Wayfair

Role: Software Engineer 3 (L3)

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: July-August 2024

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Declined (Offer received but not accepted)

Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Rounds: 5 (Screening, Online Assessment, PSDS, Design HLD, Hiring Manager)

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms (Hashmap, Arrays), Problem Solving, System Design (HLD, LLD), Behavioral, Leadership, Stakeholder Management, Product Lifecycle

Experience:

This candidate with 8+ years of experience interviewed for an L3 Software Engineer role in Bengaluru, July-August 2024. The process was virtual.

Screening Round (June 2024):

• Recruiter reached out via LinkedIn, requested resume, and had a 30-minute call to brief on the process and gather background details.

Online Assessment (June 2024):

• HackerRank link with two LeetCode medium questions. One on hashmap, the other on arrays.

PSDS (Problem Solving & Data Structures) Round (July 2024):

• Conducted on HackerRank. One base question with follow-up questions.
• Question: A coupon category problem (similar to LeetCode discuss question 4491846).

Design Round (July 2024):

• Conducted on HackerRank whiteboard.
• Question: Design a Hotel Reservation Platform with multiple hotel providers. This was a mix of HLD + LLD with multiple follow-ups.

Design HLD Round (July 2024):

• Question: Design a Shazam-like application with song identification as a black box. Focus was on scaling the app to a very large QPS.
• Deep dive into song identification approach and data preparation.
• Follow-up on analytics of this data with metrics like "Total songs correctly identified in a day, week, month."

Hiring Manager Round (Aug 2024):

• Typical scenario-based questions.
• Questions around leadership, stakeholder management, product lifecycle, SDLC, bringing innovation to solutions, and people management.

The candidate received a strong positive feedback and an offer, but declined due to compensation and a negative experience with a senior talent acquisition manager.