A recruiter found me an opportunity at Bloomberg. I passed the first CV screening stage and then received a call to schedule a phone interview.

The phone interview went reasonably well. The interviewer was pleasant and somewhat helpful. However, I had some difficulty understanding his accent, as English is not my native language.

The interview began with some general questions. I was asked to tell the interviewer something about myself, then why I chose Bloomberg, and finally to describe a technical project I had completed.

I was asked if I was comfortable with C. I stated that I was not very comfortable and would prefer Java. However, the first task was in C. I had to determine the output of a given program, which I managed in the end. I was also asked about the lifetime of a variable created inside a function (it lasts until the function block is executed).

Another task was in Java. I was given a list of numbers and asked to write a program that identified all pairs of numbers from the list that added up to 8 (e.g., 5+3, 4+4), with the condition that each number could only be used once. I did not perform very well on this task as I needed more time to think and could not come up with a solution on the spot.

I received an email two days later informing me that I had been rejected.