pretty standard on paper, but in reality, ridiculously hard. I interviewed twice for this company, never made it to onsites, when I did multiple onsites for aws, meta, microsoft, palantir. Not being bitter, but I wonder who they manage to hire if they are more picky than more attractive companies. Also, I guess this is bad luck, but the interviewer I had had very poor communication skills with a poor mic and total lack of empathy/coaching, which made my interview even more painful.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
NP complete problem for the first time I failed, for the second time, I think the problem was not complex, but so poorly explained by the interviewer that after 50mn I was still unsure about the problem that I was asked to solve. Interviewer being sarcastic instead of trying to help me perform. Horrendous experience.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Booking.com (Amsterdam) in Jun 2021
Interview
The recruitment process at Booking.com was very good. Right from the interaction with the recruiter to the final round of interviews, everyone was very courteous and helpful.
About the recruiter especially, I had an excellent experience, the position for which I had applied initially was filled, however, the recruiter contacted me for a similar role opening. All the interviews were scheduled promptly, and feedback was given after every round.
All the interviewers for the technical rounds were very supportive. The interviews were well-formatted covering all the aspects of technical topics (Data structure, Time-space complexity, trade-offs).
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Topics covered in Interviews:
1. Past experiences, and my role
2. Behavioral
3. Data structure and Algorithm during coding round
4. System design
I applied online. I interviewed at Booking.com (Amsterdam)
Interview
First there was a phone screen with a recruiter covering my experience and interests, reason for leaving current company.
Then a technical interview - one complex problem to be solved in around 40 minutes (1 hour interview, 10 minutes introduction, 10 minutes for questions at the end).
FAANG style problem, as I had been previously warned.
Unfortunately while I was on the right track, I didn't manage to progress enough in the available time.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Complex graph search problem - I liked that the problem description was adapted to have some relevance to the company.