Eightfold Ai

Role: Software Engineer / Full Stack Developer

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: March 2020 (initial interviews), August 2020 (continued process)

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Offered (declined)

Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Rounds: 3-4 effective rounds (2 technical, 1 project, 1 final)

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms (recursion, greedy approach, stacks, tries), Operating Systems, Project discussion

Experience:

This candidate interviewed for a Software Engineer/Full Stack Developer role at Eightfold.ai. The overall timeline for the interview process was unconventional.

Round 1 (Technical Interview): This round lasted approximately one hour. The interviewer asked a question on parenthesis completion, which needed to be solved using recursion and involved handling various corner cases. Following this, there was a discussion about the greedy approach algorithm, where the interviewer delved deep, asking for mathematical explanations and how it applied to the given problem.

Round 2 (Technical Interview): Also an hour-long session, this round primarily focused on solving a variation of the standard parenthesis matching problem using stacks. The problem was noted for its complexity, requiring extensive code and careful handling of numerous corner cases.

Project Assignment: After the initial two technical interviews, the candidate was given a week-long project. The task was to create an auto-completion feature using tries in Django. This assignment played a crucial role in advancing to the next stage of the interview process, as impressing the interviewers with this project was key.

Final Interview: The final interview round encompassed a broad range of topics, including data structures and algorithms, discussions related to operating systems, and an in-depth review of a project mentioned on the candidate's resume. Remarkably, the interviewer extended the discussion over email for about a week, continuously exploring different solutions and evaluating the candidate's problem-solving abilities.

Overall Experience: The candidate found the compensation and benefits at Eightfold.ai to be competitive. Preparation involved a strong focus on Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA), with practice on platforms like LeetCode, InterviewBit, or GeeksforGeeks, along with reviewing core computer science subjects. The candidate ultimately received an offer but declined it due to having already joined another company by the time the process concluded.