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I applied for the Software Development Engineer Intern position at LinkedIn through an off-campus opening. The process had three main stages after the application: an online coding assessment, a technical interview and a Host Manager round. The process was fairly DSA-focused in the beginning, but the final round moved more towards projects and behavioral questions. Online Assessment The first round was an online coding assessment. There were 3 DSA questions to be solved within 90 minutes. The questions were around the LeetCode medium level. The main challenge was time management. The questions were not based on extremely complicated algorithms, but I had to identify the right approach quickly and make sure the implementation was correct. I went through the questions one by one, first checking their constraints and thinking about the expected complexity before starting implementation. After completing the assessment, I was shortlisted for the technical interview. Technical Round The first interview round was around an hour and focused mainly on DSA. The interviewer gave me two coding problems. The first problem was based on merging two sorted arrays without using extra space. Since both arrays were already sorted, the main challenge was maintaining the ordering while modifying the arrays in-place. I discussed the two-pointer idea and the complexity before starting the implementation. While coding, I initially introduced a small bug in the implementation. I went through a few test cases and was able to identify the issue myself and correct it. The interviewer was interested in the edge cases as well, particularly when one array was exhausted before the other and when duplicate values were present. The second problem was related to finding the Lowest Common Ancestor of two nodes. There was an important difference from the standard binary-tree LCA problem: instead of being given the root node, each node had a parent pointer. I first thought about the straightforward approach of storing the ancestors of one node and then walking upwards from the other node. I explained that this could be done without requiring additional tree traversal. I eventually used a two-pass approach to find the common ancestor while keeping the additional space low. The technical interview went reasonably well, and I was moved to the next round. Public candidate reports from this LinkedIn Bengaluru hiring cycle describe the same broad structure and these two technical questions. Host Manager Round The final round was with a Host Manager and was quite different from the technical interview. Instead of giving me more DSA problems, the interviewer focused mainly on my previous internship experience, projects and problem-solving approach. I was asked to explain the work I had done during my internships and the problems I had faced. For one of my projects, I had to explain a technical problem that came up during development and how I approached solving it. The interviewer also asked why I selected a particular approach and whether I considered any alternatives. There were several behavioral questions around teamwork and handling difficult situations. For example, I was asked about situations where I had faced a problem while working with other people and how I dealt with it. I realized during this round that my answers were not as strong as they had been during the technical interview. I knew the projects, but I could have structured my answers better and explained my contributions more clearly. The interviewer also asked what I had learned from my previous experience and what kind of problems I enjoyed working on. The conversation was relatively relaxed, but I felt that I wasn't able to communicate my experiences as effectively as I could have. Result After the Host Manager round, I was informed that I had not been selected for the internship. The rejection was disappointing because I had cleared the coding assessment and technical interview. However, the process helped me understand that an SWE internship interview is not necessarily finished after the DSA rounds. The technical rounds tested whether I could solve problems efficiently, while the manager round tested how well I could explain my experience and work with others. What I Learned The biggest lesson from the process was to prepare for both technical and behavioral discussions. For the coding rounds, I would recommend practicing: Arrays and strings Sorting Two pointers Trees LCA Graphs Dynamic programming In-place algorithms But DSA alone isn't enough. For the Host Manager round, I would prepare a few strong stories from projects or internships. For every major project on the resume, I would be ready to answer: What problem were you solving? What exactly did you build? What was your personal contribution? What was the hardest technical problem? How did you solve it? What alternatives did you consider? What would you improve if you had more time? I would also practice behavioral questions around teamwork, conflict, failure and learning from mistakes. Looking back, the process was useful because it showed me the difference between solving technical problems and communicating technical experience. I was comfortable with the DSA rounds, but the final manager discussion exposed an area I needed to improve. Overall, LinkedIn's SWE Intern process was a good combination of coding ability and practical experience. Even though I wasn't selected, the interview gave me a clearer idea of how important it is to prepare for the complete interview process rather than focusing only on DSA.