Intuit

Role: SDE 2

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: April 26, 2024

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Declined (offered SDE 1, but candidate declined for SDE 2)

Difficulty: Medium (Phone Screen), System Design (Onsite)

Rounds: Phone Screen, Onsite (Interview 0, Interview 1, Interview 2 - Design Round)

Topics Asked: AWS, Java, CI/CD, Work Experience, Data Structures, Algorithms, System Design, DevOps, Intuit Culture.

Experience:

The candidate applied via Intuit's careers page and then secured a referral through LinkedIn.

Initial Recruiter Call: Discussion about experience in specific technologies (AWS, Java, CI/CD), past experience, and candidate's expectations.

Phone Screen (1 hour): Started with work experience questions, then moved to coding. Two problems were asked: a medium problem ("Given a matrix with 0s and 1s where 0 being empty cell and 1 being a blocked cell. Return the path in coordinates from the first cell to the last cell in matrix if exists") and an easy problem (LeetCode - Unique Email Addresses). Intuit used Glider for coding. The candidate verbally tested happy paths and edge cases, fixed bugs, and ran test cases. The remaining time was spent discussing Intuit culture.

Onsite Rounds (approx. 6 hours with a 45-minute break):

• Interview 0 (Craft Demo): The candidate had previously built a backend application. This round involved explaining the entire code, with interviewers asking questions about scaling the system and general software engineering concepts.
• Interview 1: Four interviewers joined. This round also involved in-depth discussion on the project, including scaling and software engineering concepts.
• Interview 2 (Design Round): Asked to design an application to store photos using draw.io. Discussion included storing images in various formats.

Post Interviews: Recruiter provided feedback that coding was good but system design and operational excellence were lacking. An SDE 1 offer was made, but the candidate declined as it was a downgrade from their current level.

Tips: Clarify requirements before designing, be clear on scale and use cases, think of all edge cases before coding and write them down.