LinkedIn SDE Intern Interview Process
- Round 0: Resume Screening
- Round 1: Hackerrank OA Tests
- Round 2: Technical interviews
- Round 3: Interviews with supervising managers
I went through the job posting on LinkedIn and applied via inbound around August.
(Tip 1: Prepare your resume ahead of time, as these positions can close quickly and you may still need some time to find inbound.)
About a week later, I received a response from a recruiter on LinkedIn saying that my resume passed the screening process and I made it to the first round.
Round 1: Hackerrank OA Tests
This is a full OA, on the Hackerrank platform.
The test consists of 3 questions of medium Leetcode difficulty to be completed in 90 minutes.
(Tip 2: Try to complete all 3 questions within the time limit.)
About a week later, I received a call from a recruiter saying that an online technical interview would be held in two days.
Since I've been practicing data structure related topics in my spare time, I've been reviewing mainly operating systems and databases during this time.
Round 2: Online technical interviews
It was an online technical interview with an interviewer from the team I would have joined had I passed.
It is 1 hour long and the discussion will include:
- 1 question of medium Leetcode difficulty -- asked me to write code and dry run through some test cases.
- 1 question of moderate Leetcode difficulty -- I was asked to explain the idea and write pseudo-code.
- Question about the project on my resume.
- Operating system related issues.
LinkedIn SDE Coding Questions
- Two ordered arrays, then returns two elements indexed so that the absolute difference between the two elements is minimized.
- A two-dimensional matrix represents an apple tree, 1 means good apples, 2 means bad apples, the bad apples can "infect" the good apples on the top, bottom, left and right of the tree every minute, so that the good apples will turn into bad apples, and ask how many minutes it will take to infect the whole tree. You can use BFS to solve this problem by counting the number of layers.
The whole process made me feel good and I stopped being nervous once I started. The interviewer was very friendly, he asked me to explain the boundary cases of the code, use cases dry run, asked some questions about the project in my resume and some basic questions about the operating system.
(Tip 3: Keep it neat when writing code; the interviewer may be able to help if you get stuck.)
About a week later, I was notified that I made it to the final hiring manager interview.
Round 3: Hiring Manager Interview
This round is a 15-20 minute discussion with the hiring manager.
I prepared for this round through LinkedIn Learning and prepared answers to common questions ahead of time, such as:
- Why LinkedIn?
- Your strengths and weaknesses?
There was no set format for this round, which covered technology I've used, schooling, hobbies, introducing myself, and questions related to the company.
He also asked if I had any questions for him.
The whole interview lasted about 15 minutes and this time I felt quite confident.
(Tip 4: Stay calm and answer politely.)
Interview Follow-up
I remember refreshing Gmail almost every 10 minutes during that time, even on Saturdays and Sundays,
However, a week later I got the email with the subject line -- "LinkedIn Offer".
I sat quietly for 10 minutes, reading the email over and over again until the recruiter called.
He said on the phone:
"Congratulations! We're excited to make you an internship offer, and I hope you've read the email I just sent you."
He didn't realize that I had memorized that email.
He briefed me on the details of the internship and the follow-up process. I was too shocked to respond properly and just giggled and said "thank you very much".
So that's the whole interview experience for us. If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a private message.
contact us
If you're also preparing for OA / interviews at LinkedIn SDE or other big North American firms, there's really no need to tough it out alone:
ProgramHelp team provides OA ghostwriting service, interview assistance for a long time, Interview assistance services with guaranteed pass rate;
Remote voice assistance / real-time reminder, to help you in the interview process to avoid the "dig your own hole" situation.
