My first contact was with a recruiter after applying for a role on LinkedIn. She was incredibly helpful and transparent about the entire process, and did everything she could to help me prepare.

The first phone screen was with a hiring manager, and we had a pretty in-depth conversation about the role, the team I'd be joining, and my past relevant experience. He was very laid back, and this portion felt more like a conversation between two engineers than an interrogation, which is often the case in big-tech interviews.

The next phase was a virtual onsite, consisting of four one-hour interviews with four different engineers. The first two interviews were coding interviews (LeetCode medium difficulty), followed by a system design question and a behavioral/relevant experience round. An offer was made the following week.

I will admit, I'm normally very nervous during coding interviews. I can code, but doing so in front of someone who determines your career prospects within a time limit is gut-wrenching. The PayPal engineers I coded with were incredibly accommodating and made me feel very comfortable throughout the entire process. They collaborated with me to solve the problems rather than sitting in disappointed silence. The behavioral round was a two-way conversation that gave me a solid idea of what working at PayPal is like. By far, it was the smoothest big-tech panel interview I've experienced.

TIPS:

• Don't worry too much about getting the optimal solution in code, but be sure to communicate what you think a more efficient solution might be.
• Doing well in all portions is more important than excelling in coding rounds and then bombing system design and behavioral.
• If there's a breath of silence, you're doing it wrong. Communicate your thought process; if you're thinking, you should be talking.
• Definitely research the tech stack and read the job description. Prepare to go into detail about how your past experience is relevant (even if it's not).
• FYI: I practiced the problems other interviewees had posted here, and every coding problem I received was on this page.

Coding:

• 3sum
• Search a rotated array
• LRU cache

System Design:

• Design a TinyURL system

Behavioral Questions:

• How can you ensure your code meets the coding standards of your company?
• Are you familiar with build systems? (Jenkins)