I spoke with Bloomberg recruiters at a career fair at my school. They suggested a position for me to apply to online. They were at my school looking for undergrads, but I am a soon-to-be PhD.

I applied online. The response was quick, perhaps a little too quick. I was in the airport when they immediately sent a link to a timed online screening. I had to ask for a postponement, which they kindly granted.

The screening was simple, consisting of two tests, each around 45 minutes long. These were multiple-choice questions covering various details of C and C++ syntax and semantics.

A week later, I had the first phone interview. A week after that, the second phone interview. Two weeks later, I flew in for two days of in-house interviews.

The interviews featured questions primarily on C++ semantics, C++ STL (Bloomberg publishes its own implementation on GitHub), networking, and concurrency. There were also a couple of brain teasers.

Interviewers were nice and dressed primarily in polos or untucked shirts and jeans (I felt overdressed in a suit). Interviews on the first day lasted from 10 AM to around 4 PM with no breaks, and I met mostly project leaders. Interviews on the second day were from 2 PM to 5 PM, with senior management and HR at the end.

What would you do to let a server provide high-quality service to well-behaved clients, so that it doesn't get slowed down by a client that can't handle a high rate of traffic?