62 questions · from 21 interviews · 3 asked more than once
Bloomberg interview questions
Every question candidates reported from their Bloomberg interviews, most frequently asked first. Each links to the write-up it came from, so you can see the round and how it went.
Bloomberg coding and DSA questions
- 01
Validate Binary Search Tree
Validate a given Binary Search Tree (BST).
Medium · Asked 2 times · From Bloomberg SSE screen round
- 02
Insert Delete GetRandom O(1)
Design a lottery system that supports adding a participant, removing a participant, and getting a random participant, all in O(1) time complexity.
Asked 2 times · From Bloomberg | Interview Experience | Senior Software Engineer - 4+ YOE | NYC | Nov 2025
- 03
Design Underground System
Implement the UndergroundSystem class. It supports three methods: checkIn , checkOut , and getAverageTime . The system tracks customer travel times between stations.
Medium · Asked 2 times · From Bloomberg | Summer Internship 2021
- 04
Word Break II
Given a string s and a dictionary of words wordDict, return all possible sentences where s is segmented into a space‑separated sequence of one or more dictionary words. Example: Input: s = "catsanddog", wordDict = ["cat","cats","and","sand","dog"] Output:…
Hard · From Bloomberg SSE Screening
- 05
- 06
Longest Palindromic Substring
Longest Palindromic Substring
- 07
Variation of Design Underground System
Variation of Design Underground System
- 08
Connect 4 Game Implementation
Implement a fully functional Connect 4 game during the screening round. This includes handling board representation, player moves, win detection, and draw conditions.
- 09
Snake Xenzia Game Implementation
Implement the Snake Xenzia game focusing on clean OOP design, modular code structure, proper handling of game states, edge cases like collision detection, food generation, snake movement logic, and extensibility.
- 10
Merge Two Sorted Arrays
Given two sorted arrays, merge them into a single sorted parent array. Use a two‑pointer approach starting from the right side, filling the parent array based on the values from the two arrays. The candidate implemented the solution in about 5 minutes and…
- 11
Detect Fraudulent Transactions
Given a list of transaction records record(String accountHolderName, int amount, String location, LocalTime timeStamp), a transaction is fraudulent if: 1. The same account is debited within 60 minutes at two different locations, or 2. The amount exceeds…
- 12
Currency Converter
Given a list of currency pairs with conversion rates, e.g., [ ["USD","JPY",rate], ["JPY","RUB",rate], ["USD","INR",rate] ], return the conversion rate from a source currency to a target currency (e.g., JPY → INR). This is modeled as a graph where currencies…
- 13
Find Words with Matching Prefix using Trie
Given a dictionary of words, find all words having a matching prefix. You need to implement a Trie (prefix tree) to store the dictionary and provide a method to query words based on a given prefix.
Medium · From Bloomberg SSE screen round
- 14
Rotten Oranges
You are given an m x n grid where each cell can have one of three values: 0 representing an empty cell, 1 representing a fresh orange, or 2 representing a rotten orange. Every minute, any fresh orange that is 4-directionally adjacent to a rotten orange…
Medium · From Bloomberg Interview SSE - Bquant | SF | 2026 | Reject
- 15
CLI Tool for Word Search
I was given some data and asked to build a CLI tool to search for words within the data. Requirements: Index the data and store it in memory using a map. For a given input query, return: The rows where the word appears The row numbers The number of…
- 16
Binary Trees and BSTs: Explanation and Use Cases
An explanation of Binary Trees and Binary Search Trees (BSTs), along with real-world use cases of BSTs.
From Bloomberg - Pune (India) | SSE | Interview R1 | Techincal Screening | 24th Dec 2025
- 17
AVL Trees and Red-Black Trees
A discussion on self-balancing trees, specifically AVL Trees and Red-Black Trees.
From Bloomberg - Pune (India) | SSE | Interview R1 | Techincal Screening | 24th Dec 2025
- 18
Metro Routes (Bus Routes variation)
A DSA problem, conceptually similar to the “Bus Routes” problem reframed as Metro Routes. The problem involved graph traversal and finding whether or not I can reach a destination station from a starting station.
From Bloomberg - Pune (India) | SSE | Interview R1 | Techincal Screening | 24th Dec 2025
- 19
Candy Crush Variation
The problem was a variation of the Candy Crush game mechanics, where the task involved removing and collapsing characters in a sequence similar to the game. The exact details were not recalled, but the core challenge revolved around efficiently handling the…
Hard · From Bloomberg | Senior Software Engineer | Pune | Rejected
- 20
Implement Simplified Grep
Implement a simplified version of grep that finds lines in a file containing a specific substring, with consideration for flag extensibility. The core of this question wasn’t about a complex algorithm, but rather demonstrating the ability to write clean,…
Medium · From Bloomberg SDE interview experience
- 21
Friend Requests by Age Rules
Given an array of ages, compute the total number of friend requests that satisfy specific age rules. For each pair of ages (A, B), a friend request is valid if B is in the range (0.5 × A + 7, A] and A ≥ B . When computing the number of valid requests, if A…
Medium · From Bloomberg SDE interview experience
- 22
Graph BFS with Level Frequency Count
I was given a graph and needed to implement a variation of a Breadth-First Search (BFS) algorithm. The core task was to compute the frequency of nodes at a specific level within the graph, where the target level was provided as an input.
From Bloomberg | Interview Experience | Senior Software Engineer | NYC | Nov 2025
- 23
Gas Station / Oasis / Car Path Problem
A problem often referred to as 'Gas Station', 'Oasis', or 'Car Path Problem'.
From Bloomberg | Interview Experience | Senior Software Engineer - 4+ YOE | NYC | Nov 2025
- 24
Sum of Two Integers with Restrictions
Similar to the 'Sum of Two Integers' problem but with additional restrictions. I was explicitly told not to use the addition operator, loops, or bitwise logic. The interviewer guided me to use recursion, modulo, and integer division.
From Bloomberg | Interview Experience | Senior Software Engineer - 4+ YOE | NYC | Nov 2025
- 25
Analyze Array.prototype.forEach Polyfill
The interviewer provided a polyfill for Array.prototype.forEach and asked to explain its functionality. The code includes checks for null this, converting to an object, and iterating through the array with a callback. It uses bitwise operations to get the…
15 more in the Bloomberg write-ups.
Bloomberg system design questions
- 01
Real-time Market Data System Design
Design a real-time market data system where multiple exchanges (NASDAQ, NIFTY, SP500) send data to loaders, which distribute multiple UDP copies of each message to several processors. Each processor must receive data from all loaders, handle UDP issues like…
- 02
Design Stock Exchange System
Design a stock exchange system covering aspects such as order matching engine, trade execution, latency considerations, scalability, and handling multiple users concurrently.
- 03
Database Backup Job Manager Service
Design a service that manages backup jobs for database instances across different clusters. Required APIs: - Get due jobs for running - Update job status after completion - Register a new database to backup Enhancements include verifying successful backups,…
- 04
Token Ring Implementation (OOD)
You are given two classes 'RingManager' and 'RingElement' . You need to implement a ring of elements where: Only one element holds the "token" at any time The first created element starts with the token Calling release() passes the token to the next element…
Medium · From Bloomberg Senior engineer phone screen(NYC)- Token ring implementation
- 05
Design a News Feed Application
I was asked to design a news feed application with the following requirements: News feeds arriving every few minutes Search functionality with results returned within 3000 ms Filtering and subscription features
- 06
Design a Ride-Sharing Service
The system design question required creating a high-level architecture for a ride-sharing service similar to Uber or Lyft. The focus was on the overall structure, including components like driver matching, location updates, and the database schema.
- 07
System Design: Hello Interview Problem
A system design question, specifically stated to be from the 'Hello Interview system design' platform. The focus during the discussion was on quickly moving to the core design principles, selecting an appropriate tech stack, and addressing potential scaling…
From Bloomberg | Interview Experience | Senior Software Engineer | NYC | Nov 2025
- 08
Design a Web Application for Financial Information
Design a web application capable of supporting user onboarding, password reset, requesting company information, and IT help requests. The system requires independent deployments. It's critical to ensure all requests are authenticated and validated, especially…
From Bloomberg | Interview Experience | Senior Software Engineer - 4+ YOE | NYC | Nov 2025
- 09
Design a Stock Broker App (Robinhood-like)
Design a stock broker application similar to Robinhood. Discussed handling order placement based on customer account balance. The interview prompted immediate design discussion without prior entity or API definition.
- 10
Real-time Stock Price Feed System Design
Design a system that allows users to look at a real-time stock price feed for a specific stock, view the history of prices for that stock and more.
Hard · From Bloomberg | Intern SWE | London [Offered]
- 11
Design LRU Cache
Design and implement a Least Recently Used (LRU) cache. It should support get and put operations. The get(key) method should retrieve the value of the key if it exists, otherwise return -1. The put(key, value) method should insert or update the value. If the…
- 12
Stock Ticking
I was asked a stock ticking problem, which is conceptually similar to designing a leaderboard. It involves processing real-time stock price updates and maintaining some form of aggregate data or ranking, potentially requiring efficient updates and queries.
- 13
Design an E-commerce Website
Design the architecture for an e-commerce website.
Bloomberg behavioural and HR questions
- 01
Most Difficult Production Issue
Tell me about the most difficult production issue you faced and how you solved it.
- 02
Behavioral Questions
The round consisted of standard behavioral questions. The interviewers were not looking for perfectly worded answers but rather for indicators of self-drive and ownership from the candidate.
- 03
Behavioral Interview Questions (HR)
Asked about my ambitions, why I want to work at Bloomberg, how I approach working alone and with a team, and more. Completely avoided technical questions but drew from my CV. A lot of discussion relating to Bloomberg's values and philanthropic efforts was…
- 04
Behavioral & Technical Background Questions (Manager)
This was similar to the HR Interview, they asked about my background and experience, delving deeper into the technical elements, and my interests into software engineering specifically as a career path.
- 05
Why Bloomberg?
Explain your motivations for wanting to work at Bloomberg.
Bloomberg other questions
- 01
Java vs C++ Comparison
A comparison between Java and C++.
From Bloomberg - Pune (India) | SSE | Interview R1 | Techincal Screening | 24th Dec 2025
- 02
Low-Level Design for Library Checkout System
The task was to perform a Low-Level Design (LLD) for a library checkout system. This included designing the database schema and writing appropriate SQL queries to manage operations like checking out books, returning them, and tracking availability.
From Bloomberg | Interview Experience | Senior Software Engineer | NYC | Nov 2025
- 03
Static Variables in C++
Explain what static variables are in C++ and discuss their typical use cases.
- 04
Virtual Functions and Runtime Polymorphism
Explain in detail what virtual functions are in C++ and why they are used. Discuss their role in achieving runtime polymorphism.
Bloomberg interview questions FAQ
What questions are asked in Bloomberg interviews?
Candidates reported 62 distinct questions across 21 Bloomberg interviews. 40 coding and DSA questions, 13 system design questions, 5 behavioural and HR questions, 4 other questions.
Which Bloomberg interview questions are asked most often?
The most repeated are "Validate Binary Search Tree" (2 times), "Insert Delete GetRandom O(1)" (2 times), "Design Underground System" (2 times).
How difficult are Bloomberg interview questions?
Of the questions candidates rated, 6% were easy, 72% medium and 22% hard.