LinkedIn| Software Engineer
Summary
I applied for a Software Engineer role at LinkedIn and underwent a 6-round interview process including DSA, technical communication, system design, and hiring manager discussions. The experience was generally positive with new learnings, despite some challenges in system design, and I am currently awaiting the result of the 15-day process.
Full Experience
Application - applied on linkedin itself, post which recruiter reached out.
Total Rounds - 6
Phone screen
Two DSA question
1. Similar to https://leetcode.com/problems/bulb-switcher.
2. https://leetcode.com/problems/shortest-word-distance-ii.
Gave optimal answer for both , questions on resume. Got result on the same day for moving to onsite.
Round 1 - DSA
1. Question related to turning tree upside down with 0 /1 right child.
2. Question similar to number of island.
Solved both optimally, interviewed tried to confuse with an non existing case, got a little confuse but then cleared it with interviewer they were satisfied.
Round 2 -DSA
1. max consecutive one , similar to this with wrap around follow up
2. falling leaves question https://leetcode.com/problems/find-leaves-of-binary-tree/
Solved both optimally along with time complexity discussion, interviewer was satisfied.
Technical Communication - was asked to explain a project we did and went into details along with follow ups and trade off discussion, most interesting and had a good discussion.
System Design - Design Calendar, discussed mainly about API, also asked SQL query (I wasnt prepared for this hence it took some time to figure out), API discussion and DB Schema design took sometime couldn’t discuss HLD much.
Hiring Manager - This round was interesting and had a nice discussions around the probleam faced during work, some behavioral questions, discussed details around different databases and its usecase, HM also gave me a problem to just figure out how would I approach to it, I didn’t have to do all things on my own and can ask for help, such as which all team will you reach out , how to structuure approaches doing POCs, and other usual behavioural questions.
Recruiter was super responsive and replied quickly on any doubts, the experience was quite good with new learnings. All the best whoever is appearing for interviews, just giving back to the community.
Except System Design everything was really good, system design I could have done better. Overall process took around 15 days.
Result Awaiting
Interview Questions (9)
A Data Structures & Algorithms question involving turning a binary tree upside down, specifically with conditions related to 0/1 right children.
A Data Structures & Algorithms question similar to the 'Number of Islands' problem.
A Data Structures & Algorithms question similar to 'Max Consecutive Ones' with a follow-up involving wrap-around.
I was asked to explain a project I had worked on, including details, follow-up questions, and discussions around trade-offs.
I was asked to design a calendar system, focusing on API design, SQL queries (which I found challenging), and DB schema design. I couldn't discuss High-Level Design much.
The Hiring Manager presented a problem and asked how I would approach it, including which teams I would reach out to, how to structure approaches, and conducting PoCs, emphasizing that I didn't have to solve everything alone.