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Software Engineer Interview Experience - Venice, California

August 31, 2016
Positive ExperienceNo Offer

Process

The interview process was quite straightforward. If you have a solid programming background from personal projects or open-source contributions, you should do well. I also recommend the book "Cracking the Coding Interview"; it contains some excellent practice questions.

There were three rounds of interviews. Here's my experience:

Round 1: I received a phone call that lasted about 20 minutes. It focused on C++, even though the position was primarily for Python and Java. I'm not sure why C++ was a focus. I answered to the best of my ability. Approximately two minutes after the call, I received an email stating I had advanced to the second round. Honestly, I didn't think I'd made it, as I felt my answers were subpar.

Round 2: The second interview went more smoothly. It was a Python programming exercise conducted via Skype and lasted around one hour, including time for questions about Snapchat. If you know Python, you'll likely do fine. About a day later, I received an email inviting me for an in-person interview. They flew me to their headquarters in Los Angeles and covered my flight and hotel expenses, which was appreciated.

Round 3: The third and final interview was an all-day affair. The engineers presented me with various problems, probing my thought process to understand how I approach challenges. The questions were of average difficulty, and I answered all of them, except for the final one, which I failed miserably. They also arranged for me to have lunch with an engineer to assess cultural fit; the person I met was quite pleasant.

About a week later, I received an email informing me that I did not get the position. Oh well.

Questions

If you know algorithms and some programming, you'll do better than me. Seriously.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 11 interview experiences for the Snap Software Engineer role in Venice, California.

Success Rate

64%
Pass Rate

Snap's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Venice, California is on the easier side as most engineers get an offer after going through it.

Experience Rating

Positive64%
Neutral18%
Negative18%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Snap's Software Engineer interview process in Venice, California.

Snap Work Experiences