A recruiter reached out and got me an interview for a Software Engineer position focused on a shopping content project.

I started with a phone screen with one of the engineers. It involved a medium-level LeetCode question, which I completed almost perfectly.

The onsite interview consisted of four sessions: two system design and two coding, followed by a chat with the hiring manager.

• First System Design: This session involved data modeling relevant to shopping content and designing a processing pipeline.
• Second System Design: This was a deeper dive into the processing pipeline from the first session. It felt like the interviewer had a specific direction in mind and was waiting for me to use the exact terminology, which I believe defeats the purpose of system design interviews. For instance, I described a load-shedding strategy, but the interviewer initially ignored it and later explained the strategy as "heuristics," which was precisely what I had described without using the specific term.
• First Coding: This was another LeetCode-medium question, leaning towards the easier side. I finished with time to spare and discussed potential algorithm modifications if the requirements changed, making for a pleasant conversation.
• Second Coding: This was a slightly harder LeetCode-medium problem, essentially requiring the implementation of a well-known data structure. I finished it perfectly with time to spare, and it was another pleasant session.
• Chat with Engineering Manager: There was nothing significant to discuss.

Overall, I enjoyed the sessions with the engineers. Despite some challenges in the system design interviews, the process was engaging. I'm usually not particularly strong at LeetCode questions, so I was pleasantly surprised by my performance in the coding sessions.

My advice to Pinterest: please respect candidates' time.

Under NDA, but most algorithm questions are LeetCode or similar.