Twilio

Role: SWE-L3 (Software Engineer Level 3)

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: April 2021 (Online Assessment), August 2021 (Onsite Rounds)

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Offer

Difficulty: Medium-Hard

Rounds: 5 rounds (4 scheduled + 1 redo coding round)

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms (Sliding Window, Deque), System Design, Behavioral (Twilio Magic, hypothetical scenarios)

Experience:

This candidate received an anonymous referral through Blind for an SWE-L3 role in Bangalore. The entire process spanned nearly five months.

HackerRank Online Assessment (April 2021)
This assessment had 2 questions to be completed in 90 minutes. One was "Sliding Window Maximum," which the candidate passed all test cases for. The other was a "JSON parser API problem," where 2-3 test cases failed, and the candidate couldn't debug it in time. Despite this, the recruiter offered a chance to redo the coding round.

Round 1: Coding Interview (August 2021)
This round involved a data structure design problem related to a deque with certain constraints, categorized as medium-hard difficulty. The entire 35 minutes were spent discussing the optimal solution, approach, complexity analysis, and edge case handling. No code was written.

Round 2: System Design
The interviewer asked the candidate to explain in detail the design of one of their recent projects, followed by questions like what they would do differently if given another chance.

Round 3: Hiring Manager
This round consisted of standard behavioral questions, similar to Amazon's Leadership Principles, but based on Twilio's "Magic" values.

Round 4: Bar Raiser
Another behavioral round, but questions focused on hypothetical future scenarios and how the candidate would handle them.

Redo Coding Round (August 2021)
The candidate was given another coding round. They solved both problems optimally and were able to fully implement and successfully run their code with the test inputs.

Overall Experience: Two days after the last onsite round, the recruiter informed the candidate of positive feedback and an offer.