Wayfair Karat Disappointment

New
godzilla85

New

godzilla85
Dec 2, 2021 13 Comments

So, I took 2 Karat rounds (original and redo) tailored for Wayfair. Both of the times I was extremely close.
For those, who do not know, there are 5 system design-oriented questions.
You have close to 20 minutes to answer them and then they give you a LeetCode type of problem.
You have to solve the coding problem in under 30 minutes, your solution has to pass all test cases.
Both times problems were not too hard, but somewhat involved required 50-60 lines of code. (Java is more verbose than other languages) LC complexity Medium/Medium-Hard.

I ran out of time on both occasions as I couldn't finish debugging on time. Karat interviewers underlined that the algorithms were correct.

You have to be a code monkey to produce the working solution in under 30 minutes. Am I right?

It takes time to understand the problem statement, code the solution and debug it with print statements. I mean why??? Why half an hour? Is this a speed contest?

On both occasions, I finished the solution 5 minutes after the interview. But who cares, right? My mom, maybe... not so sure though.

Karat interviewers are somewhat robotic, and if your 30 minutes are up, that's it. You failed.

On my second attempt, I flew by my system design questions in 10-12 minutes to have more time for coding, as I thought that they allocate you 1 hour for both parts.
But no, - after 30 minutes my interviewer informed me that the time is up and the whole interview was over in 50 minutes.

Never again I will be interested in Wayfair and Karat interviews.

#waifair #karat

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TOP 13 Comments
  • Wayfair
    zNuG44

    Go to company page Wayfair

    zNuG44
    Escalate. We let good candidates skip karat.
    Dec 2, 2021 2
    • New
      godzilla85

      New

      godzilla85
      OP
      Why do you keep it in the first place?
      And how do I escalate? By talking to my recruiter?
      Dec 2, 2021
    • Wayfair
      zNuG44

      Go to company page Wayfair

      zNuG44
      It’s a filter but we don’t trust the karat bar. It saves engineers thousands of hours on first round interviews.

      Escalate to recruiter.
      Dec 2, 2021
  • Karat is horrible. Forget about it
    Dec 2, 2021 0
  • Meta
    worksun

    Go to company page Meta

    worksun
    Took karat interview for Wayfair and Compass. 15 mins for objective 3 or 4 system design Qs and 30 mins for typing 50-60 lines of code, debugging and execution.

    It takes at least 3-5 mins to read Q and formulate the answer, unless you know the Q beforehand.
    And system design Qs are something in line with -> video App with 1 mins video upload, how do you scale it?

    They are looking for specific keywords like LB, sharding etc. Nonsense!
    From when did SD got objective?
    Feb 3 0
  • Adobe
    !nyc

    Go to company page Adobe

    !nyc
    Just forget about it. They are circus clowns.
    Dec 2, 2021 4
    • New
      godzilla85

      New

      godzilla85
      OP
      Sadly, Adobe is not hiring senior remote engineers in Canada.
      Dec 2, 2021
    • Adobe
      !nyc

      Go to company page Adobe

      !nyc
      Adobe Canada usually doesn't have as many openings.
      Did you try applying for the US remote roles? I have no idea if they allow to work from Canada though.
      If you find a specific role, feel free to DM for the referral.
      Dec 2, 2021
  • New
    godzilla85

    New

    godzilla85
    OP
    My problem was that I didn’t have time to finish and debug my solution at the end
    Feb 3 0