Uber SDE1 Experience
Summary
I interviewed for an SDE1 role at Uber, successfully solving two problems fully and one partially, but ultimately did not receive an offer as Uber emphasized 'coding profile strength' and encouraged me to reapply.
Full Experience
I recently had my interview for the SDE1 role at Uber. The interview consisted of three challenging problems, primarily focusing on graph algorithms and array manipulations. I managed to solve two of them completely and the third one partially, achieving a score of 14/15. Despite my performance, Uber shared feedback emphasizing the importance of 'coding profile strength' and encouraged me to reapply for future roles.
Although I didn't receive an offer this time, I consider this a valuable learning experience, particularly in handling complex graph edge cases. The hiring for my specific role later closed, but I received positive feedback and encouragement from the Uber team to reapply.
Interview Questions (3)
You are given a weighted undirected graph with n nodes and m edges. Each node i has a time limit t[i] (or -1 if unlimited).
You start at node 1 with time 0. You can only visit a node if the current time is strictly less than its time limit.
Find the minimum time to reach every node, or -1 if it’s unreachable.
You are given n bacteria samples arranged in a row. Some pairs (a, b) are allergic/poisonous and cannot appear in the same subarray.
Count the number of valid subarrays.
Preparation Tips
My preparation mainly revolved around practicing various LeetCode problems, with a specific emphasis on graph algorithms, which proved very helpful given the interview questions. I also utilized tools like GPT to structure my explanations and improve the clarity of my solutions during my post-interview reflection, though all core coding solutions presented were my own.