Interview experince | PeopleStrong | SDE2/1
Summary
I interviewed for an SDE2/1 position at PeopleStrong, facing rounds on DSA, SQL, and core concepts. Despite my performance, I never received feedback from HR after multiple follow-ups, indicating a lack of offer.
Full Experience
My interview experience at PeopleStrong for an SDE2/1 role started with a single round. I have 3 years of experience.
The round began with a Data Structures and Algorithms section. The problem presented was to implement Binary Search to find a key element or, failing that, the immediate greater element. Initially, the problem statement felt a bit confusing. It sounded like they might want key or key+1, but it was later clarified that the goal was to return the immediate greater element. If neither was found, I was supposed to return -1. I adjusted my solution accordingly, and the interviewer seemed satisfied with my approach.
Next, there was a SQL section where I was asked to design Employee and Company entities. Following the design, I had to write a query to find the maximum salary in the Employee table associated with a specific company.
Finally, we discussed core concepts, specifically Kafka and Multithreading.
The interviewer was polite and very helpful throughout the process, which made the experience positive despite the initial ambiguity in the DSA problem. However, after the interview, I never received any feedback from HR, despite my persistent follow-ups with calls that went unanswered. This indicated to me that I likely did not receive an offer.
Interview Questions (2)
Implement binary search to find a key element or, if not found, the immediate greater element in a sorted array. If neither is found, return -1.
Design SQL entities for Employee and Company. Then, write a SQL query to retrieve the maximum salary from the Employee table, linked to a specific company.