I recently interviewed with Cimpress, and I wanted to share my experience for anyone preparing for similar roles.

The first round was a DSA round in C++. The problem involved grouping numbers based on their digital root. For example, numbers like 321, 6, and 33 fall under the same group because each reduces to the same digital root. The round went well, and I was able to implement the solution cleanly using in-memory structures like maps and vectors.

In the second round, I was given an LLD/HLD question on designing an LRU Cache. It’s a common problem involving a combination of a doubly linked list and a hashmap to achieve O(1) operations, so I was comfortable with it and tried to explain my approach.

However, the experience in this round wasn’t very smooth. The interviewer frequently interrupted and didn’t give much space to explain the thought process. It made it difficult to walk through the design systematically. While I respect that everyone has their own interviewing style, this one didn’t feel very constructive. It’s a reminder that an interview experience often depends as much on communication and listening as it does on technical skill.

Every interview—good or bad—is still a learning opportunity. I’m sharing this to help others manage expectations and to encourage companies to maintain consistency and empathy in their interview processes.

If anyone is preparing for DSA or LLD rounds, especially LRU design or digital-root-based grouping problems, feel free to reach out. Always happy to discuss approaches or practice together.

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