My interview experience for SWE internships at Big N

This week I concluded a 5-month long job search phase and completed a series of software engineering internship interviews at a bunch of firms in the valley and it was a great learning opportunity. I interviewed with four of the Big N companies, and the process is quite simple: you’re given a problem and you’re expected to write code to solve the problem. Usually, you use a variety of data structures, and construct algorithms that are correct and optimal. The emphasis is on writing clean, modularized, and maintainable code. You’re expected to think out loud, and convey your ideas throughout the coding exercise. They want to know your thought process, specifically the trade offs that you make between time/space, and the type of questions you ask in ambiguous scenarios.

Here are some important lessons:
1. Practice writing clean code that correctly works — and maintainability is extremely important. I got turned down by a Big N firm after completing my final round of technical interviews because my “solution could’ve been more maintainable”.
2.Optimize your code — is the array sorted, how about a binary search? During my final round of technical interview for a dream internship at a Big N firm, I accidentally performed a linear search on a sorted array and guess what? They let me go. It’s important to understand that these companies deal with big chunks of data, and your code is expected to be efficient.

And the most important tip is to network and connect. Connect with folks who are also interviewing and do mock interviews with them, connect with those who are at the companies you’re interested in to learn more about the type of opportunities they offer, connect with those who know more than you to seek help, and connect with those who know less than you to give help. Join groups like cscareerquestions on Reddit and SAT on Facebook. I cannot emphasize how important it is to reach out when you need help; there are countless number of people out there who are in the same boat as you, and are experienced enough to guide you. If you can take away only one thing from this post — please know how valuable it is to network and connect.

Lastly, all I want to say is that it’s not easy — it’s simple, but it’s not easy. I have done a ton of leetcode questions and spent several hours each day preparing but I don’t have an offer yet. For a Big N, I thought I even “cleared” the technical portion, but got rejected due to some reasons that are out of my control. That being said, I’m happy that I have a great head-start for the next season. One thing I’ve learned from my friends who landed their dream internships is that it’s all about practicing, and persistence is the key.

Here are some resources that I found super useful. All the best if you’re in the pipeline or wish to begin studying. I’m incredibly passionate about helping, so please feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn if you have any questions, I am on my phone almost all waking hours. If I can’t answer your questions, I can try to connect you with someone who can — we’re all in this together!

Please note that the above mentioned are my own views, and are not tied to any specific company.

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