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Interview experiences
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Interview experiences · ZipHQ
ZipHQ Software Engineer Interview Experience — A Graph Pursuit Problem in the First Round
The author reports being rejected after a first-round Zip interview focused on a pursuit game in a finite undirected graph. Two players know each other’s locations and can move to an adjacent room or stay still, with the evading player acting first. The question concerned how long capture could take. After the applicant struggled, the interviewer suggested comparing travel distances from the two…
Interview experiences · ZipHQ
ZipHQ Software Engineer Interview Experience — Aced the HM Round, Failed a Simple Tree DP Problem
Overall the difficulty was pretty easy — too bad I failed this tech round. Tech round: a tree problem. Each node has a value. For each node, you can pick either the current node's value, or the values of its children. If you pick the current node, you can't also pick its children — return the maximum value sum. The core of it is really just getValue(root): return max(getValue(root), getVal(root.c…
Interview experiences · ZipHQ
ZipHQ Software Engineer Interview Experience — AI-Assisted Onsite Coding on an Expense Reimbursement Codebase
It was roughly three small problems. They gave us a codebase, but it had so many files that there was no way to read through all of it, so basically you have the AI read and write everything. It was a simple system for managing company expense reimbursements, with features like monthly expense and budget reports. The first problem was that the monthly report data was wrong, for example someone fi…
Interview experiences · ZipHQ
ZipHQ Software Engineer Interview Experience — Backend Practical on a Questionnaire Evaluator, Rejected
After HR reached out to me, we scheduled the backend practical interview. Questions: adding features on top of a questionnaire parsing system and condition evaluator Part 1: enable numeric question input and condition evaluator (in addition to text input) enable functionality create new test cases Part 2: enable multiple condition evaluation Enable AND/OR on different conditions of different ques…
Interview experiences · Zipline
Zipline Software Engineer interview: large take-home and five onsite rounds
My process lasted more than three months and felt like I was constantly being passed around. I spoke with two different hiring managers, and the work they assigned was substantial: a very large take-home assignment that I put real effort into and delivered a strong solution for. During a later take-home review, I was told the work looked great and wasn’t something they saw often. Then came the on…
Interview experiences · Zipline
Zipline Software Engineer interview: project deep dive and technical discussion
My process began with straightforward introductions. The interviewer first walked me through the role description, and we then discussed my resume and portfolio in more detail. From there, the conversation shifted to technical questions. I had enough time to answer them before we returned to company-related questions that came up during the discussion. Another part of the process focused closely…
Interview experiences · Zipline
Zipline Software Engineer interview: project discussions and an onsite panel
My first step after applying was a short Talent Acquisition screen about my background and current work schedule. Later, I spoke with a team member in a technical session. We stayed close to my resume, discussing the thinking behind my projects and working through a technical question. The broader sequence moved from the recruiter to technical and behavioral conversations, then a scenario-based r…
Interview experiences · Zipline
Zipline Software Engineer interview rejected over manufacturing experience
I started with a recruiter call that was genuinely pleasant. She walked me through the process and answered my questions thoroughly. The next round was with the hiring manager, and I felt that went well too. After that, the timeline became exhausting. I followed up for two weeks and then received a rejection. They said I lacked experience with manufacturing and maintenance software. What bothered…
Interview experiences · Zipline
Zipline Software Engineer interview: Rust or C++20 take-home and automation panel
I entered the process through LinkedIn, then had a short recruiter call followed by a brief conversation with the hiring manager about my past experience. Next came a take-home assignment in either Rust or C++20, which took me a little over two hours. My impression was that they cared more about whether the solution worked than about polish such as code quality or tests. After that, I had a rough…
Interview experiences · Zipline
Zipline Software Engineer interview: seven-round onsite after take-home
The process started with a technical interview with a senior team member and quickly moved into a comprehensive take-home assessment. I felt good after passing that stage, and then I was invited to an intensive onsite at the South San Francisco office. The onsite was the heavy part, with seven distinct rounds covering technical and behavioral topics. The structure showed that they were evaluating…
Interview experiences · Zipline
Zipline Software Engineer interview with an industry-expert recruiter
A recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn and quickly talked up her background. She described herself as an industry expert and implied that she could "sniff out" whether I really knew what I was talking about. That framing threw me off before I had a chance to explain my experience. I didn’t want to feel put on the defensive, especially since I had already done significant work and expected a mo…
Interview experiences · Zipline
Zipline Software Engineer onsite cut short by a video setup
My early screens went well, including an initial check with the hiring manager and a coding portion. I was then invited onsite for the final rounds, and that's when the process started to feel badly mismanaged. When I arrived, the interviewers were working from home, so I had to join by video while sitting in a congested, makeshift phone setup. That made the whole experience feel pointless. Durin…
Interview experiences · Zipline
Zipline Software Engineer: take-home, system design, and a month-long ghosting
The process took longer than I expected, although it started out feeling genuinely fulfilling. I went through six stages overall: a recruiter call, a hiring manager screen, a take-home assessment, a technical interview connected to the assessment, a system design interview, and a product prioritization conversation. The later rounds also included a culture-fit discussion and an interview with a V…
Interview experiences · ZipRecruiter
ZipRecruiter Machine Learning Engineer Interview Experience — A CodeSignal Bug Hunt in Go
I haven't seen a ZipRecruiter MLE interview report on the forum before, so let me share my first-round experience: The recruiter told me it would be on CodeSignal, using some obscure language to find a bug, and that I could ask the interviewer syntax-related questions. The interviewer was a senior software engineer with 4 years at the company. He introduced himself first, then had me introduce my…
Interview experiences · Zoetis
Zoetis Account Executive Interview Experience: Polite interviews followed by delayed rejection messages
I kept running into the same frustrating theme: the process began politely, but communication failed when it mattered. I had an initial recruiter call and then a hiring-manager screen. After that, I waited. I followed up and got no real acknowledgement or clear next step, only silence. In separate moments, I was told I would hear back after a resume review or another stage, but the updates never…
Interview experiences · Zoho
Zoho Software Engineer Interview Experience: a full day of tests and virtual interviews at the office
I spent a full day at the office, from late morning until early evening. The setup was strange: I had to bring my own earpiece and take virtual interviews while sitting at their workplace. I'd also brought a printed resume, although it didn't seem likely to be useful. The first round was a one-hour pen-and-paper test with 20 questions: 10 about coding and 10 IQ-style questions. Next came several…
Interview experiences · Zoho
Zoho Software Engineer Interview Experience: Aptitude, voice, technical, and HR stages
After a recruiter call, I completed a general aptitude test to assess how I approached problems. That led to a voice assessment focused on communication, then a technical interview meant to measure my domain knowledge. The process finished with an HR round about cultural fit and my overall suitability for the role. It felt like a structured sequence in which each stage checked a different skill a…
Interview experiences · Zoho
Zoho Software Engineer Interview Experience: delayed presentation and no update
The process had four stages. I applied without receiving a confirmation email, completed a one-way video questionnaire, gave a presentation, and then interviewed with the India team. The presentation was scheduled for 3:30pm, but I was not admitted until 4pm. During it, the interviewer appeared distracted and kept chatting, despite the preparation I had put in. The India team interview felt more…
Interview experiences · Zoho
Zoho Software Engineer interview
The first stage was a screening-style test with basic MCQs, aptitude questions, and code snippets. The next stage was gated: failing to finish one section ended the process, so finishing mattered as much as solving perfectly. I then had an LLD round where I did not write code. Instead, I explained what I would build, how I would structure it, and the cases and components I would consider. The tec…
Interview experiences · Zoho
Zoho Software Engineer interview: Java paper round and longer coding round
The first round was on paper. It covered aptitude and Java output-prediction questions, with an exam-like feel. I sat with the questions in front of me, and the emphasis seemed to be fundamentals rather than tricks. The second round was a short coding segment with easy problems. It felt like a quick check of core logic, not a deep algorithms session. The third round lasted longer and asked more o…
Interview experiences · Zoho
Zoho Software Engineer interview: written C, Java, and coding rounds
My process started with a written, pen-and-paper round that mixed aptitude with C and some Java. It had a 10-question coding and output section, another 10 questions on IQ-style reasoning, and a full hour to complete everything. A short coding round followed with a handful of problems that felt more straightforward than the later work. The questions used common patterns such as arrays and pointer…
Interview experiences · Zomato
Zomato Software Engineer interview: a second recruiting chance
My Zomato experience was a rollercoaster. I was initially rejected, apparently because I did not have the years of experience they wanted, but a recruiter contacted me again a few weeks later with another opportunity from a different team. A team lead later became involved. The second path felt like a fresh chance that followed a similar recruiting rhythm, rather than a completely unrelated proce…
Interview experiences · Zomato
Zomato Software Engineer interview with paper coding
The Zomato process began with resume shortlisting and moved straight to technical interviews. The first technical round mixed DSA, CS fundamentals, puzzle-style questions, resume details, and basic web development. That combination initially threw me because it was not a pure coding interview. The next technical round made the DSA work more intense, and I had to write code on paper rather than on…
Interview experiences · Zoom Communications
Zoom Communications Account Executive interview: clear and timely process
After the HR conversation, every step was explained and scheduled clearly. I was never left in limbo, and communication stayed professional and responsive. The people in the process gave clear instructions, started meetings on time, and seemed to know exactly which stage they were running. I always knew what was next, without the awkward silence that can follow a recruiter step. I did not get the…