Updated by Lyft candidates
Software Engineer T3 Interview Experience
The process wasn’t as long as I expected. My onsite was supposed to be four rounds, but they cut it to just two, and one of them was a time-based key value store with delete at a specific timestamp given in the full spec up front.
Interview process
I interviewed for Software Engineer T3, and the biggest thing that stood out was how short the process was. I had a recruiter screen, then a 1-hour technical round, and then an onsite that was originally supposed to be four rounds but got cut down to just two. The technical screens were pretty classic: one medium BFS/DFS-style grid problem similar to Rotting Oranges, then one OOP-flavored time-based key value store with a delete-at-timestamp twist. It felt more streamlined than I expected for a new grad process. I don't have an outcome to share, but process-wise it was a lot leaner than I thought it would be.
- Recruiter screen
- Technical interview
- Final round
Interview tips
I'd prep the basics really well instead of expecting anything super exotic. For me, that meant being ready for a medium graph or grid problem like Rotting Oranges, and also being comfortable with OOP-style data structure questions where they add methods like delete at a specific timestamp. I'd also make sure you can talk cleanly through your resume, projects, and why this company.
Company culture
My impression was that they were trying to move fast. In my case they literally cut the onsite from four rounds to two, so the process felt more flexible and shorter than expected. Even with that, they still checked the main buckets: recruiter fit, standard DS&A, an OOP-leaning coding round, and an EM behavioral. So to me it felt like they were streamlining the loop without really changing what they wanted to evaluate.
Questions asked
Overview
My onsite was supposed to be four rounds, but for my case they cut it down to just two. The first was a laptop round that felt like another LeetCode-style problem, except this one leaned more object-oriented.
Question types asked
Specific questions asked
Implement delete for a specific timestamp.
The question was a variation of the classic time-based key value store. I had to think in an object-oriented way and implement the full spec up front, not just basic set/get. The extra requirement I remember clearly was delete at a specific timestamp, which made it more nuanced than the standard version.
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