The process involved two technical phone interviews on Coderpad, followed by an on-site with three interviews and a lunch in between. All coding interviews were conducted using their pair programming method, where you talk and code while the interviewer corrects syntax errors and offers pointers. Most questions were practical, focusing on real-world applications like designing Sudoku or playing Scrabble, rather than purely computer science concepts such as reversing a linked list or traversing a Binary Search Tree. Their goal is to assess how you think through a problem. Throughout the process, the recruiter responded lightning-fast to any requests or questions.

Phone Interviews (1:1, 1 hour each):

1. I definitely bombed my first phone interview. This was an unusual question compared to others I've been asked at Square. It was a very tricky graph problem that you either knew or didn't. I initially proposed a brute-force solution, but the interviewer asked me to make it faster. I then spent a solid 45 minutes discussing optimization strategies and finally arrived at the solution after many hints. I did not write a single line of code. However, Square still proceeds to a second phone interview as long as a candidate isn't completely incompetent. I received a second interview invitation two days after this one.

2. The second phone interview, in my opinion, went really well. It was another graph problem, but I was able to devise a good solution within 10 minutes and build upon it as we progressed. I had 15 minutes remaining to ask questions. I received an on-site invitation one day after this interview.

On-Site (1:1, 2:1, 1 hour each):

Square was very accommodating with reimbursements for flights, hotels, gas, and food. The on-site experience lasted about 4-5 hours and consisted of two pair programming interviews, a lunch with a Software Engineer, a Q&A session about my background, and concluded with an HR conversation about next steps. Some interviews were conducted by two people to train future interviewers. At the end of the day, HR gave me a bag of goodies.

Some advice is to relax during interviews and engage in conversation with your interviewer. I believe my downfall in some of the on-site interviews was jumping into solutions too quickly. I missed a very obvious solution because I was overthinking the problem and only arrived at it after receiving hints. I had working solutions for all my interviews but received my rejection one week after my on-site.

Overall, this was the best interview experience I've ever had. I've interviewed with accommodating companies like Google and Adobe, but Square truly stands out.

This was an NDA, but the questions were not your general interview questions from LeetCode or GeeksforGeeks. All questions had multiple parts, so if the interviewer kept on adding features or sub-problems, it was a good thing. Make sure you have very strong basics so you can think on the spot.