Yahoo

Software Engineer Interview Experience - Champaign, Illinois

October 1, 2014

Positive ExperienceNo Offer

Process

First round of phone interview. Questions were general, more on resume.

This position is for a Big Data Team in Champaign, Illinois.

Basics of Java
One design question on how you would design a chessboard.
Basics on SQL: creating a table, joins, HAVING BY, aggregate functions.
Basics on Unix/Linux.
One question on scalability.

Questions

Some puzzles, perhaps the question was easy, but I just couldn't understand the language. How would you distribute 1000 potatoes in 10 baskets?

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 16 interview experiences for the Yahoo Software Engineer role in Champaign, Illinois.

Success Rate

13%

Pass Rate

Yahoo's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Champaign, Illinois is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive63%

Neutral31%

Negative6%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Yahoo's Software Engineer interview process in Champaign, Illinois.

Yahoo Work Experiences

One of the best places to work as a software developer in CU

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Champaign, Illinois, United States

Pros: Colleagues at the Champaign site are both skilled and enjoyable to work with. There is little drama and politics. They offer good work-life balance. The pay and perks are good for the region, including free lunch. The office is bright and modern, with sitting and standing desks.

Cons: Long-term prospects of the company as a whole seem uncertain. Many projects at Yahoo Champaign are back-end work to maximize company revenue, which isn't for everyone. There is not much opportunity for advancement.

One of the best places to work as a software developer in CU

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Champaign, Illinois, United States

Pros: Colleagues at the Champaign site are both skilled and enjoyable to work with. There is little drama and politics. They offer good work-life balance. The pay and perks are good for the region, including free lunch. The office is bright and modern, with sitting and standing desks.

Cons: Long-term prospects of the company as a whole seem uncertain. Many projects at Yahoo Champaign are back-end work to maximize company revenue, which isn't for everyone. There is not much opportunity for advancement.

Great people. Messed up company

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Champaign, Illinois, United States

Pros: The engineers I worked with in Champaign were brilliant. Each and every one of them. They were experienced, insightful, and very nice people. I worked on Hadoop, which at Yahoo scale was an awesome experience I couldn't have gotten anywhere else. In other teams too, there were hard-working geniuses.

Cons: The company and top executive management were clueless for most of my tenure (Carol Bartz, Scott Thompson, etc.). Marissa brought in some stability but then started stack ranking. This killed any semblance of a team spirit that we may have had. People are demotivated and want to play it safe.

Great people. Messed up company

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Champaign, Illinois, United States

Pros: The engineers I worked with in Champaign were brilliant. Each and every one of them. They were experienced, insightful, and very nice people. I worked on Hadoop, which at Yahoo scale was an awesome experience I couldn't have gotten anywhere else. In other teams too, there were hard-working geniuses.

Cons: The company and top executive management were clueless for most of my tenure (Carol Bartz, Scott Thompson, etc.). Marissa brought in some stability but then started stack ranking. This killed any semblance of a team spirit that we may have had. People are demotivated and want to play it safe.

Good in general

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Champaign, Illinois, United States

October 30, 2020

Pros: Experienced technically and well-paid.

Cons: Not much that I can tell from intern experience.

Good in general

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Champaign, Illinois, United States

October 30, 2020

Pros: Experienced technically and well-paid.

Cons: Not much that I can tell from intern experience.

One of the best places to work as a software developer in CU

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Champaign, Illinois, United States

Pros: Colleagues at the Champaign site are both skilled and enjoyable to work with. There is little drama and politics. They offer good work-life balance. The pay and perks are good for the region, including free lunch. The office is bright and modern, with sitting and standing desks.

Cons: Long-term prospects of the company as a whole seem uncertain. Many projects at Yahoo Champaign are back-end work to maximize company revenue, which isn't for everyone. There is not much opportunity for advancement.

4.0
One of the best places to work as a software developer in CU
Software Engineer • Current Employee
Champaign, Illinois, United States
March 1, 2016
Pros: Colleagues at the Champaign site are both skilled and enjoyable to work with. There is little drama and politics. They offer good work-life balance. The pay and perks are good for the region, including free lunch. The office is bright and modern, with sitting and standing desks.
Cons: Long-term prospects of the company as a whole seem uncertain. Many projects at Yahoo Champaign are back-end work to maximize company revenue, which isn't for everyone. There is not much opportunity for advancement.

Great people. Messed up company

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Champaign, Illinois, United States

Pros: The engineers I worked with in Champaign were brilliant. Each and every one of them. They were experienced, insightful, and very nice people. I worked on Hadoop, which at Yahoo scale was an awesome experience I couldn't have gotten anywhere else. In other teams too, there were hard-working geniuses.

Cons: The company and top executive management were clueless for most of my tenure (Carol Bartz, Scott Thompson, etc.). Marissa brought in some stability but then started stack ranking. This killed any semblance of a team spirit that we may have had. People are demotivated and want to play it safe.

3.0
Great people. Messed up company
Software Engineer • Former Employee
Champaign, Illinois, United States
March 12, 2016
Pros: The engineers I worked with in Champaign were brilliant. Each and every one of them. They were experienced, insightful, and very nice people. I worked on Hadoop, which at Yahoo scale was an awesome experience I couldn't have gotten anywhere else. In other teams too, there were hard-working geniuses.
Cons: The company and top executive management were clueless for most of my tenure (Carol Bartz, Scott Thompson, etc.). Marissa brought in some stability but then started stack ranking. This killed any semblance of a team spirit that we may have had. People are demotivated and want to play it safe.

Good in general

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Champaign, Illinois, United States

October 30, 2020

Pros: Experienced technically and well-paid.

Cons: Not much that I can tell from intern experience.

4.0
Good in general
Software Engineer • Current Employee
Champaign, Illinois, United States
October 30, 2020
Pros: Experienced technically and well-paid.
Cons: Not much that I can tell from intern experience.

Yahoo Interview Questions

Two Sum

Find two numbers in a given array that add up to a specific target value, and return their indices. Essentially, you need to efficiently locate the pair that satisfies the sum requirement.

Contains Duplicate

Determine if any value appears at least twice in an array of numbers. Return true if duplicates exist; otherwise, return false.

Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters

Find the length of the longest substring within a given string that contains no repeating characters. The substring must be contiguous.

StringsTwo PointersSliding Windows

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