Summary
I recently interviewed with Gemini, undergoing a structured process including a coding round, system design, pair programming, product sense, and behavioral interviews. Despite positive feedback from interviewers in several technical rounds, I was ultimately rejected, which has left me confused given my perceived strong performance.
Full Experience
My interview process with Gemini involved five distinct rounds.
The first round was an HM Call, which started with a brief discussion about my past projects. This was followed by a coding challenge where the requirement was to produce a perfect solution on the first run. The question involved expanding a compressed string, like transforming 'a3b1' into 'aaab'. I successfully implemented the solution in one go and cleared this elimination round.
Next was the System Design Round. I was tasked with designing a crypto dashboard. The interviewer, who was a Frontend Engineer, focused primarily on API and database design, stopping me before I could delve into High-Level Design. I presented my API and DB designs, and for bonus requirements, I leveraged Redis Sorted Sets. The interviewer seemed pleased with my approach, although I noted their unfamiliarity with terms like 'Skip List'.
The third round was a Pair Programming session. I received a coding question along with a skeleton code: 'Given exchange rates, convert given currency to USD'. I solved the problem, but manual verification by the interviewer revealed inconsistencies with decimal places in the test cases. My answers were numerically correct, but outputs like '10000.0' instead of '10000', or '12.4521000' for an expected '12.45', caused issues, despite integer inputs.
The fourth round, Product Sense, involved discussing my past projects and how I navigated complex situations. This was followed by a standard Behavioral Round, where I answered 'Tell me about a time...' questions honestly and addressed all follow-up inquiries.
Despite feeling positive about my performance in the technical rounds, especially given the interviewers' satisfaction, I received a call from HR stating that my technical rounds were not up to par. I'm still trying to understand what went wrong, particularly as the system design interviewer seemed content with my solution, and the coding challenge's issues were primarily related to decimal formatting rather than logical correctness.
Interview Questions (3)
Given a compressed string like 'a3b1', expand it to its uncompressed form, such as 'aaab'. The requirement was to solve it perfectly on the first run, meaning no errors or wrong answers upon hitting the 'Run' button.
I was asked to design a crypto dashboard. The interviewer was primarily interested in the API design and database schema, and he stopped me before I could proceed to a High-Level Design. I was also asked to consider bonus requirements.
Given a set of exchange rates, I was tasked with converting a given currency amount to USD. The problem provided a skeleton code, and the challenge involved handling decimal precision for test cases.