I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Snap (Austin, TX) in Nov 2022
Interview
Recruiter call
Tech screen:
Asked React question, built a little game
Passed to on-site 5 rounds:
Rd 1: System Design: question was made up on the spot based on my experiences, made it hard to get defined answers
Rd 2: Technical: JS exercise around promises
Rd 3: Q&A, no feedback taken during this round.
Rd 4: System Design: Design part of Snapchat
Rd 5: Tech Exercise around string encoding and bite size.
Everyone was really kind and professional, the interviews were a bit adhoc which I both appreciated and disliked (they felt relevant and customized to me, but they were much less organized). Recruiter was the best I’ve ever had.
They announced a mandatory RTO as well.
Got middling feedback two days after last round no offer. Pretty sure I lost it on communication abilities to discern info, wish I would’ve spoken slower and listened more.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why snap?? Describe a time you made big difference
One initial screening call. Then 1 coding screen. Then an on-site with 3 coding rounds and 1 system design round. All the rounds were pretty straightforward DSA patterns and SD was also a common question you read about in SD interview prep books.
Hard but interesting. Had to go through 1 HM round, 2 coding rounds and 2 systems design rounds. Coding round was hit counter, and message recommendation system. The System design rounds were a bit challenging.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design a recommendation system for messaging to predict the next word while typing
For the technical rounds, I was asked leetcode style questions. Need to practice Data structures and algorithms in order to do well on the interviews. It's important to explain the code as you go along and clarfiy any questions with the interviewer.
Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Snap with 3.3 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 45% positive. To compare, the company-average is 46.1% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 19 days to get hired, when considering 156 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Snap overall takes an average of 26 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Snap as a Software Engineer according to 156 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 41%
One on one interview: 23%
Skills test: 15%
Presentation: 9%
Group panel interview: 4%
Background check: 3%
IQ intelligence test: 1%
Drug test: 1%
Personality test: 1%
Other: 1%
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