My interview process started in mid-January, and it took PayPal more than three months to complete.

This process did not include an onsite interview. To be frank, this was the worst interview process I have ever experienced. All my interviews were rescheduled at least once. I feel the recruiters need additional training; even college students could likely do a better job.

My first interview was a simple phone round. The interviewer was rude and went over my resume, attempting to shame me. I am not suggesting my resume was perfect, but his approach seemed to be demonstrating that my past experiences were a waste of time. After this shaming, he moved on to technical questions. He asked me to verbally code an HTML form, complete with event handling and form submissions. He then asked a couple of questions on JQuery, followed by Java. Although I am a .Net developer, I am comfortable working in Java. He asked me syntactical and Java-specific language questions, which I answered. However, he still seemed unhappy. He was in a hurry and finished the interview in 35 minutes instead of the scheduled 60.

A week later, I learned I would have another phone interview.

My second and third interviews were scheduled back-to-back via Skype. Unfortunately, one of the interviewers did not show up. I waited and emailed the recruiter multiple times. After 45 minutes, I was informed the interviewer was on a phone call. Consequently, instead of two interviews, I would have only one round, with the other rescheduled for a later date.

In that single round, the interviewer again asked me Java-specific questions. He appeared to be in a hurry to finish as quickly as possible, concluding the interview in 30 minutes.

The third round was rescheduled for a week later. The confirmation email from HR contained another candidate's information instead of mine. When I contacted them, they stated it was a typo. On the day of the interview, I received another email indicating a reschedule. It was moved to the following week. Again, on the day of that rescheduled interview, I received an email stating it would happen a couple of hours late, moving from 1 PM to 3 PM. This was followed by further emails adjusting the time to 4 PM and then 5 PM. Finally, the interview took place at 5 PM.

The interviewer was a woman this time, and it was a Skype round. She reviewed my resume and seemed impressed. She then realized she hadn't asked any technical questions and asked me to write the Singleton Pattern. I wrote it on paper and showed it on camera. She had difficulty reading it, so I took a photo and sent it to her. Regardless, she provided positive feedback.

A week later, I heard from the recruiter. Her email seemed confused. She stated she wanted to move forward and have a second phone interview. I clarified that I had already completed three. She then changed the plan and scheduled one final interview with the hiring manager.

My interview with the hiring manager was also on Skype. This was finally a true coding round. He asked me to write a string incrementor, which involves finding the next string in a sequence (e.g., "abcd" becomes "abce," or "acz" becomes "ada"). The next question involved coding a binary search on a rotated array. The final task was to code the Producer-Consumer problem. I was able to answer all three.

After these interviews, I waited again. For a week, I heard nothing from the recruiter. I emailed them again, mentioning I had other deadlines approaching. This prompted a response, and they assured me they would get back to me. A week later, I learned they intended to make an offer. The recruiter called and stated that PayPal's compensation was competitive with Silicon Valley companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. She then asked if I had other offers. I shared details of a couple of other offers, which were not from those specific companies but offered decent compensation. She did not attempt to match them and gave me two weeks to decide. The offer was significantly lower than my other options, and I am confident that Google, Facebook, and Twitter offer considerably more.

The next day, I emailed her, stating the offer was not competitive and requested a review. I mentioned I already had two offers that were 30% higher than what they were proposing. The recruiter called back, and they were unwilling to negotiate. Her demeanor was rude and disinterested. Furthermore, she reduced the deadline to accept the offer from two weeks to just three days. This was a discourteous move, implying a "take it or leave it" attitude. It felt as though they believed there were other candidates willing to work for significantly less.

I rejected the offer, as I had better opportunities. This was the most unpleasant interview experience I have ever encountered.

Singleton Pattern

String Incrementor: abcd => abce acz => ada

Search in a rotated sorted array

Producer Consumer Problem