I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Bloomberg (New York, NY) in Jan 2025
Interview
- 30 min Phone screening (regular talk for expectations and introduction)
- 1 hour Code screening (coding task with incrementing requirements)
- 2 hours Coding Session (1 hour for 2 puzzles, 1 hour for System Design)
- 2 hours HR / Lead Interview (Behavioral / Coding)
- CTO / CEO / Head of Department
Interview questions [4]
Question 1
Simulate stream to output result in correct sequence, provide solution to avoid memory leaking.
Input seqeuence is 1, 2, 4, 5, 3, 6
Output seqeuence is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ,6
Efficient way to store data with conditions
- store all data elements without duplications (latest one replaces firtss one duplication)
- avoid memory leaking
- all operations in O(1) time complexity
First round was with HR, who were helpful and transparent around details including process, salary range and job expectations. Had a second-round technical screen for one hour. Started with questions around experience followed by a coding problem. I found it challenging but the interviewers were polite, helpful and fair. Unfortunately did not make it through to the virtual onsite, but the process was fair and appropriate to the role.
Terrible communication. Got passed between 3 different recruiters all of whom gave specific dates for updates and blew past them. Descriptions of what would be covered in the interviews are wholly inaccurate (don’t bother reading the PDF they sent to “prep” you, almost none of it came up in any of the 3 interviews I did with them.)
Interviewers themselves were decent but clearly had exact “right” answers they were looking for. What’s the point of a leetcode question where there’s only one way to implement it? What’s the point of a system design interview where you’re having a candidate parse through a complex system that they clearly already know everything about and are just looking for 1-2 EXACT modifications to check off their boxes? Was there even a right answer? I genuinely don’t know what this company was looking for. Waste of time, waste of effort, waste of resources. Avoid, avoid, avoid