1st round: DSA (1 hour)

• Modified Binary Search
• Paint Houses DP
• LRU Cache
• LFU Cache

2nd round: Was supposed to be LLD as per the recruiter, but it was not.

The interviewer came with a predetermined mindset to reject. It felt like they were just passing time.

1. Next greater integer
2. What is Load Balancing?
3. What is Consistent Hashing?

She never asked for the logic of the first problem. She didn't care about time/space complexity, nor did she ask for a dry run. I carried the interview, discussing optimal approaches, logic, and dry-run corner cases, but she was unresponsive. It was like talking to myself.

For the next two questions, I provided detailed answers on types of load balancing, how they work, and their pros and cons.

It was the same with consistent hashing.

She had no response, just asking a question, waiting for my answer, and then silence. She cut the interview short within 30 minutes. She never introduced herself and took a long time to copy-paste her first question (DSA one). She never responded.

I asked her why she was cutting the interview short and if there was a problem. She said it was nothing and that she had gotten what she needed.

From her behavior, which was extremely bad, I knew there would be a rejection email. I was extremely unlucky to get her as an interviewer. She is from the industry TMT.

ServiceNow recruiters call via landline or international numbers, and emails are sent via a portal. This prevents us from providing them our feedback or rescheduling an interview. I can accept being rejected for someone better, but this interview was set up for failure by the interviewer.

I received the feedback through a few contacts. As suspected, the second-round interviewer gave bad feedback, lying that I don't know the basics of load balancing and stating that I am "just okay" with problem-solving. The HR took this as a strong negative and sent the rejection mail.

Later, she justified it by lying about "average" performance in Round 1 as well (I answered all four problems). She also lied about me joining interviews late.

If an interview is supposed to be one-sided, why conduct it? Why shortlist candidates? Why proceed them to the next round? It is better to state that they found someone better than to lie in the feedback. Candidates can accept rejection, but not lies.

ServiceNow has over 64% negative reviews, and in this job market, they have no shortage of candidates willing to work with such people. But given a choice, I don't know why anyone would choose ServiceNow. I am marking this interview as very difficult because with ServiceNow, it depends on who your interviewer is and how secure that person is in their life.

Here are some algorithm topics:

• Modified Binary Search
• Paint Houses DP
• LRU Cache
• LFU Cache