Two things in one place: real interview experiences and compensation packagesfrom ML loops at frontier labs — shared by people who’ve been through them. Sensitive numbers are members-only.
OpenAI onsite — passed, that "infection" coding round
CodingOnsitePass
Made it through the OpenAI onsite and got the pass 🎉 Phone screen was one coding + one design, then onsite was a big coding problem plus a design round — no team-match step at the end. Mostly grinded hack2hire to prep. Sharing exactly what they asked inside.
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cache_miss
Datadog · PhD · 15h ago
EXPERIENCE
Datadog DL round — implement Focal Loss by hand (fail)
MLDLFail
ML-Eng PhD loop, DL coding round. Asked about Focal Loss and to implement it by hand (details paywalled). Hard, and I didn't pass. Inside.
SDE3 loop, didn't make it. Phone was an add-two-numbers variant; the low-level design was a fun one about auto-assigning the nearest stocked machine. Inside.
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grind_ghost
Citadel · 17h ago
EXPERIENCE
Citadel GQS phone screen — the whiteboard "find all K" twist
CodingPhoneQuant
All-whiteboard chat with a quant dev, no IDE. Felt less about the code and more about whether one API is expressive enough. A headhunter reached out to me for this one. The exact problem + the constraint that tripped me up is inside.
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null_ptr
Abnormal AI · 22h ago
EXPERIENCE
Abnormal AI screen — code-review + Decorator pattern on a security codebase
DoorDash process — HR + an algo/fundamentals + behavioral R1
BehavioralMLProcess
Sharing the process shape more than a single question. HR call first, then R1 mixed algorithm/model fundamentals with behavioral. Structure your answers conclusion → details → summary and quantify your project impact. Inside.
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anon_grad
Google · 1d ago
EXPERIENCE
Google onsite — the "piano finger movements" sliding window
CodingOnsite
Onsite coding, and I didn't fully finish the follow-up. Wondering if 2 hire + 1 lean-hire + 1 hire/strong-hire is still enough for an offer. The exact question inside.
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stack_trace
Electronic Arts · SDE2 · 1d ago
EXPERIENCE
EA SDE2 — OA then an AWS + resume video interview (fail)
CodingOAFail
SDE2. OA had 2 DSA questions (paywalled); the video interview was AWS services + resume experience. Didn't pass. Inside.
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segfault_sam
Anthropic · 1d ago
EXPERIENCE
Anthropic onsite — "why Anthropic" + a SQL/data round
SQLOnsiteData
A non-SWE-flavored loop — lots of culture fit plus a data-analysis round that needed some cloud-capacity intuition, and some SQL. Commenters were surprised there was no coding/SD round. Inside.
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offer_hunter
ByteDance / TikTok · 1d ago
EXPERIENCE
TikTok USDS phone — number of islands (fail)
CodingPhoneFail
Technical phone for the USDS org, and honestly I didn't vibe with it — never even caught the interviewers' names. Ended up failing. The (very standard) question is inside.
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edge_caser
Millennium · New grad · 1d ago
EXPERIENCE
Millennium QR-ML phone — a modeling problem, probability heavy
MLQuantPhone
New-grad QR-ML. 40-min phone with a quant researcher, one modeling problem (paywalled). Tips: multi-step logic, practice modeling, prep pseudo-code, expect probability. Inside.
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base_case
Anthropic · 1d ago
EXPERIENCE
Anthropic "Coding Interview with Claude" — the new AI-tools format
AI-assistedOnsiteInfra
Got Anthropic's newer format where the whole point is writing/reviewing code with AI tools (tool access provided, no setup needed). Applied online; likely an infra role. Sharing the exact prompt they gave inside.
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kv_kid
Rippling · 1d ago
EXPERIENCE
Rippling phone — "does this transaction break a rule?" (AI-assisted by default)
CodingPhoneAI-assisted
Phone-screen coding that was less about the algorithm and more about explaining your design and walking examples. Interesting bit: the interview was AI-assisted by default — they didn't even ask, it was just on. Details inside.
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red_flag_ray
OpenAI · L? · 1d ago
EXPERIENCE
OpenAI phone — versioned KV store + social graph (pass)
System DesignPhonePass
Easy-rated 60-min phone and I passed 🙌 One main problem plus a follow-up, design-friendly, positive vibe from the interviewer. Someone asked SDE vs MLE — this was the general track. Inside.
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dp_dave
Shopify · 1d ago
EXPERIENCE
Shopify phone (referral) — a "rover" problem, then scale it to 1M
CodingPhoneScale
Referral phone screen: a rover problem close to common practice ones, with a follow-up to scale from a few rovers to 1M+. Inside.
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recruiter_dodger
Blink Health · Senior · 1d ago
EXPERIENCE
Blink Health onsite — OA with a prompt-engineering bonus round
System DesignOnsiteOA
Senior SWE loop. The OA was a grab-bag (MCQs across SWE + AI, a DSA one, an API problem, and an optional prompt-engineering one). Round 2 had a design + a deep dive on past project choices. Full breakdown inside.
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vo_veteran
Rippling · Staff+ · 2d ago
EXPERIENCE
Rippling Staff+ phone — traditional vs LLM design, your call (pass)
System DesignPhonePass
Passed! 75-min Staff+ design where they let you pick traditional vs an LLM approach. Got a latency-estimation curveball (estimate in ~20s). Inside.
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heap_hazel
Databricks · 2d ago
EXPERIENCE
Databricks phone — solved it but a dumb bug cost me the follow-up (fail)
CodingPhoneFail
Rejected 3 business days later. I actually got a one-pass solution, but a simple bug ate my time so I never reached the follow-up — probably why. Inside.
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late_night_lc
Snowflake · IC4 · 2d ago
EXPERIENCE
Snowflake phone — coding + system design back to back (pass)
CodingSystem DesignPass
Passed! Two rounds same day, back to back: coding then system design. Trying to figure out what IC4 here maps to at Google/Meta. What I can share of the coding round is inside (rest was paywalled).
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ghosted_again
Intuit · Staff+ · 2d ago
EXPERIENCE
Intuit Staff+ phone — pick traditional vs LLM, sales-data stream (pass)
System DesignPhonePass
Passed after a scare. 75-min Staff+ design: traditional vs LLM (I went LLM), plus a sales-data-stream problem. Interviewer screenshotted my design; I thought I'd bombed but got the yes 4 days later. Inside.
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binary_bri
Roblox · 2d ago
EXPERIENCE
Roblox MLE phone — dependency build order (fail)
CodingPhoneMLE
MLE phone screen, failed. Got a lower-frequency build-order problem; writing it out here since older posts were unclear. Inside.
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sim_solver
Pinterest · 2d ago
EXPERIENCE
Pinterest phone — an unusual "several arrays" problem (fail)
CodingPhoneFail
Technical phone, failed. Got what looked like a fresh, unseen question — people in the comments debated whether it even needs an algorithm or is just careful iteration. Also had an ML-basics question. Inside.
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package_pete
Retell AI · 2d ago
EXPERIENCE
Retell AI (startup) — design a SQL-parsing system, boundaries game
System DesignStartupML
AI-voice startup (Chinese founder, several Chinese engineers). R1 was system design: a system that processes various SQL syntax, and they keep pushing for more features so you're constantly setting scope boundaries. Inside.
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loop_survivor
Jane Street · 2d ago
EXPERIENCE
OpenAI onsite — passed, that "infection" coding round
CodingPhoneFail
Technical phone, failed. The tree problem itself was paywalled on the source; noting it here for the record.
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panel_prey
Fuse Energy · 2d ago
EXPERIENCE
Fuse Energy onsite — the linked-list cycle with a void twist (fail)
CodingOnsiteFail
Onsite, and I got rejected even after the interviewer literally said "I'll buy you this design" mid-round — still not sure what they wanted. My advice: actually write the thing out, it's harder than it looks. Exact setup inside.
CS PhD, 5 YOE, DS/MLE background — two OA-style rounds and a 1-year HR freeze after 😮💨 R1 was science depth (PEFT, vLLM inference, image-text models); R2 a coding problem I ran out of time on. Inside.
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grind_ghost
Microsoft · 3d ago
EXPERIENCE
Microsoft phone (referral) — HLD+LLD URL shortener, find the bugs
System DesignPhone
Referral technical phone. HLD + LLD of a URL shortener plus a find-the-bugs task (details paywalled). Inside.
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onsite_ollie
Anchorage Digital · 3d ago
EXPERIENCE
Anchorage Digital onsite — OOD + a key-vault design (fail)
System DesignOnsiteFail
Took this one mostly for practice and still failed lol. Coding was a pretty normal OOD; the design was the unusual part. Inside.
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ml_maybe
Salesforce · MTS · 3d ago
EXPERIENCE
Salesforce MTS onsite — Course Schedule II + a prime-split DP (pass)
CodingSystem DesignPass
Passed the MTS loop — hardest-rated but doable. DSA round had LC210 plus a prime-split counting problem; SD round was a parking/car-rental booking system. Inside.
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anon_grad
Otter AI · 3d ago
EXPERIENCE
Otter AI — design a KV cache in Java, ran out of time on transactions
CodingDesignPhD
PhD-track loop. Designed a KV cache in Java; debated whether the value can be int or string (I went Object wrapper), then ran out of time on the transactions part. Sardonic note: Python would've been comfier. Inside.
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cache_miss
Etsy · 3d ago
EXPERIENCE
Etsy "recruiter call" that was secretly a tech screen
MLRecruiterScreen
Booked what I thought was a normal recruiter chat and instead got grilled on ML with zero warm-up. Felt like AI on both ends — buzzwords on your resume can genuinely backfire now. The questions inside.
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segfault_sam
Meta · 3d ago
EXPERIENCE
Meta AI-assisted coding — bug-fix → implement → optimize (fail)
CodingAI-assistedFail
Meta's newer AI-assisted coding format and it caught me off guard. Looks like one problem but it's got hidden follow-ups you must finish in time — very different from the traditional "we'll tell you how many questions + take a break" flow. Inside.
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offer_hunter
SIG · 3.5 YOE · 3d ago
EXPERIENCE
SIG onsite — implement std::vector from scratch
CodingOnsiteC++
3.5 YOE, C++ role. Phone was implementing std::vector (placement new, operator new, resize, move) — finished in 45 of 90 min, chatted the rest. Been searching 4 months, lots of finals, no offers yet 😮💨 Inside.
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null_ptr
Amazon · 3d ago
EXPERIENCE
Amazon in-person onsite — actually pleasant (LP + OOD)
OODOnsiteLP
In-person onsite and honestly it was nice — food, coffee, good vibes (no dreaded "dog" round). Someone asked what "Pizza" meant in my notes — it's just OOD. Structure inside.
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kv_kid
Meta · PhD · 3d ago
EXPERIENCE
Meta onsite — 2 research design rounds + behavioral
MLResearchOnsite
MLE/Research PhD loop: two research-design rounds (scenarios + language-model topics, incl. a linear-attention discussion) and one behavioral. Recruiter seemed dedicated to MSL/MRS. Inside.
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stack_trace
Uber · 3d ago
EXPERIENCE
Uber phone — two mediums, nailed the complexity Qs (pass)
CodingPhonePass
Passed the technical phone. Two medium LC-style problems and I got all the complexity follow-ups right. People are asking if Uber is frozen (loops finishing with no team). Details inside.
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recruiter_dodger
Lyft · 3-4 YOE · 4d ago
EXPERIENCE
Lyft phone — 50 min, all tests passed (pass)
CodingPhonePass
Passed! ~50 min, mostly problem-solving, all test cases green, next-steps email within 30 min. Likely a junior req (VO had laptop + SD + HM). Inside.
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edge_caser
Stripe · L2 · 4d ago
EXPERIENCE
Stripe L2 onsite — 4 rounds, references checked, still a no
CodingOnsiteFail
Full L2 loop and it stung: strong-ish scores across debug/integration, but the AI-coding round I only finished 1 question, got ghosted on an HR call, references (2 managers) called and deemed "insufficient signal," rejected next day as a final HC call. The rounds + the red-flag debate inside.
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late_night_lc
Optiver · Intern · 4d ago
EXPERIENCE
Optiver OA (intern) — OOD + a reaction test + a Hanoi-like game
OODOAIntern
Intern OA, 75 min. One OOD-ish problem (write class __init__ + a method), a recognition/reaction test (match the identical option from 4 in ~1s), and a Hanoi-like game. Inside.
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red_flag_ray
Google · 4d ago
EXPERIENCE
Google behavioral round — old-school "tell me a time" (worried)
BehavioralOnsite
The BQ round with a veteran interviewer (IIT, 10+ yrs at Google), 3-4 "tell me a time" questions, ended early. I'm worried this is my weak link since the rest felt solid. Comments say BQ rarely sinks people. Inside.
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sim_solver
Akuna Capital · Intern · 4d ago
EXPERIENCE
Akuna OA (intern) — a stock-price state machine
CodingOAIntern
Intern OA, 120 min, one question. Stock-price records → apply trading limits → track state / best profits. First figure out the data format and constraints, then state-machine or traversal. Moderate. Inside.
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vo_veteran
Roblox · Senior · 4d ago
EXPERIENCE
Roblox phone — a 30-min HM chat first, no system design
HMPhoneSenior
Senior-level, and interestingly there was no system design round. R1 was a 30-min hiring-manager chat (intro + a project). Now waiting after the screen and wondering how long that usually takes. Inside.
Intern VO. STAR behavioral, Python pros/cons, walked through my OA code, and fixed-point money issues (Decimal vs float). Follow-ups make you modify code live. Inside.
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ghosted_again
Zoox · 5d ago
EXPERIENCE
Zoox phone — C++ trivia to start
CodingPhoneC++
Phone screen kicked off with C++ trivia before the coding (rest was paywalled). The bit I can share is inside.
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onsite_ollie
Trexquant · 5d ago
EXPERIENCE
Trexquant — friendly chat, LC295 median of stream (fail)
CodingPhoneFail
Full-time via headhunter. Friendly Chinese interviewer, detailed resume questions, then LC295 (Find Median from Data Stream) and a map vs unordered_map chat. Didn't pass. Notes on sponsorship inside.
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package_pete
Google · Intern · 5d ago
EXPERIENCE
Google intern VO — two coding rounds back to back
CodingOnsiteIntern
Intern virtual onsite: two coding rounds straight, no system design. Someone asked what "back to back" means — it just means two straight hours, nothing special. Inside.