This time Circle For SDE, we followed a total of 3 students with different backgrounds: some had a lot of practice questions, some were very strong in system design, and some had good resumes but frequently turned over OA. To sum up Circle in one sentence: it does not pursue extreme intelligence, but only cleans up "unreliable output". Circle's questions are not difficult, but each round is looking for the same thing: whether you are someone you can trust remotely to cooperate with.
Circle OA insights
In this Circle interview, to be honest, I talked about OA (CodeSignal) first at the beginning. This is the place where most people fail. Circle’s OA uses CodeSignal. There are 4 questions in total. The time does not seem tight, but the rhythm is quite important. The questions themselves are not tricky, and can even be said to be "too familiar", but every question has pitfalls.
For example, there is a question that probably means:
Given a string, add up all the numeric characters in it and return the sum.
When seeing this question, many people’s first reaction is:
"Oh, isn't this seconds?"
But in OA, the most common mistakes are:
- Treat consecutive numbers as a whole (actually the question is about digits)
- Ignore strange symbols mixed in strings
- After writing the unexpected case, hand it in directly
This type of question does not test whether you can write, but whether you can "write according to the topic".
Another way is to find the value in the linked list.
It is quite basic, so basic that you will wonder if it is a warm-up question. But I noticed a detail at that time:
Circle especially cares about whether you have null pointer/boundary judgment.
If your writing is too "question-based", such as recursive and complex structure, you will not get any points.
What they prefer:
- Honestly while loop
- Step by step
- Not showy, but steady
What really makes the difference is whether the rectangles overlap.
You have most likely seen this question on LeetCode, but in an OA environment, it is quite easy to write the wrong conditions.
This is how I handled it:
Rather than thinking about "when they overlap," it's better to just list when they don't overlap.
As long as any one of the following is met:
- One completely to the left of the other
- Completely right
- Completely above
- Completely down
Then there must be no overlap.
The rest is all overlap.
If you think clearly about this step, the code will be particularly clean.
The last one is SQL and it is more business logic.
The question is probably to ask you to find users whose order quantity is less than a certain value, or whose total consumption is lower than a certain threshold.
Many people fall into the trap here for only one reason:WHERE And HAVING Wrong use.
Circle's SQL questions don't test how complicated your join is, but whether you have actually written business SQL.
After finishing OA, to be honest, I felt a little guilty
It’s not because the questions are difficult, but the Circle questions give people a feeling:
"As long as you are not steady enough, it will catch you accurately."
This is also why the role of ProgramHelp in the OA stage will be very obvious——
It does not help you think of algorithms, but helps you constantly remind you of boundaries, rhythms and checkpoints.
When you enter the technical round later, you won’t be so “reduced”
In the system design round, there was no such exaggerated distributed issue.
More like asking:
"If this was a service you wanted to maintain on a daily basis, how would you design it?"
For example:
- How to dismantle API
- Where to put data
- What to do if the request volume suddenly increases
The interviewer is not asking you to draw an architecture that "looks awesome", but will keep asking you:
"Why did you choose this?"
Whether you can explain the trade-off clearly is much more important than how many components you draw.
Pair Programming is something that many people are not prepared for.
This round is really Circle.
You don’t write it by yourself, but two people write it together.
You will clearly feel that they are watching:
- Can you write and talk at the same time?
- Will you adjust if the other party makes suggestions?
- Are you a "collaborative engineer" or "write alone"
Writing code in silence will be a deduction in this round.
The value of ProgramHelp in this round is actually not to “tell you how to write”, but to constantly remind you:
- Time to explain
- It’s time to confirm your needs
- Do you want to pause here?
In terms of behavior, he is more serious than I thought.
It's not the kind of thing you can get past by using STAR.
They will ask you some very real questions, such as:
- When do you turn down an opportunity that seems like a good one?
- What would you do if you disagreed with the PM's decision?
- How do you ensure delivery quality under remote collaboration?
If you just memorize the answers, you will easily be questioned.
Finally, I would like to say a very important feeling
Circle doesn’t “strive for talent” like traditional big manufacturers.
It’s also not like some companies “brushing the algorithm”.
It's more like looking for a person:
Someone who is stable, reliable, has a strong sense of engineering, and can work with you remotely and long-term.
If you usually write questions very vigorously but get nervous easily and miss cases easily,
Then Circle is one of the easiest companies to "quietly brush you off".
If you want to continue fighting later Circle / Coinbase / Stripe / FinTech / Crypto infra This line, honestly:
The preparation method should switch from "question answering" to "steady-state output".
Next Step: Don’t let one question ruin your full-time offer
This is the reality: you know the technology and you have the ideas, but the pressure of the scene, the unfamiliar language environment, and the tricky Test Cases will instantly destroy your mentality.
- OA hosting: 100% Pass Rate, CodeSignal/HackerRank guaranteed.
- VO real-time assistance: Screen sharing + invisible voice is equivalent to bringing a Google Tech Lead to accompany you for an interview.
ROI calculation: Our full-service fee is a fraction of your first-year Sign-on Bonus. Should I exchange a few thousand dollars for a certain future, or should I gamble on luck to save money?
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