What Interviews at Big Companies Look Like
Interviews at big companies are relatively long processes with progressively increasing complexity of technical questions and coding challenges (such an interview process can take a month or even more). Most companies prefer one or more technical phone screens, on-site technical challenges, and in-person interviews before making an offer. Commonly, one of these interviews will be non-technical (known as a lunch interview).
Let's get an overview of how interviews are conducted in several leading IT companies. Generally speaking, all these companies are looking for smart, passionate, and excellent coders.
We will talk about how interviews are conducted in the following companies:
- Amazon
- Microsoft
- Crossover
Let's get started!
Interviews at Google
The Google interview starts with a technical phone screen (technical questions and coding challenges). There will be 4-5 people involved in these technical phone screens. One of the phone screens will be non-technical. At this moment, feel free to ask anything you want.
During these interview stages, you will be scored for your analytical ability, coding, experience, and communication skills.
The interviewers submit their feedback to the Hiring Committee (HC). The HC is responsible for making an offer or rejecting you. If the HC considers that you are the right person for the job, then they forward the offer proposal to other committees. The final decision is taken by the executive management committee.
The main technical focus is on analytical algorithms, brain-teasing algorithms, system design, and scalability.
Most probably, you'll need to wait several weeks for a response.
It is advisable to search interview at Google on YouTube and watch the most relevant testimonials and roadmap videos. Also, search for Google's most asked interview questions.
Interviews at Amazon
The Amazon interview starts with a technical phone screen conducted by a team from Amazon. If some interviewers are not convinced after this phone screen, then it is possible that they will ask for another one to clarify the issues.
If you pass the technical phone screen(s), then you will be invited to several face-to-face interviews. A team of interviewers from different areas of the business will individually conduct an interview and evaluate your technical skills (including coding). One of them is also known as the bar raiser guy. Commonly, this guy is the most experienced, and his questions and coding challenges will be harder. They will evaluate you against other candidates as well, and they will decide whether to make an offer or not.
The main focus is on Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) and scalability.
If you don't get any feedback after a week, then you should trigger a friendly follow-up e-mail to Amazon contacts. Most probably, they will quickly reply to your e-mail and explain the current status of your interview.
It is advisable to search interview at Amazon on YouTube and watch the most relevant testimonials and roadmap videos. Also, search for Amazon's most asked interview questions.
Interviews at Microsoft
The Microsoft interview starts with several technical phone screens or they might require you to travel to one of their working branches. You will have 4-5 technical interviews with different teams.
The final decision belongs to the hiring manager. Commonly, this hiring manager is contacted only if you passed all the technical interview stages.
The main focus is on algorithms and data structures.
If you did not get any feedback after a week, then you should trigger a friendly follow-up e-mail to Microsoft contacts. Sometimes, it takes just a day until they provide a decision, but it can take a week, a month, or even more.
It is advisable to search interview at Microsoft on YouTube and watch the most relevant testimonials and roadmap videos. Also, search for Microsoft's most asked interview questions.
Interviews at Facebook
The Facebook interview starts with several technical and non-technical phone screens involving questions (technical and non-technical) and coding challenges. Commonly, the interviews are conducted by a team of software engineers and hiring managers.
Facebook uses three types of interviews covering the following areas:
- Your ability to adapt to the Facebook culture, along with some technical skills – known as the behavioral or Jedi interview
- Your coding and algorithms skill (these are common problems that we'll cover later, starting with Chapter 6, Object-Oriented Programming) – known as the Ninja interview
- Your design and architecture skills – known as the Pirate interview
You can expect a combination of these types of interviews. Commonly, one Jedi and two Ninja are enough. For positions that require higher experience, there will be Pirate interviews as well.
If you pass these technical phone screens, then you will receive some homework including technical questions and coding challenges. This time, you have to provide elegant and clean coding solutions.
The main focus is on your capabilities to build something fast in any language. You can expect to code in PHP, Java, C++, Python, Erlang, and so on.
The team of interviewers will take the decision to hire you or not.
It is advisable to search interview at Facebook on YouTube and watch the most relevant testimonials and roadmap videos. Also, search for Facebook's most asked interview questions.
Interviews at Crossover
Crossover is a remote company. They recruit remotely via their platform and have an exclusive on-site interview process. Their on-site interview adheres to the following roadmap:
Figure 2.1 – Crossover interview roadmap
All steps are important, which means your responses at each step must pass their internal playbooks. If a step doesn't pass their internal playbooks, then it can lead to a sudden closure of the interview. But, the most important steps are steps 3, 5, 6, and 7. Step 3 represents an eliminatory Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT). For example, you have to answer 50 questions in 15 minutes. You have to answer correctly 25+ questions to have a chance to advance to the next step. If you are not familiar with CCAT tests, then it is strongly recommended to practice (there are books and websites dedicated to CCAT tests). Without serious practice, it will be quite challenging to pass it. If you are not a native English speaker, then you have to pay extra attention to practice the questions that require serious English skills.
At step 5, you'll get a quiz with technical questions. There are 30+ questions with 5 answer variants (one or more answers are correct). No coding is required at this step.
If you reach step 6, then you'll receive technical homework that should be completed in 3 hours and submitted (uploaded) to the platform. This homework can consist of one or more Java applications starting from a stub application provided via download.
At step 7, you'll finally meet a person via a phone screen. This is usually a mix of technical and non-technical questions.
The technical questions will cover a wide range of Java topics (collections, concurrency, I/O, exceptions, and so on).
Commonly, you'll receive the final response by e-mail in less than a week. Depending on the position, the offer will start with 1 month of paid boot camp experience. Note that after boot camp, you can still be rejected or required to apply again. During boot camp and after it, you'll have to maintain your position via weekly metrics that measure your performance. You'll have to work 40 hours/week with webcam screenshots every 10 minutes. And, you are responsible for arranging to pay your own taxes. Salaries are fixed and public on their website.
It is advisable to read the job description and testimonials on their website carefully. They also have brand ambassadors whom you can contact to find out more about the company culture, expectations, interview flow, and so on.
Other remote companies follow a three-step interview process. For example, Upstack follows this pattern:
- Initial interview: Non-technical phone screen
- Technical interview: Technical phone screen containing coding challenge
- Offer: Sending you an offer and signing the agreement
Of course, there are many other big companies that are not listed here. But as a rule of thumb, the companies and their processes outlined here should give you some important insights into what you should expect from a big player in the IT industry.
Summary
In this chapter, we had an overview of how interviews are conducted in several leading IT companies. Most IT companies follow the same practices presented in this chapter, with their own different combinations and flavors.
Next, let's see what the most common non-technical questions are, and how to answer them.