This time, we would like to share one of our participants' MathWorks Software Engineer Virtual Onsite Interview.Founded in 1984, MathWorks is best known for MATLAB, of course, but they actually have a very diverse product portfolio:Simulink, Stateflow, SimEvents The company's culture is very different from that of a typical Silicon Valley tech company, which emphasizes mathematical depth and scientific rigor. The company's size is around 5,000 people, and its culture is very different from the typical Silicon Valley tech company, which focuses more on mathematical depth and scientific rigor.
Many of the engineers have PhD backgrounds and often talk about the mathematical foundations of algorithms during the interview process, so the pace and style of the entire Virtual Onsite is very MathWorks-like.
Virtual Onsite Process
This participant's Virtual Onsite consists of 4 rounds of 45 minutes to 1 hour each:
- Technical Phone Screen
- Coding Interview
- System Design / Technical Deep Dive
- Behavioral + Manager Round
We provided remote assistance throughout the whole process, including real-time reminders of coding questions, system design ideas, and behavioral issues of the story combing. Eventually, the student successfully got the offer.
Round 1: Technical Phone Screen
This round was mainly a warm-up, asking a lot of questions about data structures and algorithm basics of the problem.
for example:
- How to handle searching and sorting of large-scale data?
- Difference between matrix and sparse matrix in terms of storage and computation?
With our reminder, the trainee quickly started from the engineering point of view, combining complexity, memory overhead and practical application scenarios to make it clear, and the interviewer was obviously satisfied with the answer.
Round 2: Coding Interview
This round is the most MathWorks-esque part of the program, with questions tied to core areas of MATLAB.
Topic 1: Matrix Operations Optimization
Given an oversized matrix A (m x n), it is required:
- Find all local maxima (elements with more than 8 neighbors)
- Return coordinates and values
- Still memory efficient at scales m, n > 10^6
We trained the trainees in advance, and used sliding window + in-place operation directly to avoid extra large matrices, and at the same time talked about the boundary conditions and sparse matrix processing. When the interviewer asked about the implementation of parallel processing, we reminded him to mention block partition + multi-threading, answered very professionally.
Topic 2: Signal Processing Algorithm
Ask to write a real-time filter:
- denoise
- Detection of spikes/anomalies
- sliding window saves the last N samples
- Output delay as small as possible
The trainees only thought of moving average at first, and we added to it with real-time prompts. circular buffer The interviewer was also interested in the implementation details of z-score, as well as detecting anomalies with z-score. At the end, he added "trade-off between filter delay and stability", which directly brought the interviewer to a higher technical level.
Topic 3: Graph Algorithm with Engineering Context
The scenario is a sensor network to:
- Find the fewest sensors to cover all areas
- redundancy: each area must be covered by at least two sensors
- Minimize communication costs
The essence of the question is set cover + redundancy constraintThe interviewer recognized the student. The student was stuck in his thinking for a while, so we reminded him to transform the problem into graph modeling first, then talk about greedy baseline, then mention integer programming and trade-off in actual engineering. this set of logic down, the interviewer recognized it very well.
Round 3: System Design / Technical Deep Dive
The title of this round is very MathWorks:
Design a Distributed Computing System for MATLAB
Demand is:
- Users can submit computationally intensive tasks to cluster
- Monitor job progress in real time
- Failure Retry Support
- Dynamically expand according to the workload
We instruct participants to speak first overall architecture: job scheduler, worker nodes, monitoring module.
Then add fault tolerance + dynamic scalingThe interviewer asked about the MATLAB execution model. The interviewer followed up with a question about the MATLAB execution model, and the trainee was reminded by us to mention the parallel toolbox and distributed array The mechanism of MathWorks is a direct hit on a key point within MathWorks.
Round 4: Behavioral + Manager Round
This round is mainly for managers to talk about project experience and teamwork:
- Have trainees tell a story of technical problem-solving
- Emphasizing innovation and creativity
- Look at collaboration and communication
We helped the trainees sort out the stories of their research projects + internships in advance, focusing on:
- How to spot a problem
- How to innovate solutions
- How to collaborate with your team
During the interview, the trainee was very confident and the manager nodded his head after listening to the interview.
Summarize
The whole Virtual Onsite down feeling:
MathWorks is really looking for people with a solid foundation in mathematics + strong engineering implementation skills. The questions are strongly mathematical modeling / signal processing / scientific computing Style.
Because of our remote assistance, this student performed very solidly in coding, system design and behavioral aspects, and finally passed the exam and got an offer from MathWorks.
MathWorks Interview FAQ
Q1: What is the difference between MathWorks interviews and other big companies?
A1: The biggest difference is that they put more emphasis on the depth of math and scientific computing. For example, matrix optimization, signal processing, and control systems are topics that hardly appear in Google and Meta interviews, but are regular test points at MathWorks.
Q2: Will I be at a disadvantage if I don't have a PhD background?
A2: Not necessarily at a disadvantage, but if you're in the applied math / signal processing / control systems There is no buildup on it, and it does make it more of a struggle. We usually help our students with targeted remedial lessons to lay the foundation.
Q3: Do all Coding questions need to be written in MATLAB?
A3: The interview does not necessarily require MATLAB, but many of the questions are tied to core MATLAB scenarios, such as matrix operation, signal filter. this means that your solution should be able to reflect the scientific computing awareness.
Q4: How do I prepare for the Behavioral section?
A4: Manager Special attention innovation + collaborationBe sure to prepare stories from your academic or internship projects that emphasize how you brought your ideas to fruition and how you worked with your team. Be sure to prepare project stories from academics or internships that emphasize how you landed the idea into a result and how well you worked with the team.
Programhelp -- to make your journey to the interview more efficient and secure.
In a company like MathWorks, the interviews are really different from the regular big companies. Many students are not prepared for signal processing or matrix optimization questions at the beginning, so it is easy to get stuck. Our team has been helping students to sort out the test points for a long time, and we provide remote voice assistance, real-time coding reminders, and system design ideas to ensure that they don't fall off the chain at critical moments.
If you're also preparing for an interview at MathWorks, Amazon, Two Sigma, or any other big North American company, you don't have to do it alone. We can help you:
- OA WritingTo ensure that all test case 100% passes the test, you need to have the following information available
- VO real-time assists, coding / system design / behavioral full coverage
- Full simulation + one-on-one coaching to help you advance quickly
For more details, you can contact us directly to help you customize your own efficient customs clearance program .
