rippling | Software Engineer | Interview Experience
Interview Date: Not specified
Result: Not specified
Difficulty: Not specified
Interview Process
The interview was with the data bridge team for a staff-level position. After connecting with the HR on LinkedIn, I was invited for a conversation, which led to a recommendation for this team. The job description matched my skills, although I initially sought a senior staff position in another group. The HR mentioned that several candidates were already in the process, so my expectations were low, viewing this as a practice opportunity.
The phone interview focused on designing a system similar to Google News, with specific requirements provided by the interviewer. The interview lasted approximately 30 minutes, during which I discussed various components needed to meet the requirements.
Technical Questions
- System Design: Design a news aggregation system with the following requirements:
- Aggregate news from 50,000 publishers (100 articles/day each)
- Support 10 million monthly active users (100,000 concurrent users at peak)
- Show relevant articles tailored to individual users
- Support both global trending feeds and personalized feeds
- Handle both logged-in and guest users
During the deep dive, the interviewer asked about:
- NoSQL vs. MySQL
- Why to use a column store
- Data ingestion design and the use of Flink
Tips & Insights
- The scope of the design question was extensive, requiring multiple systems: web crawling for news aggregation, a global trending system, a personalized recommendation system, and user interaction components.
- It’s advisable to focus on specific areas of the system to avoid being asked to dive deeper into components that could take an hour to discuss.
- The interview process includes an HR call, a technical screen (system design), a hiring manager review, and a final interview that involves coding, design, and behavioral questions.
- Be aware of the hiring cycle; even if a group is hiring, there might be a six-month freeze period if you do not get selected.
- The culture and processes within the organization may feel disjointed, combining elements from different companies.