The intern hiring process contains four interviews in total. The first interview is often conducted by a recruiter. The recruiter will first chat with you about your background and then conduct a list of screening questions. Most questions are very simple and straightforward. They likely have a prepared set of answers and compare yours against them. For example, "How many bits in an integer?" or "What is the time complexity of searching in a linked list?" Do not try to explain your thought process or partial answers, as this is a screening and the interviewer is a recruiter, not an engineer. I got stuck on a few questions and tried to explain what I knew and ask for clarification or hints, but the recruiter cannot provide them. The conversation simply moved on.

Once you pass this initial screening, the next step is a 45-minute phone interview. I was interviewed by a software developer. They start by discussing your resume, your projects, and your publications. The interviewer seemed more interested in understanding who you are and your background. They will ask questions related to your resume and past projects. For example, one interviewer randomly picked a former project and asked for more details, including my role in the team. It felt like a regular technical interview, with questions focusing on computer science topics, particularly algorithms and data structures. Interestingly, I was not asked to write actual code. The interviewer was satisfied with a high-level pseudocode explanation.

A few days later, the recruiter contacted me again to schedule two 90-minute back-to-back phone interviews. The first interviewer was a senior engineer, and the second was a tech manager. We had a video Skype meeting, so they could see each other. (Therefore, be professionally dressed.) The interview process was intense. Both interviews began with discussions about your past projects. Then, they tried to understand why you would be a good fit for the company. The technical aspects involved many topics. It wasn't purely coding tests; they asked numerous questions about operating systems, databases, Linux, Python, and more. They were definitely trying to push you to your limits. Additionally, I was asked to implement a modified data structure, so be prepared to write code. The coding problem was reasonable, with no brain teasers or questions designed solely to test IQ. Of course, you need to write code neatly and quickly, not just pseudocode.

These topics were covered in my interviews:

• Operating systems (processes, multithreading, memory models)
• Databases (specifically SQL language)
• Scripting languages (Python, though answers in Perl might also be acceptable)
• Data structures and algorithms (stacks, linked lists, hashmaps, trees, heaps, etc.)
• Security (attacks, encryption, etc.)
• Web standards/protocols (HTTP, DNS, TCP/IP, SSL, etc.)
• Recursion and/or dynamic programming
• Linux knowledge/commands

In summary, they tend to ask many technical questions that can be answered in a few minutes. It's a broad test, not just a problem-solving coding test. Overall, the interview process was very good. The only aspect I didn't particularly enjoy was interviewing via Skype. In a large room without a headset, the echo could be problematic.

Operating system questions, explaining some concepts like processes and threads.

Also, some acronyms that I can't recall.