I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Bloomberg
Interview
I was approached on LinkedIn by a recruiter. After initial call, they suggested 3 teams I could choose from. I chose and we proceeded.
First interview (I think it’s a phone screen round) was pretty easy. LeetCode easy array problem, and later a tree problem where you would simply use BFT or DFT with a counter.
Next they schedule a «virtual onsite». One coding interview, again easy problem with maximum simultaneous meeting to count needed meeting rooms. First I had a wrong idea, implemented it. And later the interviewer pointed out an example where my code would be incorrect. I quickly fixed it and we talked a bit more about testing etc.
This, together with the phone screen, were some really nice people I would say.
Next the same day I had a system design interview. I needed to design an alerts system that notifies users about stock price change. Taking into account that there are a lot of alerts. Honestly comparing to their coding questions this one wasn’t asked right. No text to refer to, no nothing. I was told to “not think about load” and to “draw an overview", but then the interviewers would delve into details before I was finished. On this interview I felt the strongest communication barrier.
This was also the first interview I didn’t «vibe» with an interviewer even though they supposedly were from the exact team I was interviewing for. In a couple of hours I received a rejection. Overall I’m not too beat about it, because I didn’t feel like it was the right fit at this point.
I also got a glimpse of the office in the background of some interviewers, and it looked kinda dull and not modern. Maybe just some rooms, idk.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Count maximum concurrent meetings to calc number of meeting rooms needed
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Bloomberg in May 2023
Interview
Coding stage as a screen call, followed by two more coding stages (with LeetCode ranking from medium to hard), an architectural interview where you design a system on a whiteboard, and finally a behavioral section.
The interviewer had some preconceived notions and insisted on me solving the problem in his specific way, showing no openness to considering or accepting alternative approaches I suggested during the interview process.