The recruiter reached out after I applied through their website and I went through a phone screening that was a run-through of my resume. After the phone screening, I was scheduled for a panel interview with two senior employees about a week later. The recruiter explicitly mentioned how the interview would be non-technical, stating "no live coding," and at most, there would be a whiteboard problem, for instance, handwriting basic SQL code, and conceptual questions about algorithms, data structures, SQL commands, polymorphism, and inheritance. He mentioned that the program was moving away from "traditional SWE" and more toward candidates with an understanding of generating business value. However, there seemed to be a disconnect between the panel interviewers and the recruiter regarding this information.

The interview started with only two questions from my resume and then went straight into three live-coding technicals: one in Java, one in Python, and one in HTML. The interviewers mentioned how they had been interviewing for many years for the program but had never done a panel interview like this one. The disorganization was apparent, as they clearly had different interviewing styles.

For anyone interviewing, I would recommend practicing coding questions on Java, Python, HTML, and SQL for the interview because, no matter the change in the program, it was clear the interviewers are still judging your coding skills. The questions are not difficult, though, and the interviewers will help you out when needed.

The interviewers put in their recommendations to the LEAP program at EOD but were uncertain about the timeline for when I would hear back. Overall, the process was not technically difficult but extremely frustrating because of the misinformation and panel structure.

Solve a string splicing problem in Java and Python (had to use both languages).

Show your understanding of HTML syntax.