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Software Engineer Interview Experience

July 1, 2014
Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

Someone gave me a call one day. I didn't apply, so I guess it was a recruiter.

I answered all their questions, and they never called me back. They never sent me an email, and when I called to ask, they told me, "Tough luck."

Questions

  1. Verbal Test:

a) What's the difference between StringBuffer and StringBuilder?

b) What's the difference between a LinkedList and an ArrayList? When would you use each?

  1. Language Quiz - Strings

a = "hello"; b = "hello"; c = new String("hello"); d = c; e = new String("hello");

Tell me the result:

a) a == b

b) a.equals(b)

c) a == c

d) c == d

e) c.equals(d)

f) c == e

g) c.equals(e)

  1. Code Time!!!

Program a method that returns an inOrder ArrayList of the nodes in a tree:

public ArrayList inOrder(Node root);

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 163 interview experiences for the PayPal Software Engineer role in United States.

Success Rate

23%
Pass Rate

PayPal's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in the United States is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive45%
Neutral28%
Negative27%

Candidates reported having good feelings for PayPal's Software Engineer interview process in United States.

PayPal Work Experiences