Senior interview experiences
Real accounts of senior interviews: how candidates got the interview, how they prepared, what each round asked and how it went.
- OpenAISenior · Software Engineer
OpenAI Senior Engineer in San Francisco: Decode String, a GitHub Actions system design and Stream Parsing and Sliding Windows
Decode String live, design GitHub Actions (queue fairness, noisy neighbours), then two coding rounds + behavioural. Accepted. Grind and you can do it.
Published
- MonzoSenior · Backend Engineer
Monzo SE III in London: CV deep dive, a Java web crawler take-home and a top N songs system design
CV deep dive, web crawler take-home in Java with a review call, then a top-N songs design at Spotify scale. Have your Redis answer ready.
By Nora NguyenPublished
- BarclaysSenior · Backend Engineer
Barclays Software Engineer in Prague: a Number of Islands style graph problem, SQL, OOP and multithreading questions, then a leadership round
Three rounds in Prague. Number of Islands variant, SQL joins/indexes/partitions, OOP and multithreading questions, then leadership behavioural.
Published
- MillenniumSenior · Software Engineer
Millennium Junior Engineer: Merge Intervals OA, concurrency LLD and a Distributed Cache design
Straightforward month-long loop. Merge Intervals OA, then concurrency LLD, distributed cache design and behavioural. Took a different offer.
Published
- AndurilSenior · Software Engineer
Anduril Engineer via referral: Group Anagrams, Basic Calculator and a drone test data ingestion design on Excalidraw
Referral loop. Group Anagrams, then a 4-part onsite with Basic Calculator and a drone data ingestion design. Why Anduril comes up every round.
Published
- StripeSenior · Fullstack Engineer
Stripe Senior Fullstack in NYC: notification system LLD, a three-part REST API and map task, debugging and a React filter
Fullstack loop in NYC: notification system LLD, a 3-part REST API + map task, a debugging round, a React exercise, then hiring manager. Offer.
Published
- AirbnbSenior · Software Engineer
Airbnb Senior Engineer: recruiter call, CoderPad binary search, LLD and HLD loop
Recruiter, one CoderPad round, then a 3-interview loop. Know their core values inside out, they come up in every round. Accepted.
By Daniel KhanPublished
- RevolutSenior · Backend Engineer
Revolut Senior Engineer: SQL and DSA OA, TDD ledger round, Digital Wallet design
Five stages, 2 months because I spaced them out. SQL in the OA surprised me, TDD in the live round. Offer, but I took another one.
By Marcus ClarkPublished
- CiscoSenior · Software Engineer
Cisco Senior Software Engineer in Oranmore: conversational theory round, Number of Islands in Java, whiteboard design and IntelliJ debugging
Three rounds in Oranmore. Mostly conversational: OOP, patterns, SQL theory, Number of Islands in Java, then a whiteboard of my own system.
By Daniel KhanPublished
- DisneySenior · Software Engineer
Disney Senior Engineer in Los Angeles: phone screen, a graph BFS coding round and a data pipeline system design on Excalidraw
Phone screen, a tech screen mixing resume questions with a BFS problem, then a 40 minute data pipeline design on Excalidraw. Nice loop.
By Marcus ClarkPublished