I have a first round interview scheduled at Square. The position is for a SWE. The recruiter gave me 2 options to choose from: 1. Do two rounds of pair programming with a team member 2. Do a take home project Has anyone done a take home project for Square recently? I am trying to weigh my options before I pick my next steps. TC : 90k Yoe: 6
I did a take home because I’m simply more nervous and stressed when someone is looking over the shoulder
Would it be ok to DM you?
Sure
I did the interviews because ain’t nobody got time for the project
I did the take home project and made time for it. The stress of having someone observe me has a serious impact on my performance. This isn't as big of an issue at work, but during interviews it's a killer. I also think that puzzles are a terrible way of assessing experience and knowledge and was excited to be able to show a lot more through a take home project.
What sort off take home project was it? Do you mind giving a gist?
You have to build a small app with a couple of screens. They give you some endpoints that you have to hit and you also have to implement persistence. If you are used to working at every layer of the stack this will be trivial. If you have to go off and learn about each individual layer and how to put together a sound implementation of each then maybe it's not for you.
I just talked to a recruiter and they didn’t even mention a take home project. Are you interviewing at the senior level?
Take home proj is only for mobile swe.
We've really just started doing take-homes for non-mobile.
Not OP but what kind of questions do they ask if you don’t go the project route?
I did a technical phone instead of take home! It’s a 3 step format which started with an easy and then gradually converted to a medium leetcode question related to string! Interviewer was very helpful!
Many keep sharing the similar experiences, I wonder what is the question? Don’t get me wrong, if the question was easy => medium why isn’t everyone hired? What is Square’s hiring criteria?
So practicing leetcode is still the way to go?
Interviewing tomorrow and was told it's going to be a 1hr pairing session. No other options were given to me. I'm pretty nervous about spacing out from nerves and needing to google silly things - I'd definitely prefer a take-home project. I guess we'll see how it goes! 🤞 A little bummed to hear their cool down period is 1yr but I suppose there are plenty of other great companies out there if this doesn't work out!
What kind of problems did you get? Was this for a front end or backend position?
Hey, I will be interviewing with Square soon, do you mind sharing the problem, if not here,I can DM you
I have upcoming phone screen - can someone share recent exp? For sr swe role
I got a question on filepaths, its somewhat similar to the absolute file path problem on lc but it wasn’t the same. I don’t remember the exact question. They do give you hints to solve the question since it’s a pair programming round. Try to work on those hints.
Never a take home project
Why? just curious
I'm also curious why