Terrible Snap coding interview experience
It was so terrible that it is almost funny. The interview started with the interviewer talking for 10 minutes about my previous work experience. Then he posted a 140 line long question in Hacker rank, scrolling over 3.5 pages. He then started to explain the question at rocket speed, while selecting some portions of the text to indicate what he is talking about. I didn't even know which page he is on since he didn't share his screen and had no idea what is saying because I couldn't see him selecting stuff (I still had the first page loaded on my screen). Towards the end of his explanation, I scrolled down and saw that he is actually selecting some text and realized what is going on. I then requested him for some time so that I can read the question by myself. The question was full of ambiguities and I heavily suspect that he was trying a custom made question for the first time. I had to implement two methods and the second method had a very vague description. I implemented the first method and he agreed to the correct implementation. When I read the API and requirements for the second method, I asked him a few counter questions to better understand it. I wrote down an example to clarify if this is a correct scenario. He clearly said yes and I designed my solution around that. After a while he mentioned that he wanted something else and added a new requirement. This new requirement will make the previous example invalid and at that point he agreed that the previous example shouldn't have been a correct example in the first place. I mean what was this guy even thinking? This might have been his first interview after shadowing or this was the first time he was trying out this question. He was so underprepared that towards the end he looked nervous as f. Of course I was rejected because the recruiter will believe his word over mine so not point even bringing this up with the recruiter. For people who think I am salty, I interviewed with 4 other companies and getting offers from all of them. Snap was my priority number 5. Just wanted to share this experience to let other senior engineers know that Snap recruiters may tie you up with inexperienced interviewers who have no idea what they are doing. #snap #stickToYourEffingScriptInInterviewsIfYouDontKnowShit TC: 610k YOE: 12
My snap interviewers were too busy on their second monitor and they were just saying "yup.. that makes sense" but they actually weren't even listening
Do you think they didn’t care or so busy that they weren’t interested in the interview?
F**k this kind of interview process and f**k that interviewer
I think you should bring it up with the recruiter before you get any feedback. If you have other offers bring that up too. By not sharing this with your recruiter you’re only ensuring this bad interviewer will go interview more people poorly. I highly recommend sharing your feedback with your Snap recruiter.
I got a rejection email from the recruiter already. Didn't want to share this before because this might have pissed off that interviewer more and he might have gone to debrief with more anguish.
Don’t think the recruiter would’ve taken interviewer feedback as seriously if you had shared the experience right away & they certainly wouldn’t share your feedback with the interviewer before the debrief. Assuming the process was unbiased at Snap. Now it’ll seem you’re salty as you correctly proposed but I’d still message the recruiter a nicely worded email sharing this experience. Plus the other offers when you get them. At the very least leave your LinkedIn in their email so they can see where you ended up going so there’s some data that they f’d up.
Had a similarly bad experience with a different snap interviewer.
Had a similar experience with another company. I was wondering, who are these people? What do they want ? 🤔
Lol, that was exactly something going through my head at that point. In the beginning of the interview, for a moment I felt dumb because I was not able to follow what he is explaining but then realized that he is in his own whimsical world!
“Dodged a bullet” there is what I tell myself after these types of interviews lol. Imagine working with people like that day in day out
As a counter data point, I had a great interview experience. Even though it was my very first interview in like 6 years and I bombed it spectacularly. Meanwhile at Uber I solved a LC hard in the tech screen and still got a reject 🤷♂️
Uber is far from perfect, that is why i am interviewing lol. I am only sharing my experience, not saying Snap in general is bad to interview at.
What about Uber is bad? Could you elaborate?
Interesting, my recent phone screen with Snapchat was one of the better interview experiences I've ever had. The interviewer was actively engaged and trying to make it a back and forth discussion, instead of just being radio silent like 99% of interviewers. Just goes to show it's all luck with who you get as your interviewer.
Alright we get it you’re the man. Don’t gotta rub it all up in our face
And I’m jk that’s awesome
Just a warning for those who are interviewing with snap, if you are not, don't come here rubbing your ideology on my face.