Navigating a Challenging Onsite Interview at Hims & Hers for Machine Learning Role

Software Engineering
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Anthropic | Machine Learning Engineer | Interview Experience

Interview Date: Not specified
Result: Not specified
Difficulty: Not specified

Interview Process

The interview process included an online assessment (OA) that focused on implementing a Python class with various methods to handle lists, dictionaries, and sets. The assessment was structured to simulate a typical coding challenge found on platforms like LeetCode.

Technical Questions

  • Create a Python class that implements the following methods:
    • add_item(item): Adds an item to the set.
    • remove_item(item): Removes an item from the set if it exists.
    • sort_items(): Returns a list of all items in sorted order.
    • hash_items(): Returns a dictionary with items as keys and their hash values as values.
    • binary_search(item): Returns the index of the item in the sorted list using binary search, or -1 if not found.

Example Test Cases

    • add_item(2)
    • add_item(3)
    • add_item(1)
    • sort_items() → [1, 2, 3]
    • hash_items() → {1: hash(1), 2: hash(2), 3: hash(3)}
    • binary_search(2) → 1
    • remove_item(3)
    • sort_items() → [1, 2]
    • add_item(10)
    • add_item(5)
    • sort_items() → [5, 10]
    • binary_search(10) → 1
    • remove_item(5)
    • sort_items() → [10]
    • remove_item(7) # No change
    • add_item(5)
    • add_item(5)
    • sort_items() → [5]
    • binary_search(1) → -1
    • hash_items() → {5: hash(5)}

Tips & Insights

Practice implementing data structures and algorithms in Python, focusing on common operations like sorting, hashing, and searching. Familiarity with LeetCode-style problems will be beneficial for similar assessments.