The interview process consisted of two rounds: a 45-minute technical and behavioral Skype interview with an engineer, followed by a 2-hour technical and behavioral onsite interview with two different engineers.

THE SKYPE INTERVIEW: I was first asked a few questions about my resume and previous experience. Then, I was presented with a relatively straightforward technical question that I could implement in the language of my choice. My interviewer was very responsive when I asked for clarification on the problem and offered suggestions for improving my solution after I had completed it. She also answered many of my questions regarding work-life balance and her experience as a Salesforce software engineer.

THE ONSITE INTERVIEW: Approximately two weeks after my Skype interview, a recruiter contacted me to arrange details for a trip to their San Francisco office for an onsite interview. Early in the morning, I arrived at the office, was offered coffee, and had the opportunity to chat with other interviewees. We were then provided breakfast and a brief presentation on the benefits of being a Salesforce intern and the specifics of working in Infrastructure.

Afterward, all interviewees were directed to their individual interviews, each lasting about 50 minutes to an hour with two different engineers. Based on conversations with other applicants, the interviews varied considerably in subject matter and difficulty. Some candidates had one entirely behavioral interview and one entirely technical interview, while others received one basic data structures interview and one algorithmic interview.

My first interview, aside from the anticipated questions about my resume and familiarity with various languages and technology stacks, involved more basic problem-solving. I was permitted to use my language of choice. My first interviewer was young, enthusiastic, and supportive, acknowledging each correct answer I provided. He was also understanding when I needed a few minutes to think through a question.

My second interview was more algorithmic and conceptual, and notably more challenging than the first. The interviewer was more senior and somewhat difficult to read, but this was not an issue. He remained very supportive when I arrived at the correct answer and actively guided me toward a strong solution.

Following the interviews, all interviewees were invited to lunch with several new graduates from the company, where I had the chance to ask further questions about working at Salesforce.

After the onsite interview, it took another week and a half before I received a call from a recruiter with my interview results.

Design a system of virtual machines to schedule tasks. (I.e., what data structures would you use to implement/optimize them?)

Given a string made up only of lowercase letters, find the substring that has the sum closest to (but not exceeding) $1, if a = $.01, b = $.02, ... z = $.26.

Write a BST search method that either finds the target number, or finds the node in the tree with the value closest to the target number (this closest value could be lower than or higher than the target number; it just needs to be the smallest absolute-value distance away from the target number).

Identify the data structure depicted in each of two diagrams.