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Real Interview Experiences

Learn what to expect directly from candidates and interviewers who've been through it.

Updated 14 hours ago
Salesforce
Software Engineer
Salesforce·Posted 3 months ago · Feb 2025

This was my first interview ever, and I was nervous. However, the introduction went really well and caught the interviewer’s attention. At the start, I mentioned that my areas of interest were "geopolitics" and "music production". Since many people these days enjoy discussing geopolitics, he followed up by saying he was interested in it too and asked me about recent events I knew about. For the first 10 minutes, we talked about geopolitics, and It was a memorable first 10 minutes in my very first interview. Then we got back to him asking me technical questions. I think i had a good first impression. He first stated with asking general programming questions, about Object oriented programming, Polymorphism. I was good here. Then we got on topic of Database. Here i fumbled big time. First question "what is database?" My nerves answer: a place where we store data. I felt it me fumbling, i was nerves and never practice about database, SQL for this interview. Then here we go another fumble, He asked "What are operators in SQL?" I brain-fogged and said am not aware of this answer, i knew but in moment i did not understand the meaning of "operators", they he clarifies saying addition, subtraction. And it clicked in my mind, but still my answer was in 2 lines: "Plus, minus, subtraction, division, Arithmetic, Logical, Comparison" thats it. I should have expanded on it and explained in little more detail. I think i did this because it was my first interview and in my mind going through was i fumbled very bad and am not gonna be selected i lost my all hopes in between the interview. till now its been in total 20-25 minutes, we switched to last part which was coding part. He said he asked this question to last guy and he did not able to answer this question. I was confident on my problem solving and coding skills, but yeh as you could tell by now i suck at communication. The coding question was: "Given a array on integers return a frequency of each element". I though this is pretty easy and first explain him my first approach to problem, start implementing, code ran and passed on first run. Explain him what approach i used and why everything in detail, with time and space complexities. So the two best parts were long intro and last coding problem. I also asked him at the end what I could improve on, and he mentioned my theoretical knowledge. He explained that interviewers don’t expect you to recite textbook definitions word‑for‑word, but they do expect you to understand and be able to talk about the main ideas or high‑level concepts behind each topic. I somewhere knew that am not getting selected, and i was right.

2 rounds
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Mastercard
Software Engineer
Mastercard·Posted 3 months ago · Jan 2025

The interview process was fairly structured, starting with an initial screening followed by technical and/or managerial rounds. What went well was the clarity of questions and the opportunity to explain my thought process. One area that could have been better was the time allocated for certain discussions, which felt slightly rushed.

4 rounds9 questions
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Okta
Software Engineer
Okta·Posted 1 week ago · Dec 2024

I enjoyed the whole process and transparency throughout. Though it's a bit dated, I'm sure the general premise is still the same. Recruiter phone screen Online coding assessment 45 mins tech interview Onsite with 3 technical interviews and 2 behavioural (1 of my tech was cancelled) Communication was always clear and it took a bit longer since it was over the Christmas break. Got offer shortly after the final and accepted, super glad!

4 rounds5 questions
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Meta
Software Engineer
Meta·Posted 4 weeks ago · Dec 2024

Leetcode was doable based on the LC premium curated list, questions were similar. Culture round required thorough prep of examples for similar questions

3 rounds3 questions
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Intuit
Software Engineer
Intuit·Posted 2 months ago · Dec 2024

Pretty easy leetcode. The final round is just a few hours to implement an app. Not too difficult if you are comfortable creating an app.

3 rounds2 questions
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Expedia
Software Engineer
Expedia·Posted 4 weeks ago · Oct 2024

The recruiter screen was very basic, about experience and expectations. The coding part had two problems, one LC easy and another LC medium but also on the easier side. The system design is very similar to what you find on the first few problems on youtube.

2 rounds3 questions
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Meta
Software Engineer
Meta·Posted 2 months ago · Oct 2024

My interview process started with a CodeSignal GCF online assessment that had four sections with increasing difficulty. The earlier sections were more straightforward and focused on implementation speed and correctness, while the later sections required more problem-solving depth and handling more complex constraints under time pressure. After that, I had a technical interview consisting of two LeetCode-style medium questions in a 45-minute session. The focus was on both arriving at efficient solutions and clearly communicating my thought process while working through each problem. What went well was my ability to understand the problems quickly and stay consistent across different difficulty levels. What didn’t go as well was pacing, especially in balancing correctness and optimization within the time limits.

2 rounds1 question
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T
Software Engineer
Temenos·Posted 2 months ago · Oct 2024

> My interview process with Temenos consisted of multiple rounds, including discussions on Core Java, Spring Boot, microservices, system design, databases, and my previous experience in banking and enterprise software projects. The interviewers were knowledgeable and focused on understanding both technical depth and problem-solving approach. What went well was the detailed discussion around real-world projects, architecture decisions, and domain experience. One challenging aspect was the depth of some technical and design questions, which required a strong understanding of system architecture and trade-offs. Overall, the process was professional, structured, and relevant to the role.

3 rounds4 questions
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Oracle
Software Engineer
Oracle·Posted 2 months ago · Oct 2024

Here's a short version suitable for Exponent: > The Oracle interview process consisted of a recruiter screening, two technical rounds, a system design discussion, and a managerial round. The technical interviews focused on Java, data structures, microservices, databases, and problem-solving. The system design round evaluated scalability, API design, and architectural trade-offs. Interviewers were professional and focused heavily on real-world experience and project discussions. Overall, the process was structured, challenging, and relevant to enterprise software development.

3 rounds4 questions
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S
Backend Engineer
Shure·Posted 3 months ago · Oct 2024

It went good. Recruiter was polite and informative. Technical interviewers were helpful and engaging.

3 rounds3 questions
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