I had one technical phone screen, which was easy. Then I was called onsite for a set of five rounds. It was a long day of interviews.

The interviewer in the first algorithm round had a fixed solution in his head and could not accept any other approach. He constantly tried to force me toward his way of thinking rather than engaging with my solution. He showed no interest in what I was doing, even though I knew my solution was correct, as I had solved the problem before and confirmed it with online resources.

The second algorithms round was a dynamic programming (DP) round. To my surprise, one of the interviewers had no clue about DP. He constantly argued with me and the other interviewer, insisting my solution was wrong.

The first interviewer, however, understood my solution and agreed with my approach. He tried to explain to the other interviewer that my method was different but most optimal. I was doing a bottom-up DP, whereas he only knew top-down (recursion with memoization). After thirty minutes of explanation, he still couldn't grasp bottom-up DP.

I was very disappointed with LinkedIn on this. They should send interviewers who know their subject matter or at least what they are asking.

The design round was not typical. Instead of discussing the pros and cons of my design, the interviewer asked a series of questions and concluded the interview. I felt he was merely assessing my answers against his preconceived notions.

The manager round was good and relaxed.

The last round, technical communication, didn't make much sense, as everything seemed to be covered in the manager round. I guess I just had a bad day with unusual interviewers.

Everything is already on Career Cup; nothing new.