AI Engineer | LinkedIn | Virtual Onsite | Rejected

My interview process with LinkedIn started with a phone screen that covered both ML theory and light coding. I explained the attention mechanism and implemented an infinite data stream mean calculator using an incremental formula to avoid overflow.

For the AI coding round, I used an AI-assisted IDE to implement an LRU Cache data structure. I generated a Doubly Linked List with a HashMap, but the interviewer kept adding features, leading to over-engineering. I wasn't sure what was being evaluated in this round.

In the data structures and algorithms round, I discussed previous projects and validated a Binary Search Tree. I provided two solutions: an in-order traversal for O(N) time and a recursive approach for space optimization.

The ML fundamentals round focused on retrieval/ranking theory, imbalanced data, and model explainability. I demonstrated strong theoretical understanding, which the interviewer praised.

The system design round was challenging. I designed a Two-Tower Architecture for a Second Pass Ranker, but I made a critical mistake by using it for ranking instead of retrieval. I also incorrectly used softmax for a multi-label scenario, which should have been multi-label sigmoid heads.

Finally, the hiring manager round focused on product vision, behavioral questions, and my resume. While they complimented my diverse experience, they felt I needed to focus more on product-facing teams.