Databricks

Role: New-grad Software Engineer (Infrastructure focus)

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: August 21, 2024

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Rejected

Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Rounds: 1 Phone Screen, 4 Onsite Rounds

Topics Asked: Resume experiences, Databricks interest, role understanding, Data Structures, Algorithms (LeetCode medium), Behavioral, System Design (simple system, scalability, trade-offs), Object-Oriented Design/Low-Level Design (designing a class, implementation, language specifics like classes, objects, function chaining).

Experience:

A new-grad applied through the Databricks website and received a referral, followed by a recruiter call. The recruiter discussed resume experiences, interest in Databricks, and the specific position (e.g., infrastructure vs. AI/ML).

The **Phone Screen** (1 hour) involved a typical Databricks medium-level DSA question, which went smoothly.

The **Virtual Onsite Interview** consisted of four parts:

• Algorithm Interview: Similar to the phone screen (LeetCode medium) with two interviewers.
• Cross-Functional Interview: A typical behavioral interview focusing on past experiences.
• System Design Interview: Designing a simple system, discussing scalability, trade-offs, and other considerations.
• Coding Interview: The goal was to design and implement a class while working with the interviewer. The candidate struggled with this round due to a lack of preparation resources for this specific type of question, which was later identified as similar to Amazon's OOD/LLD questions. Tips included knowing the programming language well, especially classes, objects, and function chaining implementation.

The candidate received a rejection a few days later, finding the OOD/LLD coding round to be the most challenging.