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Summary
I recently interviewed at Bloomberg for a Senior Software Engineer role in NYC. After successfully passing phone screens for three teams, I advanced to an onsite interview for one specific team. Unfortunately, despite a good experience, I did not receive an offer.
Full Experience
My interview journey with Bloomberg for a Senior Software Engineer position began with outreach from a recruiter. I was initially screened for three different teams, ultimately advancing to an onsite interview for one of them, though it did not culminate in an offer.
Phone Screen (3 teams)
Each phone screen followed a consistent format: 15-20 minutes dedicated to resume questions, followed by 20-25 minutes for a single coding question, and finally, 5-10 minutes for any remaining questions. The coding questions across all teams were drawn from older posts featuring Bloomberg-related problems found on LeetCode and their variations.
Virtual Onsite (1 team)
The virtual onsite interview consisted of two main parts: a coding round and a system design round. I understood that clearing these would lead to subsequent interviews with a Director, Engineering Manager, and HR.
Round 1: Coding + Resume
This round started with approximately 25 minutes of resume-based questions, which left limited time for the coding problems. I was asked two distinct coding questions:
- A variation of a graph BFS problem combined with frequency counting. I needed to determine the frequency count for nodes at a specific level, given the input.
- A Low-Level Design (LLD) problem focusing on a library checkout system, which also required writing relevant SQL queries.
Round 2: System Design + Scaling Experience
Similar to the coding round, the system design portion began with about 25 minutes of questions about my resume and experience with system scaling. The core system design question was based on a problem from the "Hello Interview system design" platform. Due to time constraints, it was crucial to move quickly, skipping straight to the core design, discussing tech stack choices, and addressing potential scaling issues.
Regrettably, I did not progress to the subsequent interview rounds.
Overall, I found it to be a great experience, and all the engineers I interacted with were very nice and experienced. I hope sharing this helps others in their preparation.
Interview Questions (3)
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.
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.
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 challenges.