The interview process was very efficient and flexible.

I was contacted by a recruiter for a Senior Software Engineer position. I submitted my resume, and within one day, I scheduled a phone interview.

Phone Interview - 1 hour

Spoke to: Another senior engineer Format: HackerRank Questions: 4

1. Design a queue with a getMin() function.
2. Design a function to find the square root of a number, accurate to 0.001.
3. Write a function to find all prime numbers between 1 and N.
4. Describe how SQL indexes are made.

I was a bit surprised by this one, but it's coursework I took in my undergraduate studies, so I knew it.

I solved all the problems pretty quickly. The interviewer told me they would get back to me the next day. The next morning, I scheduled an onsite interview.

They assisted with the flight, hotel, and car arrangements.

Onsite Interview - 8 rounds

I had 8 rounds of interviews; it was a really intense and stressful day.

Round 0 - Building Tour

I received a tour of the fantastic building. I got some orange juice and coffee and headed up to the first room.

Round 1 - 1 hour, 2 people

Coded on HackerRank and compiled with test cases.

• Write a function to determine the number of ways to make N cents given an array S containing coin denominations. For example, if S = {1, 5, 10, 25} and N = 25, find the number of ways to make N cents using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

I used the standard dynamic programming approach and was able to solve the problem on the first try.

Round 2 - 1 hour, 2 people

Coded on HackerRank and compiled with test cases.

• Write code to determine if a pattern exists in a string. I struggled quite a bit with this one. The interviewer said "rolling hash," and it clicked. The hash function must be rolled through the text to match the pattern. Remember to use prime numbers for the base and modulus and know the intricacies of hashing.

I wrote the function, ran it, and passed the test case on HackerRank.

Round 3 - 1 hour, 2 people

On paper, with a heavy focus on C++ basics.

This was the first on-paper interview. I thought it would be a relief, but I was wrong. They asked many C++ basics questions that I wasn't very confident in. Regardless, I was able to answer every question correctly with some help.

1. What are the main additions to C++ in C++14? (I happened to know a few new STLs and common libraries, so I mentioned those.)
2. What's the difference between const char * p and char * const p?
3. What are the underlying data structures of <vector>, <map>, and <unordered_map>?

Round 4 - 1 hour, 2 people

On their computer - STRESS INTERVIEW, it was extremely stressful.

This was the 'harsh' interview.

"Design me a server."

Any questions I asked were promptly rejected with comments like, "I don't know, do you think that would be good? If you think that's good, then add it." The interviewers were quite negative, but I believe that was the intent of the interview – to see how I handle pressure.

I ignored it all, maintained a big smile with confidence, laid out my assumptions, and created a basic singleton server that can take requests and respond using the C++11 thread library <thread>.

I struggled to get the code to compile because I was rusty with mutexes and thread joins. With their help, I was able to get a fully functional multi-threaded server to run on their computer.

Round 5 - 1 hour, 2 people

Lunch interview, asking about my personality and behavioral questions.

At this point, I was invited to lunch by two of the managers. I saw one of the managers make a phone call and was asked to come back to the office to speak with his manager.

Round 6 - 30 minutes, 1 person

Talking with a senior manager - WHY BLOOMBERG??

I spoke with a tech executive about my personality.

1. Why do you want to leave your current company?
2. Why do you want to join us?
3. What would be your short-term career goals?

Round 7 - 30 minutes, 1 person

Talked with an HR representative.

Same questions as before.

1. Why Bloomberg?
2. Given a problem, what is your approach to solving it?

Round 8 - 30 minutes, 1 person

Talked to the head of HR.

Same as before.

If you expect to get an offer, be ready to answer common behavioral questions. Also, you should be able to solve 99% of CS interview questions in your sleep. Doing them on a computer with two people breathing down your neck definitively makes you forget things. Be confident. Speak clearly. Record yourself talking through a problem and listen to it. Do you sound clear? Are you easy to understand? No? THEN PRACTICE AGAIN!

Record yourself answering the questions "Why Bloomberg?" and "Why do you want to leave your company?" It BETTER SOUND GOOD!

[OFFER]

I received an offer the next morning at 9 AM. The offer was 30% higher than my salary expectation.

I accepted the offer right away and have been working here for the past four months, having a splendid time.

1. Design a queue with a getMin() function.

Why Bloomberg?

1. Write a function to find all primes between 1 to N.

Design a multi-threaded server. There are 2 threads per core, and expect network latency. What data structure is critical?

Write a code to determine if a pattern exists in a string.