rippling | Software Engineer | Interview Experience
Interview Date: Not specified
Result: Not specified
Difficulty: Not specified
Interview Process
The interview began with the interviewer offering two versions of the problem: one using AI and one without. I opted for the non-AI version due to concerns about encountering unfamiliar questions. The first question was a high-frequency topic related to Delivery Expense. I struggled with the first question, which caused me to lose a lot of time.
- Initially, I planned to convert USD to cents for integer storage, but the interviewer insisted that the fractional part of cents should be retained. I was worried about double overflow but remembered the problem stated that the delivery time would not exceed 3 hours.
- While converting USD to cents, I mistakenly divided by 100 instead of multiplying, which took a while to debug. The interviewer noted he saw the mistake but wanted me to figure it out myself.
With only about ten minutes left, the interviewer suggested discussing my thought process instead of writing code. I explained my approach for a few minutes, and when time was almost up, I decided to attempt coding the second question. I managed to write a significant portion of the code, but encountered an error with a simple line: new ArrayList<>(), which I suspected was due to import issues in HackerRank.
Technical Questions
- Write a program to convert the given shipping amount in USD to cents and ensure no precision loss. (Math, String Processing)
Tips & Insights
I felt underprepared for the interview, and the pressure of needing a job due to recent layoffs added to my stress. It’s crucial to practice coding under timed conditions to improve performance in interviews.