Software Engineering Intern Interview Experience - United States
Process
After the phone screening, I had a HackerRank that wasn't too bad (two Big-O multiple-choice questions and one easy/medium-level coding question).
My recruiter was great; she was very responsive and flexible when I had to reschedule my interview due to COVID or internet issues during the HackerRank. I prepared really hard for the wildcard/regex questions that everyone mentioned on here, but they actually asked me something totally different, so be prepared for that!
It was like a custom data structure problem where you had to design the given methods for a course, which would probably be more applicable to the real job than LeetCode-style questions, but that's not what I had prepared for. I feel like if I had done just a bit of general data structures prep, it would've been even easier than the wildcard/regex LeetCode questions that a lot of people were given.
Furthermore, my interviewer was unprofessional compared to other SWE technical interviewers I've had. She spoke quite softly and also had an accent, making it hard to communicate with her. Although I was messing up pretty simple concepts because of interview anxiety and wrong preparation, I didn't appreciate seeing her giggling while I was struggling with the problem.
Questions
Design a course: fill in the given methods (adding assignments, enrolling students, adding/getting student grades, etc.) using appropriate data structures.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 3 interview experiences for the Coursera Software Engineering Intern role in United States.
Success Rate
Coursera's interview process for their Software Engineering Intern roles in the United States is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Coursera's Software Engineering Intern interview process in United States.
Coursera Work Experiences
- 5.0Perfect Balance, No ConsSoftware Engineering Intern • Former EmployeeToronto, Ontario, CanadaApril 10, 2024Pros: Great work-life balance here.Cons: Cannot think of anything at the moment.
- 3.0Good, but could have been betterSoftware Engineering Intern • Former EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesMay 14, 2015Pros: - Great company mission. - Meaningful work. - The people on my team were some of the nicest I've ever worked with. They were always willing to help.Cons: - Long hours. - Benefits were promised that were scrapped on my first day. - No Coursera-sponsored intern events. Policies have changed, and money's getting tight.
- 5.0One of the best startups in the Valley right nowSoftware Engineering Intern • Former EmployeeMountain View, California, United StatesAugust 24, 2014Pros: Coursera is easily one of the best startups at its size, given that it's only 2 years old. They have doubled down to get a highly focused management team and are starting to show some impressive numbers in terms of revenue and user growth. The engineering team consists of some of the smartest people I've met. Many of them are ex-Google, Facebook, LinkedIn employees and/or early students of Andrew & Daphne from Stanford. They follow great engineering practices and have some very experienced people that will mentor you here. They have a pretty unique Scala+Play stack, which is a pleasure to work on and plenty of interesting high growth projects in the pipeline. The company is expanding like crazy, with plenty of new faces joining every week. They also have a fun, quirky culture that really eases the stress of working at a high growth startup. Very much work hard, play hard. The social mission of the company is also spectacular. You can't complain when you work with really smart people and contribute to an amazing cause.Cons: It's a startup. While they treat their employees well and pay competitively, the perks and benefits are understandably not quite the same as Facebook or Google.
Coursera Interview Questions
