Status: Experienced with 3 YOE
Position: Software Developer at No name company
Location: Washington, DC
Date: Oct 07, 2020
LC: 550 (Easy:262, Medium:256, Hard: 32)
Process:
I commented on a post sometime in July on Linkedin and got referred to Bloomberg.
Had an initial phone call with the recruiter and told to apply for some positions
and will be contacted by someone from the company.
I got contacted by someone from their team and asked to apply for both Senior and SWE 2020 positions.
1 Phone Screen (1 hour):
Behavioral: Tell me about yourself and what are you looking for in your next role.
Algorithm: https://leetcode.com/problems/binary-tree-vertical-order-traversal/
Solved in less than 30 mins and was asked a lot of followups which I answered without any problem.
2 Phone Screen (45 mins):
Behavioral: Tell me about yourself and interesting project in the past.
Algorithm: https://leetcode.com/problems/word-search/
Again very famous problem and I was able to solve in less than 30 mins and after that the followups:
- How do you test your code?
- What are some test cases that you can think of?
- How do you write Unit tests?
After a couple of days I got an email asking to schedule onsite. I did schedule and started preparing Bloomberg tagged questions on LC.
Talked to so many people on Blind, referred to so many posts and got an idea what Bloomberg is expecting in a candidate. I completed almost 150 questions
out of 161 questions and also read about System Design topics as they will be asking something from their current project.
Virtual Onsite (2 rounds):
Round 1 (1.5 hours):
It was a question regarding the interest rate calculator.
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ON 1W 2W 4W 1M 5Y
X-Axis - term of Loan
Y-Axis - Rate for that time.
Question 1: Given the graph how are you going to capture the data and design the logic for that.
My sol: I gave a mediocre solution which was not optimal and interviewer gave me a lot of hints even though I couldn't figure out what the solution is
the main challenge that I faced was to find the interest rate for a term which the data doesn't have like give me interest rate for 3 weeks.
I was able to code it but I don't think Interviewer was impressed
Question 2: It was based on LRU Cache designing Subway Stations. I was able to identify that quickly and code it up using DLL but as the time was running out interviewer asked me to stop.
Round 2(1 hour):
System Design based on logging the Key Events from a Trade System and also providing them with UI Reports based on their Search.
I came up with a good high level design but I don't think Interviewer was happy with my approach. I was told that I am done for the day and the recruiter will contact
me next week regarding the next steps.
Result: I haven't heard back from them yet but definitely I think it will be reject.
Key Takeaways:
- LC Grinding is not always enough at least for Bloomberg it may help to clear the phone screen and stuff but you need more like Object oriented Design
and System Design - No matter how hard you try things will not turn out as you wanted. In my case I was expecting two rounds of LC and if perform well they will invite me to next rounds
with hiring manager and manager but turnout that's not the case. I don't know if this is unlucky or just how the things are supposed to be but either way it will be a lesson
moving forward to learn more about the systems and their design considerations rather than simply Grinding LC. - I liked the overall process in a sense that they are saving your time and theirs and the interviewers are easy to talk to.
This is my second Virtual Onsite (Amazon in June) this year since COVID and I will keep trying harder and may be learn from my mistakes.
I hope this helps to someone in similar situation and Never Give up!
Feel free to comment out the answers if you know and provide me the feedback on how can I improve.