Process
My worst interviewing experience so far. More and more explainable why the company gets worse.
Applied online. It seems like the HR is so unwilling to talk and just does their job. Just shot an email saying "give me your timeslots, let's start a phone interview." After passing the phone, she said "move forward for an onsite."
No talk, no team description, no just description. They asked me to give 3 timeslots in the next 2 weeks. I gave my timeslots in the second week. And totally no response after that. And just 1 day before the day I gave to them, they said onsite scheduled, tomorrow. In the bottom they said: "If you have any question, feel free to ask me." Then I asked, no reply at all.
5 rounds, 1 system design, 1 culture, 3 coding. I did very well in 3 round coding, the engineer directly gave good feedback in the interview. And the final answer is NO OFFER.
And HR not willing to give any feedback. I'm enough.
Questions
Binary Tree Vertical Order Traversal.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 110 interview experiences for the Pinterest Software Engineer role in United States.
Success Rate
13%
Pass Rate
Pinterest's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in the United States is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Positive44%
Neutral36%
Negative20%
Candidates reported having good feelings for Pinterest's Software Engineer interview process in United States.
Pinterest Work Experiences
1.0
Is there an engineer in the room?
Nope
Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
July 27, 2016
Pros: Smaller than AAPL, AMZN, FB, or GOOG. Pinterest employees are closer in management hops to key stakeholders who run the company.
Pinterest new grad employees also have access to some high-level ICs that were previously strong ICs from FB and GOOG.
Cons: Is there an engineer in the room?
Key observation: asking the question doesn't mean enforcing the behavior. "No" is a perfectly great answer.
This is recently proven by our president's action in making sweeping changes to the entire engineering organization and admitting no technical folks were consulted in the decision.
This reminds us of the dramatic downfall of our previous sales organization, also orchestrated by the same person. Was he supposed to earn our trust after that last debacle?
Also, what about the mistakes by our chief product guy? He seems to be another company insider with no product vision. Is our president distracting attention away from the main culprit by removing others under him?
5.0
Best place I've ever worked
Software Engineer • Former Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
January 16, 2019
Pros: - Engineers are intelligent, helpful, collaborative, and friendly.
- Tons of interesting problems to work on.
- Strong social culture at work.
- Clearly defined product, vision, and plan of execution.
- C-suite is approachable.
- Knit Con is amazing!!
Cons: Team personalities wildly vary, so your mileage may vary.
5.0
Great place to work
Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
November 20, 2014
Pros: Great work-life balance, especially compared to other startups in the valley (looking at you, Uber).
Very high potential. Pinterest can monetize users extremely well since it knows their interests and can deliver targeted advertising. It also has strong user traction and is on track to surpass Twitter in terms of U.S. MAUs sometime in the next year. Based on that, Pinterest could easily reach a $30 billion+ valuation in a couple of years.
Not any politics. The culture is friendly and collaborative, and there has not been any politics that I've seen.
The company puts a big emphasis on getting feedback from employees about what is working and what isn't, and then acting on that feedback.
The leadership team is very transparent. There is a weekly Q&A with the CEO and bi-weekly lunches where the leadership team presents high-level strategy.
Cons: * The company is spread across multiple buildings, which makes it hard to meet people outside of your org (i.e., engineering, partners, etc.).
* They have equity refreshes, which is awesome, but the difference between the refresh for top performers and average performers is negligible, which is bad if you're a top performer.
- 1.0Is there an engineer in the room? NopeSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesJuly 27, 2016Pros: Smaller than AAPL, AMZN, FB, or GOOG. Pinterest employees are closer in management hops to key stakeholders who run the company. Pinterest new grad employees also have access to some high-level ICs that were previously strong ICs from FB and GOOG.Cons: Is there an engineer in the room? Key observation: asking the question doesn't mean enforcing the behavior. "No" is a perfectly great answer. This is recently proven by our president's action in making sweeping changes to the entire engineering organization and admitting no technical folks were consulted in the decision. This reminds us of the dramatic downfall of our previous sales organization, also orchestrated by the same person. Was he supposed to earn our trust after that last debacle? Also, what about the mistakes by our chief product guy? He seems to be another company insider with no product vision. Is our president distracting attention away from the main culprit by removing others under him?
- 5.0Best place I've ever workedSoftware Engineer • Former EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesJanuary 16, 2019Pros: - Engineers are intelligent, helpful, collaborative, and friendly. - Tons of interesting problems to work on. - Strong social culture at work. - Clearly defined product, vision, and plan of execution. - C-suite is approachable. - Knit Con is amazing!!Cons: Team personalities wildly vary, so your mileage may vary.
- 5.0Great place to workSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeSan Francisco, California, United StatesNovember 20, 2014Pros: Great work-life balance, especially compared to other startups in the valley (looking at you, Uber). Very high potential. Pinterest can monetize users extremely well since it knows their interests and can deliver targeted advertising. It also has strong user traction and is on track to surpass Twitter in terms of U.S. MAUs sometime in the next year. Based on that, Pinterest could easily reach a $30 billion+ valuation in a couple of years. Not any politics. The culture is friendly and collaborative, and there has not been any politics that I've seen. The company puts a big emphasis on getting feedback from employees about what is working and what isn't, and then acting on that feedback. The leadership team is very transparent. There is a weekly Q&A with the CEO and bi-weekly lunches where the leadership team presents high-level strategy.Cons: * The company is spread across multiple buildings, which makes it hard to meet people outside of your org (i.e., engineering, partners, etc.). * They have equity refreshes, which is awesome, but the difference between the refresh for top performers and average performers is negligible, which is bad if you're a top performer.
Pinterest Interview Questions
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