Hi community, I wanted to share my recent experience with Uber's SDE2 interview process. All rounds were in-person except for the online assessment.

Current company- Amazon
YOE - 3.5

1. I reached out to the recruiter, and they sent me an online assessment. I don't recall the exact questions, but I cleared it.

2. Round 1 - Screening (Strong Yes)

   • Short and straightforward: Design a multi-floor parking lot with different spot types for cars and bikes. In busy times, you can park 4 bikes in one car spot.
   • I discussed the class diagram and implemented a pseudo class.
   • We also explored different approaches to retrieve available parking spots, from brute force to an efficient solution using a custom tree.
   • The interviewer was kind and supportive.

3. Round 2 - DSA (Strong Yes)

   • I don't remember the exact LeetCode reference, but the problem was divided into two phases.
   • For both phases, the input was a matrix (n x m) where each cell could be either white or black.
   • Phase 1: Write code to determine if a color is "trapped" by the opposite color, meaning it's completely surrounded by the opposite color in the immediate neighboring cells.
   • Phase 2: Extend this to n degrees, meaning a color is trapped by its opposite at a distance greater than 1.
   • Considering the edge case if coordinated are out of bound then consider it as trapped.

4. Round 3 - LLD (Strong Yes)

   • Design a leaderboard.
   • Ask 1: Design a simple use case.
   • Ask 2: Implement caching.
   • Ask 3: Make it thread-safe.
   • I completed the first two asks and discussed all possible approaches for the third. I asked for 10 more minutes to implement a keyed executor.

5. Round 4 - Hiring Manager (Strong Yes)

   • This was the longest interview I’ve ever had, lasting 2.5 to 3 hours.
   • It started with some casual questions about my hobbies.
   • We then discussed my first company (Paysafe) project in detail for about 30 minutes.
   • Similarly, we spent 30-40 minutes discussing my current project at Amazon.
   • The technical part involved designing a stock price notification system that alerts users if a stock price goes up by 10% or hits a static value.
   • We spent 35 minutes discussing the design, and I had to create a detailed low-level design on the whiteboard.
   • By the end, I felt quite frustrated with how long it took, especially since all the rounds were happening on the same day.

6. Round 5 - HLD (Soft Yes)

   • The interviewer asked me to design the Uber Eats restaurant feed backend.
   • They didn’t provide any further details or interact much beyond stating the requirement.
   • I had to decide the scope and solution on my own.
   • I designed a basic high-level design, but the main discussion revolved around how I would store and retrieve restaurant data efficiently. I suggested using a quad tree and geo hashing , But proceeded wit quad tree assuming Uber already uses it, but that seemed to work against me.
   • We discussed the quad tree storage logic, rebuilding it when a restaurant shuts down, and how a new node would construct or borrow the tree.
   • Serialization and deserialization were also discussed in detail on the whiteboard.

The recruiter later informed me after 2 days that the HLD round received a 'Soft Yes,' with the reasoning being that I was already familiar with the problem because of the phrase used for the quad tree: 'It is already used by Uber.' However, all other rounds received a 'Strong Yes.' They also mentioned that based on my debrief, the 'Soft Yes' would likely turn into a 'Strong Yes.'

7. Last Round - Team Matching

   • I had a call with three managers, where I clearly stated my expectations.

8. Offer Released

Overall, the process was quick, and it was my first in-person interview. Apart from the HM round, the other rounds went smoothly. I actually felt more comfortable and confident in person compared to online interviews. The ability to switch between the screen and whiteboard gave me a significant advantage.

Thanks