databricks | Software Engineer | Interview Experience
Interview Date: Not specified
Result: Fail
Difficulty: Hard
Interview Process
- Applied in mid-November with an internal push and arranged interviews on the same day.
- Early December: Technical interview covering BFS, tree dynamic programming, and a follow-up on 3D dynamic programming. Passed the interview and was notified the same afternoon.
- Late December: Virtual Onsite (VO) interview.
- System Design: Designed a CRUD schema and API, and discussed an asynchronous job.
- Algorithm: Worked on converting IP to CIDR rules. Did not prepare adequately for this round, completed the coding but went over the interview time.
- Coding: Designed a Tic Tac Toe game.
- Hiring Manager: Interviewed by a Chinese individual, who was very knowledgeable.
- Early January: Received feedback that the algorithm round did not pass, but other feedback was strong. A round of algorithm was rescheduled.
- Mid-January: Redid the algorithm interview focusing on LeetCode problem 438. The interviewer was a Chinese-American with minimal communication, which felt disrespectful. The solution was expected to be O(n). Although the idea was correct, the code was incomplete, leading to a disappointing outcome.
Technical Questions
- Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree
- Algorithm: IP to CIDR rules
- Coding: Design Tic Tac Toe
Tips & Insights
- Overall experience with the technical and hiring manager interviews was decent, but the last interviewer was not engaging.
- The recruiter had a lukewarm attitude throughout the process.