An informational interview with a Tableau employee led to an introduction to a recruiter. I subsequently scheduled a phone call with the recruiter, which was pleasant and general, covering my background and Tableau's work. At the end of the 30-minute call, the recruiter suggested I might be a good fit for an open position and scheduled me for a phone screen.

The phone screen was with a Software Engineer (SE) on the team. After discussing our respective work backgrounds, I was asked to implement a function to merge two sorted arrays into a single sorted array. I wrote the code on a provided coding editor. Despite being nervous, as this was my first tech screen, the interviewer was very kind, and we worked through the problem successfully. I made sure to vocalize my thought process and considered input checks, which seemed to be appreciated.

Follow-up questions included what I would do if merging three or more arrays.

I made a few minor mistakes and was slow on certain points. For instance, I momentarily blanked on whether a Java function could return an int[] array and was unsure about creating an array of size zero. These small issues were frustrating, stemming from nerves, unfamiliarity with the process, and a recent return to Java. However, the interviewer's supportive demeanor kept me comfortable, and I actually learned during the interview. We also discussed Tableau, company culture, my motivations for wanting to work there, and I had the opportunity to ask him questions. Overall, it was a very positive conversation that solidified my interest in the team and Tableau.

The recruiter emailed the next day to schedule an on-site interview lasting 4-6 hours. I am still awaiting confirmation of the schedule and will update this review once the interviews are completed. Fingers crossed!

Write a function that takes two sorted arrays and merges them to create a sorted array.