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Interview experiences
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Interview experiences · Crowdstrike
Crowdstrike Software Engineer interview for Falcon Exposure Management
I went through CrowdStrike's process for the Falcon Exposure Management team. The overall tone was highly technical, with a strong focus on problem-solving and system design. It felt designed to test reasoning above all else. The process started with a DSAT-style step and continued with the same emphasis on problem-solving and system design. The questions didn't feel like trivia. They focused mor…
Interview experiences · Crowdstrike
Crowdstrike Software Engineer interview: recruiter redirect after a 10-minute delay
My first step with CrowdStrike was a recruiter call over Zoom. The interviewer joined almost 10 minutes late, which made the start a little awkward, but they were professional and polite once we began. We covered the usual basics about my background and work history, and the conversation stayed fairly light. What stood out was that they asked whether I might be a better fit for a similar role on…
Interview experiences · Crowdstrike
Crowdstrike Software Engineer interview with recruiter and hiring manager calls
I had two recruiter-adjacent calls: first with a recruiter, then with a hiring manager. The hiring manager asked about my previous experience and projects, with some focus on call and metrics topics. The conversation seemed aimed at matching my background to what the team cared about. After the hiring manager call, everything stalled. I was ghosted and never heard back from the recruiter, which m…
Interview experiences · Crowdstrike
Crowdstrike Software Engineer interview with seven difficult coding questions
After applying, I went through an earlier pipeline that included college-placement-style steps and then an online assessment. The multiple-choice section was manageable for me, but the assessment overall felt harder than I expected, especially since the role was for an internship. The biggest problem was the mix of questions. I could solve the multiple-choice problems, but the seven coding questi…
Interview experiences · Crowdstrike
Crowdstrike Solutions Engineer interview: remote hiring-manager and sales interviews followed by silence
A recruiter contacted me, and the process became a remote interview cycle with a hiring manager and members of the sales team. I kept moving through the interviews and felt that I had passed the rounds, so I expected the next steps to come quickly. Instead, the process went silent after I finished. I emailed for an update, but I still didn’t hear back. The lack of communication felt careless and…
Interview experiences · Crusoe
Crusoe Senior Software Engineer Interview Experience — In-Person Onsite with a PPT Deep Dive
Phone screen (Coding) Question: Print a binary tree, using * to represent missing nodes. Leaf nodes need to be separated by one space, and then going up, each parent node should be placed in the middle position between its child nodes. Onsite System Design: Design Slack Coding: Similar to a LeetCode problem (they scrambled the name to dodge the forum filter), except the input is one long string i…
Interview experiences · Point72
Cubist / Point72 Intern Quantitative Researcher Interview Experience — Two Teams and a Lasso Derivation
I applied for QR Intern and QR Alpha Intern positions based in Hong Kong. There was no online assessment. HR matched me with two teams. One Hong Kong team working on APAC equities. Three interviewers, one PM, one MLE, and one QR, for 30 minutes. They mainly asked about an internship on my resume involving quantitative work and algorithms, in very fine detail. I basically had to explain every step…
Interview experiences · Cursor
Cursor Software Engineer Interview Experience — 60-Minute Merkle Tree Phone Screen, Finished Everything and Still Rejected
Around the start of September I did a 60-minute phone screen with Cursor. After Cursor merged with SpaceX AI it got renamed to SpaceX AI. The problem was writing a Merkle tree. You have to build a Merkle tree to represent a file system, write get_hash, and write diff to compare 2 trees. You have to write all the tests yourself. The logic is the same as a Merkle tree, except a node can have N chil…
Interview experiences · Cursor
Cursor Software Engineer Interview Experience — A Merkle Tree Diff Problem Run Inside a Real Repo
Just finished the interview, don't know the result yet, but I feel like I answered pretty mediocre. It really was the question that's already posted here — Merkle Tree — but the details still mattered a lot. It runs inside an actual repo, so you have to read files from the repo, which means you need to be familiar with the relevant standard library. The interviewer wanted the folder structure to…
Interview experiences · CVS Health
CVS Health Data Scientist Interview Experience — Case Questions on Campaign Design and MMX Models
Today I made it through the second round (not counting HR), talking with a senior data science manager. They mainly asked a few case-style questions: If you were sending an email campaign to get people to go get a flu shot, how would you design the campaign? Mainly wanted me to share my thinking and the factors I'd consider. If you wanted to launch a TV channel campaign, how would you design it?…
Interview experiences · CVS Health
CVS Health Data Scientist Interview Experience — Four Rounds, a Lawyer's Red Flag, and a Runner-Up Finish
On 2/5 I got an invite from the recruiter for a team video interview, and we picked 2/7 for the time. We talked about my resume and work history. She asked some basic questions about my status. She kept saying they were hiring urgently, so we scheduled the tech interview for 2/12, and along the way she went over the topics and content for it. That's when I learned it would be a tech interview foc…
Interview experiences · Deshaw
D. E. Shaw System Developer Interview Experience — Linux Questions and Python File Parsing
The first interview mainly asked various Linux questions: what happens behind the scenes when I run ls in a shell, the differences between containers and virtual machines, and other knowledge questions like those. I wasn't asked to write code. After passing the first interview, I had a virtual onsite with three interviews. Beforehand, I asked the recruiter what each one would cover, but they abso…
Interview experiences · Darktrace
Darktrace Account Executive Interview Experience: Promised follow-up never arrived
The experience felt frustratingly unprofessional from the start. After the initial recruiter step, the conversations did not seem organized, and the tone sometimes felt more like a lecture than an interview. One recruiter was overly pedantic and barely asked about my motivation or background. At other points, the hiring manager seemed rushed and disengaged, as though they were not listening to my…
Interview experiences
Data Analyst Interview Experience — Excel-Then-SQL OA With the Real SQL Question
I went through pretty much every DA-related OA post on the forum and put together this note for my own review. I just finished an OA that felt about PDA level, and reviewing with my own notes really helped, so I'm sharing them here in case they help other people prepping. About the OA: I'd strongly recommend finishing the Excel questions before doing the SQL ones. For the Excel questions, don't p…
Interview experiences · Facebook
Data Engineer interview at Facebook: unclear bookstore scenario
After a recruiter screen, I went into a technical conversation that felt tougher than the preparation materials. The difficulty was not only coding or SQL. A scenario resembling a bookstore checkout system was described too vaguely for me to know the intended behavior, and the interviewer did not help clarify it. Once I understood what to build, I worked through it, but the experience still felt…
Interview experiences · Meta Logistics
Data Engineer interview at Meta Logistics: ambiguous technical prompt
After a standard screen, I had a technical conversation with a TA that felt harder than the preparation material. The concepts themselves were not impossibly advanced, but the problem statement was so vague that I struggled to understand what was expected. It resembled a bookstore checkout flow, yet the intended behavior and outputs were unclear and the interviewer did not help resolve that ambig…
Interview experiences · Meta Platforms
Data Engineer interview at Meta Platforms: timed Python and SQL screen
I started with a recruiter-style conversation and moved quickly to a one-hour technical screen split between Python and SQL. I had to complete several Python questions before switching to SQL tasks involving window functions and other query patterns. The pace mattered as much as getting the answers right. It felt less like a search for a novel algorithm than a test of speed and complete execution…
Interview experiences · Tredence
Data Engineer interview at Tredence
For this Data Engineer role, the process ran about 4 to 5 rounds. It started with a HackerEarth assessment mixing aptitude, SQL, and coding, then a communication round. Two technical rounds followed, with strong emphasis on SQL and PySpark plus basic DSA. The questions required precision and speed, and the interviewers pushed on how I approached data-engineering work, not only the tools I had use…
Interview experiences
Data Scientist Interview Experience — a SQL Question and a Rushed Pricing Case Study Sank My Screen
Officially kicked off my first technical phone screen of this job-hunting season. It's with an AI video creation company based in New York — funny enough, it shares a name with a legendary NYC clubbing spot from back in the day lol. Clearly I hadn't grinded enough problems, because the SQL question left me scratching my head the whole time. Definitely failed — I could see the interviewer's face p…
Interview experiences
Data Scientist Interview Experience — Spotify-Style SQL Recommendation Question, Case Study Rushed in 10 Minutes
This was the first technical phone screen of this job-hopping season for me. It was with an AI video creation company based in New York — funny enough, it has the same name as a legendary NYC clubbing spot lol. I definitely hadn't grinded enough problems, because all they asked was a SQL question and I was scratching my head the whole time writing it. I'm sure I bombed it — I could feel the inter…
Interview experiences
Data Scientist Interview Experience — SQL Screens at Two Startups, No Joins Allowed
I feel like the SQL round was harder than what I've seen at the big tech companies. Both were startups — one is a Series B company doing lending, the other is a Series D company doing SMB SaaS. The interview focus was similar at both: heavy emphasis on window functions, and rank vs dense_rank vs row_number came up without fail at both. Both companies let you use window functions but wouldn't let…
Interview experiences
Data Scientist Interview Experience — Wrestling with Product Case Questions on Subscription Metrics and P-Values
I've been interviewing with a few different companies lately and kept running into some pretty classic Product Case questions. I don't have a ton of interview experience, so I'm honestly not sure how good my answers actually are. Wanted to share them here and see what everyone else thinks. First, on success metrics — the standard playbook is obviously to start by asking the interviewer what the b…
Interview experiences · Databricks
Databricks Senior FDE Interview Experience — Cold Recruiter Screen, Rejected Before I Parked the Car
Databricks recruiters are really arrogant. I took the recruiter's call today while driving to the office, and it turned out to be the right call — I didn't waste much time. I'd honestly forgotten when I casually applied for this senior FDE role. Right off the bat she asked, coldly: "Where are you located, specifically which city?" I said I was in the Bay Area — I was worried that naming a specifi…
Interview experiences · Databricks
Databricks Senior Software Engineer Interview Experience — Phone Screen Plus Five Onsite Rounds, Then an Offer
End of June: Phone Screen — Coding: KV Store + Hit Counter Implement a KV Store that also supports tracking averageGet and averagePut. The main focus was on how to maintain a sliding window, and the follow-up extended it to stats over the past 1 hour, 1 day, and 1 week. Early July: Onsite 1 — Coding: File Encryption Tree Optimization Given a file system tree made of DirectoryNode and FileNode, wh…