I applied to Bloomberg for the Software Engineer New Grad position and received an offer.
Phone Screen:
After a brief resume review, the interviewer was pleasant and friendly, and he quickly moved on to the technical portion of the interview.
- The first question did not require any coding and simply asked you to print unique numbers from a string of numbers. I suggested using a set, and then we got into the details of hashing and how hash tables work.
- The following question required coding, as I had to sort the children of each node in a tree, with each node containing a list of the children. Subtrees had to be carried over as well. Initially, I tried with level order traversal, but then later realized (with the help of hints) I solved it. after this, we moved to the next question.
- This was a Weighted Job Scheduling problem.
- The last few minutes were reserved for my questions, which were mostly about projects. Prepare for this part as well – ask good questions!
Selection Process:
I had four rounds of interviews, technical rounds, coding round, managerial round,s and last, was HR round.
Round 1: (Technical round)
Through video chat, I met with two interviewers. I discussed a project/internship from my resume before diving into coding on hackerrank coding pad.
- There I have given an 1D array of integers, and problem is to find the length of the longest sub-sequence. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/longest-consecutive-subsequence/amp/
- The second question threw me for a loop. The question was based on an array of positive integers. The solution involved iteratively sorting and replacing all the elements with the smallest numbers, but I had trouble getting there. I eventually got there after the interviewer gave me some hints. But I was afraid I’d be rejected because of this question.
- In last few minutes, they asked about me.
Round 2: (Technical coding round)
I met with two interviewers via video chat once more. I discussed a project/internship from my resume before diving into coding on hackerrank coding pad.
- First question was related to Stock span problem.https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/the-stock-span-problem/amp/
- A binary tree is given and I need to check whether it is complete or not. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/check-if-a-given-binary-tree-is-complete-tree-or-not/amp/
- Third question was very easy that I have to rotate the given linked list. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/rotate-a-linked-list/amp/
Round 3: (Managerial round)
I met with a senior manager and spoke for an hour without coding. It was essentially a design interview, but it included something from my resume. I was tested on my technical knowledge and held my own. The round went smoothly. The last few minutes were reserved for my questions.
Round 4: (HR round)
This round was shorter than the others and went by quickly. I was exhausted by this point, had consumed four bottles of water, and hadn’t eaten anything, so even simple questions required some effort on my part. But everything went swimmingly. some questions he asked during the interview are-
- Why we should hire you?
- what you will do for us?
- Is this is your favorite company? or tell about your favorite company to whom you want to go?
- What you are expecting from the company?
- what changes you will do when you are hired?
These questions are tricky and I was given the answer as per the presence of mind. after a few days I got the mail from the company.
Decision: I was contacted within a week and get the offer!
Thoughts:
- All of the interviewers were very nice, and I had a great time.
- Throughout the interview, we must remain focused and provide appropriate responses to the interviewer’s questions.
- Prepare something prior to the interview so that you do not get stuck at any point.