Electronic Arts Associate Software Engineer Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Apr 2008 in Burnaby, BC (Canada) (took 2 weeks)

I landed the phone interview at the Massive Technology Show in Vancouver, BC. It was not a recruiting event but I decided to try my luck there, as I wasn't getting many interviews as a new grad. I approached a few booths but EA was about the only booth that was nice enough to talk to someone who was seeking a job. The phone interview was scheduled about a week after the event. It was an HR interview consisted of mostly questions regarding to educational backgrounds and work experiences. The HR personel also asked a couple "technical" questions that required a definitive answer. The questions were along the lines of "What is the big O for quick sort?", "What is a friend class?" After the phone interview, I had the impression that they needed people very urgently because we skipped through the usual technical phone interview and he scheduled a in-person interview for me right away.

The in-person interview was held about a week after the initial phone screen. It lasted for about 2.5 hours. I had two interviewers in the first hours and they drilled me on the usual technical stuff, algorithm and general knowledge-based questions. That was the only technical interviews that I had and honestly those quesions were very easy because any relatively complex question would require at least an hour to solve and I was asked a dozen quesions during that one hour.

The second hour was an interview with the hiring manager and he asked mostly about behavioral questions. I spoke mostly the truth about myself and BS'ed a bit here and there and told him what he wanted to hear. The questions were like "how do you handle conflicts with your co-worker/professor/fellow student?" and "tell me about your strengths". EA was a gaming company and big on sports games, so I tried very hard to tell him throughout the interview how big of a gaming/sports fan I was. I truly liked gaming and sports so I was very excited and talked very passionately about the games that I enjoyed and I think the manager really liked that.

The last part of the interview was with a recruiter who was basically asking me what my expectation of salary was. When he asked me that question, I thought I already had the job but later found out it was just a normal practice for EAC recruiters to ask that question. I didn't get a tour of the company like a couple of my friends from college did so I thought I done failed. I found out later that the tour doesn't mean anything because I've had friends that had the tour and didn't get the job. EAC had one of the most impressive campus I've ever seen (I now work at Redmond and it's not nearly as nice as EAC in terms of facilities and decorations). EAC had a lot of designer furnitures and stuff.

After the interview, I emailed and thanked the first recruiter whom I got the initial phone screen from. And from him, I found out that my interview results were very positive. He told me to expect a call the following Monday.

And I got the job!