Software Engineer · Phone Screen · Coding

Rippling — Software Engineer ❌ Failed

Level: Unknown Level

Round: Phone Screen · Type: Coding · Difficulty: 6/10 · Duration: 60 min · Interviewer: Unfriendly

Topics: Object-Oriented Design, Comparison Algorithms

Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Interview date: 2025-12-22

Got offer: False

Summary

I interviewed with a person who was not previously mentioned on standard interview prep sources. I made some mistakes initially but corrected them after discovering errors in the test cases. The questions I encountered were:

1. Comparing the size of two hands in a card game, similar to a poker scenario. If the hand types were the same, I needed to compare the card values, e.g., three 8s would beat three 7s.
2. Writing a function add_type(type_id [string], matches_function [function]) that allows customization of the comparison order.

I also had to implement the main function evaluate with an additional parameter evaluation_orders [arrays of String].

Details

The interview questions were:

1. Comparing the size of two hands. This involved some OOD, similar to a simplified poker game. The comparison had to consider the type of hand first (e.g., full house beats flush), and if the hand types were identical, it should then compare the values of the cards.
2. I needed to write a function called add_type that would accept a type_id (string) and a matches_function (function). The purpose of this function was to allow the user to define a custom comparison order.
3. The main function evaluate needed to be extended to accept an additional parameter called evaluation_orders, which would be an array of strings representing the evaluation order.

My Approach:

For the first question, I started off in the wrong direction. I was not guided by the interviewer initially. Only after I completed the code and realized that the test cases were failing did I correct my mistakes.

For the second part, I focused on creating a flexible design that would allow users to easily add and configure new comparison rules.