4 technical interviews in the morning, 1 intro session during lunch break, and then team-matching rounds in the afternoon. I had another 4 rounds with 2 different teams, and they were all about system design questions. I ended up spending 8 hours in their office.
I got feedback the next day, both teams wanted to move forward, but I can't really set up my mind. So I asked for another round with their senior leaders in the upcoming week. The interviews were setup virtually, and as expected, mostly behavioral question. Again, I got positive feedbacks and verbal offer the next Monday, but were told to wait the following week because of the outbreak of COVID-19, and the company freezed their hiring process.
Google, L4|5:
Phone screen early in March, a classic parking-lot design question, but end up with a simple class implementation, other than system design. Virtual onsite in the middle of March, 3 LC medium level questions, 2 hard ones, array, string, 3 graph related questions. Classis google doc, nothing fancy. I was quite confident with all 4 questions, but not the string one~ So, not perfect, and not surprised, rejection. But overal speaking, it was a good experience, and I got a chance to know my weak part on problem solving.
Amazon, SDE II:
Phone screen late in March, and virtual onsite early in April. Questions were quite straight forward, just like google, 3 hard level ones, 2 medium ones, and system design question was classic. Signed NDA, can't disclose more than that. Had a positive feedback from recruiter, but I were also told to wait. I guess I wasn't that perfect on some parts, but overall interview experience was quite good.
The only thing that pissed me off was the initial phone call from the first recruiter. She thought I were another guy who worked for Google for 5 years. The only thing we had in common was our English name, and nothing else. Until she finished talking about how good "I" were, she changed her tone, and start over. Then I got forwarded to another recruiter... lol, sounds really...
Bloomberg, Senior SWE :
Phone screen in mid May, and viritual onsite late in May. Phone screen was a LC easy-medium level question, but went through details in difference real scenarios. Virtual onsite was similar to FLAG companies, mix of LC medium and hard ones. Got positive feedback and verbal offer the next Monday. I was a little bit worried, but they sent out the final offer on that Tuesday.
Preparation:
Coding: LC, I paid one-year premium, and finished almost all the mock interview sessions. It was quite helpful, but I think it will be good if they could keep a separate question sets for the mocks other than the regular one. Something new. It's similar to LC, but have detailed video explanation. It helped me better explain myself for when bringing out the solution.
System Degisn: Youtube, and Something new, check previous link.
My daily routine was quite simple. Wake up at 8, solve a LC problem, and jump into calls. I usually start working from 9AM, and log off around 8PM. After that, sometimes LC problem, sometimes Something new, sometimes system design. But in total, I limited everything to 3 hours a day.
I don't have to make a hard decision, coz I only apply to something that I like to one at a time. But I never stopped my preparation.
It is a tough time to find a job but don't lose any faith on yourselves. Setup easy plans and always follow it. Don't overwhelming yourselves. And wish everyone a good luck. Let me know if you have any question!