Oracle | IC-2 | Redwood Shores | Oct-Nov 2020 [Offer]

I was reached out to by a Senior Recruiter on LinkedIn, who found me through the Grace Hopper Celebration Spotlight. They asked me to apply to open positions in multiple different organizations and later requested my top 2 preferences for scheduling interviews.

Phone screen (30 minutes)

• Behavioral questions were asked.
• I also answered questions regarding the technical skills I possessed.

Round 1 - OAD - Technical (1 hour)

In this round, I was asked to write a program that takes as input a set of dictionary words and fits them all in a matrix of a given size, such that all the words in the matrix are readable. I was quite confused about this one and had a lot of back and forth with the interviewer to understand the exact requirements. I could not come up with a fully functional solution in the given time and honestly thought I had totally bombed this round.

Round 1 - OAC - Technical (1 hour)

• I solved the Single Number problem.
• I also worked on the Reverse Linked List problem.
• The interviewer asked about projects I've worked on and what my work entailed.

After about a week, I reached out to the recruiter and learned that both organizations wanted to move me forward to the final round interviews!

Final Round - OAC - 3 interviews, 1 hour each (back-to-back)

First interview

• I was given 2 aptitude questions.
• There were a few SQL related questions.
• One question was based on Hashmaps.
• We also discussed my past projects.

Second interview

• I solved the Add Two Numbers problem.
• I also tackled the Moving Average from Data Stream problem.
• Again, there were questions about my past projects.

Third interview

• I answered basic questions about Machine Learning, given that I was a TA for an ML class.
• I was asked to implement a linked list which is always sorted (meaning, add elements in the correct order and return the newly created node).
• We concluded with more questions about my past projects.

Final Round - OAD - 3 interviews, 1 hour each (back-to-back)

First interview

• This interview mainly focused on questions about my past projects.

Second interview

• I solved the Rotate Array problem.
• I was also challenged to design an instant messaging application, similar to WhatsApp.
• We discussed my past projects.

Third interview

• I was asked to design a file system.
• The interview concluded with questions about my past projects.

The system design questions caught me a little off guard, as I wasn't expecting them for a new grad role based on other people's reviews.

A week later, I reached out to the recruiter, and she asked me to rank which teams I would like to receive an offer from. I responded with my ranking, followed up after two days, and was verbally extended an offer from my first preference team. I received the official offer letter three days later.