Samsara

Lead Software Engineer, Test Infrastructure Interview Experience

April 25, 2021

Positive ExperienceNo Offer

Process

The process consisted of a recruiter screen, followed by a live coding test and a take-home assignment.

I was allowed a week to complete the take-home assignment but was asked to spend no more than 2.5 hours on the work.

The live coding interview was pretty tame as coding tests go.

The virtual onsite consisted of four separate interviews. One of those was another live coding interview that was surprisingly similar to the first.

It was suggested that there would be another interview with the supervisor of the hiring manager if I continued to the next round.

Questions

Most of the questions were centered around how I might set up an automated test system for their main products.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Samsara Lead Software Engineer, Test Infrastructure role in United States.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

Samsara's interview process for their Lead Software Engineer, Test Infrastructure roles in the United States is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive100%

Neutral0%

Negative0%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Samsara's Lead Software Engineer, Test Infrastructure interview process in United States.

Samsara Work Experiences

High Risk, High Reward

Engineering Director • Former Employee

November 6, 2024

Pros: Great business model. Career opportunities abound if you can break through the cliques. Decent benefits.

Cons: Absurd levels of churn and attrition at senior/leadership levels, even for a startup. More than 75% in some departments. Lack of strategic alignment and vision at the product/leadership level is blamed on working teams. Poor downward communication of priorities. Senior management treats engineers as disposable. Recent pattern of aggressive cost-cutting through reduced compensation and offshoring.

High Risk, High Reward

Engineering Director • Former Employee

November 6, 2024

Pros: Great business model. Career opportunities abound if you can break through the cliques. Decent benefits.

Cons: Absurd levels of churn and attrition at senior/leadership levels, even for a startup. More than 75% in some departments. Lack of strategic alignment and vision at the product/leadership level is blamed on working teams. Poor downward communication of priorities. Senior management treats engineers as disposable. Recent pattern of aggressive cost-cutting through reduced compensation and offshoring.

Good work experience

Software Engineer • Former Employee

London, Ontario, Canada

Pros: You can get the best valuable experience here.

Cons: No cona to tell in here.

Good work experience

Software Engineer • Former Employee

London, Ontario, Canada

Pros: You can get the best valuable experience here.

Cons: No cona to tell in here.

Exciting startup, growing very fast

Software Engineer III • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

February 2, 2020

Pros: Amenities: * Modern equipment (laptops, monitors, sit/stand desks) * New office building * Catered meals 4 days a week * Nice location in Potrero Hill People & Environment: * Employees skew very young (early/mid 20s) * Good employee orgs/clubs (Latinx, running club, Pride, cooking) * Company growth is exciting; people are happy to be here * C-level management is approachable -- the company still feels informal

Cons: Growing pains: * Frequent engineering org/team restructures * Rushed onboarding period * Workload high/not enough people to do the work (victim of our own success) * Lots of time spent interviewing/recruiting Becoming larger company: * Lead engineer/manager quality varies from team to team * More team coordination overhead and meetings

Exciting startup, growing very fast

Software Engineer III • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

February 2, 2020

Pros: Amenities: * Modern equipment (laptops, monitors, sit/stand desks) * New office building * Catered meals 4 days a week * Nice location in Potrero Hill People & Environment: * Employees skew very young (early/mid 20s) * Good employee orgs/clubs (Latinx, running club, Pride, cooking) * Company growth is exciting; people are happy to be here * C-level management is approachable -- the company still feels informal

Cons: Growing pains: * Frequent engineering org/team restructures * Rushed onboarding period * Workload high/not enough people to do the work (victim of our own success) * Lots of time spent interviewing/recruiting Becoming larger company: * Lead engineer/manager quality varies from team to team * More team coordination overhead and meetings

High Risk, High Reward

Engineering Director • Former Employee

November 6, 2024

Pros: Great business model. Career opportunities abound if you can break through the cliques. Decent benefits.

Cons: Absurd levels of churn and attrition at senior/leadership levels, even for a startup. More than 75% in some departments. Lack of strategic alignment and vision at the product/leadership level is blamed on working teams. Poor downward communication of priorities. Senior management treats engineers as disposable. Recent pattern of aggressive cost-cutting through reduced compensation and offshoring.

2.0
High Risk, High Reward
Engineering Director • Former Employee
November 6, 2024
Pros: Great business model. Career opportunities abound if you can break through the cliques. Decent benefits.
Cons: Absurd levels of churn and attrition at senior/leadership levels, even for a startup. More than 75% in some departments. Lack of strategic alignment and vision at the product/leadership level is blamed on working teams. Poor downward communication of priorities. Senior management treats engineers as disposable. Recent pattern of aggressive cost-cutting through reduced compensation and offshoring.

Good work experience

Software Engineer • Former Employee

London, Ontario, Canada

Pros: You can get the best valuable experience here.

Cons: No cona to tell in here.

5.0
Good work experience
Software Engineer • Former Employee
London, Ontario, Canada
July 21, 2024
Pros: You can get the best valuable experience here.
Cons: No cona to tell in here.

Exciting startup, growing very fast

Software Engineer III • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

February 2, 2020

Pros: Amenities: * Modern equipment (laptops, monitors, sit/stand desks) * New office building * Catered meals 4 days a week * Nice location in Potrero Hill People & Environment: * Employees skew very young (early/mid 20s) * Good employee orgs/clubs (Latinx, running club, Pride, cooking) * Company growth is exciting; people are happy to be here * C-level management is approachable -- the company still feels informal

Cons: Growing pains: * Frequent engineering org/team restructures * Rushed onboarding period * Workload high/not enough people to do the work (victim of our own success) * Lots of time spent interviewing/recruiting Becoming larger company: * Lead engineer/manager quality varies from team to team * More team coordination overhead and meetings

3.0
Exciting startup, growing very fast
Software Engineer III • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
February 2, 2020
Pros: Amenities: * Modern equipment (laptops, monitors, sit/stand desks) * New office building * Catered meals 4 days a week * Nice location in Potrero Hill People & Environment: * Employees skew very young (early/mid 20s) * Good employee orgs/clubs (Latinx, running club, Pride, cooking) * Company growth is exciting; people are happy to be here * C-level management is approachable -- the company still feels informal
Cons: Growing pains: * Frequent engineering org/team restructures * Rushed onboarding period * Workload high/not enough people to do the work (victim of our own success) * Lots of time spent interviewing/recruiting Becoming larger company: * Lead engineer/manager quality varies from team to team * More team coordination overhead and meetings

Samsara Interview Questions

Alternating Groups I

Determine the maximum length of alternating groups (even-odd or odd-even) within a given array. Find the longest sequence where adjacent numbers have different parity.

ArraysTwo PointersSliding Windows

Alternating Groups II

Determine the length of the longest subsequence within a binary string that consists of alternating groups of 0s and 1s. You are allowed to remove characters to achieve this alternating pattern.

ArraysSliding WindowsTwo Pointers

Find Beautiful Indices in the Given Array I

Given a string and two substrings, find the indices where the first substring occurs. Then, find the indices where the second substring occurs. Return the indices of the first substring that are close to any index of the second substring, within a specified range.

ArraysStringsTwo Pointers

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