eBay

Senior Software Engineer Interview Experience - San Jose, California

December 1, 2011

Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

I was contacted by a recruiter back in November. We set up a time to talk, and then had two phone interviews. One of them was primarily focused on Java. The other interviewer was more interested in general problem-solving abilities and my knowledge and experience with data mining. Both phone interviews went well, and I was invited to an on-site interview.

I interviewed on-site for a couple of hours with five people and had lunch with the hiring manager. All interviewers were very nice to me and seemed interested in my experience and projects.

A week later, I received a call from the recruiter saying they were giving me an offer. We went through the details, and I accepted it. A few days later, I was asked to complete all the necessary paperwork, including a background check and references. Everything was fine up to that point. Then a new recruiter took over this hiring, and we discussed relocation details, etc.

A few days passed, then weeks, and I kept calling the recruiter to ask why I hadn't gotten anything. The recruiter gave me different versions of the story, including that they were processing my offer letter. I've called them several times over many days, and they sometimes answer the phone and say something different, but never call me back.

To say the least, I am very disappointed. I declined two other job offers while I was going through this process, thinking I had a job. Now that I declined the other job offers, the recruiter doesn't even call me to tell me what happened to the job offer. Extremely unprofessional.

Questions

Heap construction

Implement an n-ary tree

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 15 interview experiences for the eBay Senior Software Engineer role in San Jose, California.

Success Rate

27%

Pass Rate

eBay's interview process for their Senior Software Engineer roles in San Jose, California is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive40%

Neutral20%

Negative40%

Candidates reported having mixed feelings for eBay's Senior Software Engineer interview process in San Jose, California.

eBay Work Experiences

Terrible manager ruined experience

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

San Jose, California, United States

Pros: Some friendly and collaborative co-workers

Cons: - Like something out of a Dilbert cartoon - Poor, depressing culture - Long hours - Terrible middle managers - Heavy "butt covering," "me me me," and command-and-control attitude of managers - Managers watched your time like you were an hourly worker - No arrival/departure time flexibility - Pay 10-15% below market at the time (2008-2010) - Co-workers not that smart. Couldn't learn anything from them. - Very outdated software stack - No room for innovation - Product Managers ruled, and they weren't very good. I suffocated in this work environment (I was a new grad). I dealt with jealousy from co-workers and managers, was constantly micromanaged and boxed-in, and was never given any real room to try new things, learn new things, do new things, or implement things differently. Every attempt to do something new was met with talk that I didn't know what I was doing, or was squashed for some other reason. The managers constantly insisted that I didn't know how to do A and that I didn't know how to do B, even though I clearly knew. They went to great lengths to ensure that I would never get an opportunity to do them to "prove myself." The managers were obsessed with knowing and commenting on the time I got into work and the time I left. They would harass me about this (and any random thing they could find), rather than leave me to do my work.

Terrible manager ruined experience

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

San Jose, California, United States

Pros: Some friendly and collaborative co-workers

Cons: - Like something out of a Dilbert cartoon - Poor, depressing culture - Long hours - Terrible middle managers - Heavy "butt covering," "me me me," and command-and-control attitude of managers - Managers watched your time like you were an hourly worker - No arrival/departure time flexibility - Pay 10-15% below market at the time (2008-2010) - Co-workers not that smart. Couldn't learn anything from them. - Very outdated software stack - No room for innovation - Product Managers ruled, and they weren't very good. I suffocated in this work environment (I was a new grad). I dealt with jealousy from co-workers and managers, was constantly micromanaged and boxed-in, and was never given any real room to try new things, learn new things, do new things, or implement things differently. Every attempt to do something new was met with talk that I didn't know what I was doing, or was squashed for some other reason. The managers constantly insisted that I didn't know how to do A and that I didn't know how to do B, even though I clearly knew. They went to great lengths to ensure that I would never get an opportunity to do them to "prove myself." The managers were obsessed with knowing and commenting on the time I got into work and the time I left. They would harass me about this (and any random thing they could find), rather than leave me to do my work.

Mostly bad product managers

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Jose, California, United States

October 1, 2011

Pros: 1. Hours are somewhat flexible. You need to attend meetings and hit target dates, but you can run errands and such without trouble. 2. Pay is fair. 3. Some of the managers are very good, as well as some of the engineers.

Cons: 1. Many of the product managers don't know what they are doing. What makes it worse is that they pretend to know. As an application developer, you basically work for them. As you can imagine, this is not inspiring. 2. They built a homegrown frontend stack a few years ago for no apparent reason (why not Spring MVC or Struts2?). It's now been abandoned because it took forever to build something with it. 3. Not much respect for application engineers. You can say something will take 3 weeks, and if they think it's too long, they'll ask you to review your estimate. If you don't shorten it, they'll get a contractor to do it. Then you have to maintain it. What fun. 4. No respect for contract engineers. They stick them anywhere they can prop-up a computer. 5. Some of the engineers aren't very good, but they can be avoided by moving to certain groups. The bad project managers are harder to get away from. There seem to be more of them.

Mostly bad product managers

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Jose, California, United States

October 1, 2011

Pros: 1. Hours are somewhat flexible. You need to attend meetings and hit target dates, but you can run errands and such without trouble. 2. Pay is fair. 3. Some of the managers are very good, as well as some of the engineers.

Cons: 1. Many of the product managers don't know what they are doing. What makes it worse is that they pretend to know. As an application developer, you basically work for them. As you can imagine, this is not inspiring. 2. They built a homegrown frontend stack a few years ago for no apparent reason (why not Spring MVC or Struts2?). It's now been abandoned because it took forever to build something with it. 3. Not much respect for application engineers. You can say something will take 3 weeks, and if they think it's too long, they'll ask you to review your estimate. If you don't shorten it, they'll get a contractor to do it. Then you have to maintain it. What fun. 4. No respect for contract engineers. They stick them anywhere they can prop-up a computer. 5. Some of the engineers aren't very good, but they can be avoided by moving to certain groups. The bad project managers are harder to get away from. There seem to be more of them.

Good Company, Confused Business Model

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Jose, California, United States

Pros: Good talent. The work is great, with a lot of exposure to high scale. The right project and the right group can give you good exposure.

Cons: Management is erratic. Goals are never clear. Continuous changes in organization.

Good Company, Confused Business Model

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Jose, California, United States

Pros: Good talent. The work is great, with a lot of exposure to high scale. The right project and the right group can give you good exposure.

Cons: Management is erratic. Goals are never clear. Continuous changes in organization.

Terrible manager ruined experience

Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee

San Jose, California, United States

Pros: Some friendly and collaborative co-workers

Cons: - Like something out of a Dilbert cartoon - Poor, depressing culture - Long hours - Terrible middle managers - Heavy "butt covering," "me me me," and command-and-control attitude of managers - Managers watched your time like you were an hourly worker - No arrival/departure time flexibility - Pay 10-15% below market at the time (2008-2010) - Co-workers not that smart. Couldn't learn anything from them. - Very outdated software stack - No room for innovation - Product Managers ruled, and they weren't very good. I suffocated in this work environment (I was a new grad). I dealt with jealousy from co-workers and managers, was constantly micromanaged and boxed-in, and was never given any real room to try new things, learn new things, do new things, or implement things differently. Every attempt to do something new was met with talk that I didn't know what I was doing, or was squashed for some other reason. The managers constantly insisted that I didn't know how to do A and that I didn't know how to do B, even though I clearly knew. They went to great lengths to ensure that I would never get an opportunity to do them to "prove myself." The managers were obsessed with knowing and commenting on the time I got into work and the time I left. They would harass me about this (and any random thing they could find), rather than leave me to do my work.

2.0
Terrible manager ruined experience
Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee
San Jose, California, United States
May 24, 2013
Pros: Some friendly and collaborative co-workers
Cons: - Like something out of a Dilbert cartoon - Poor, depressing culture - Long hours - Terrible middle managers - Heavy "butt covering," "me me me," and command-and-control attitude of managers - Managers watched your time like you were an hourly worker - No arrival/departure time flexibility - Pay 10-15% below market at the time (2008-2010) - Co-workers not that smart. Couldn't learn anything from them. - Very outdated software stack - No room for innovation - Product Managers ruled, and they weren't very good. I suffocated in this work environment (I was a new grad). I dealt with jealousy from co-workers and managers, was constantly micromanaged and boxed-in, and was never given any real room to try new things, learn new things, do new things, or implement things differently. Every attempt to do something new was met with talk that I didn't know what I was doing, or was squashed for some other reason. The managers constantly insisted that I didn't know how to do A and that I didn't know how to do B, even though I clearly knew. They went to great lengths to ensure that I would never get an opportunity to do them to "prove myself." The managers were obsessed with knowing and commenting on the time I got into work and the time I left. They would harass me about this (and any random thing they could find), rather than leave me to do my work.

Mostly bad product managers

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Jose, California, United States

October 1, 2011

Pros: 1. Hours are somewhat flexible. You need to attend meetings and hit target dates, but you can run errands and such without trouble. 2. Pay is fair. 3. Some of the managers are very good, as well as some of the engineers.

Cons: 1. Many of the product managers don't know what they are doing. What makes it worse is that they pretend to know. As an application developer, you basically work for them. As you can imagine, this is not inspiring. 2. They built a homegrown frontend stack a few years ago for no apparent reason (why not Spring MVC or Struts2?). It's now been abandoned because it took forever to build something with it. 3. Not much respect for application engineers. You can say something will take 3 weeks, and if they think it's too long, they'll ask you to review your estimate. If you don't shorten it, they'll get a contractor to do it. Then you have to maintain it. What fun. 4. No respect for contract engineers. They stick them anywhere they can prop-up a computer. 5. Some of the engineers aren't very good, but they can be avoided by moving to certain groups. The bad project managers are harder to get away from. There seem to be more of them.

2.0
Mostly bad product managers
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Jose, California, United States
October 1, 2011
Pros: 1. Hours are somewhat flexible. You need to attend meetings and hit target dates, but you can run errands and such without trouble. 2. Pay is fair. 3. Some of the managers are very good, as well as some of the engineers.
Cons: 1. Many of the product managers don't know what they are doing. What makes it worse is that they pretend to know. As an application developer, you basically work for them. As you can imagine, this is not inspiring. 2. They built a homegrown frontend stack a few years ago for no apparent reason (why not Spring MVC or Struts2?). It's now been abandoned because it took forever to build something with it. 3. Not much respect for application engineers. You can say something will take 3 weeks, and if they think it's too long, they'll ask you to review your estimate. If you don't shorten it, they'll get a contractor to do it. Then you have to maintain it. What fun. 4. No respect for contract engineers. They stick them anywhere they can prop-up a computer. 5. Some of the engineers aren't very good, but they can be avoided by moving to certain groups. The bad project managers are harder to get away from. There seem to be more of them.

Good Company, Confused Business Model

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Jose, California, United States

Pros: Good talent. The work is great, with a lot of exposure to high scale. The right project and the right group can give you good exposure.

Cons: Management is erratic. Goals are never clear. Continuous changes in organization.

3.0
Good Company, Confused Business Model
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Jose, California, United States
March 13, 2014
Pros: Good talent. The work is great, with a lot of exposure to high scale. The right project and the right group can give you good exposure.
Cons: Management is erratic. Goals are never clear. Continuous changes in organization.

eBay Interview Questions

Partition Equal Subset Sum

Determine if a given array of numbers can be divided into two subsets with equal sums. Essentially, can you split the array so both sides add up to the same value?

Dynamic Programming

Remove One Element to Make the Array Strictly Increasing

Determine if removing a single element from an array can make the remaining elements strictly increasing. You need to check if it's possible to obtain a strictly increasing sequence by deleting at most one element.

LRU Cache

Design a data structure that acts as a Least Recently Used (LRU) cache. Implement methods to get and put key-value pairs, evicting the least recently used entry when the cache is full.

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