DoorDash | Staff Software Engineer | Feb 2024

Phone screen: A slight twist on Swim in rising water.

Virtual onsite:
Round 1: Max path sum with leaf nodes only - I solved this iteratively, as I get confused while formulating recursive solutions. It was 2x the amount of code but I made it work and all test cases passed.
A follow up was to evaluate the path between any two 'active' nodes (pass in a flag to the node class while creating it). I was unable to solve this correctly.

Round 2: Creating a large island. It was not called an island though. Solved this correctly with BFS. The interviewer asked me to solve it using DFS, and I did that too.

Round 3: Design an online coding platform . I clarified everything, discussed tradeoffs, and communicated clearly along the way. The interviewer was happy with my design and commended my approach at the end, which was a pleasant surprise and a nice little confidence boost.

Round 4: Behavioral STAR pattern questions. This was a fun conversation. The manager was genuinely interested in my background as she had extensive past experience in the same domain as mine.

Result: Rejected. The email specifically hinted at the follow up question I couldn't solve.

My thoughts: I feel gutted. We live in a world where failing to answer one follow up question satisfactorily is enough to derail weeks of stress and effort.

My background: I'm an average software engineer who has always had a tough time with interviews, no matter how much I prepare. For context - I have interviewed with 67 different companies in the last 10 years and only been successful thrice.
I've been kicked around a lot at my current job, given fake promises about leading initiatives, had an internal move to a new and exciting team cancelled at the last minute by a shady Director, and also had a manager who should have been reported to HR multiple times for talking down to me and other teammates. I've never gotten the opportunity to help design any large scale systems. All this while being paid a little more than an L3.

I'm on a visa, and I can't quit. A disappointing performance review with no raise was my last straw and I got back to interview prep. It's hard to make time to prepare with kids and family responsibilities. My nights and weekends have become a blur and my social life has become non-existent, but I'm not going to stop this time until I find something. Deep down, I know I deserve better and my hard work will reward me some day.

Thank you and I wish you the best.