Salesforce | MTS |

I recently cleared the Salesforce interview process for the MTS position in . The process began in December . I reached out to a former classmate who worked at Salesforce for a referral. After 15 days, I received an email from HR to schedule a round with the Hiring Director.

Round 1: Hiring Director [1 hour] Salesforce emphasizes their company culture, and I was surprised that my first round was with a Director. We discussed the role, and I was asked many questions about my work experience (I have experience working at a startup and a large product company) and the projects I have completed.

Two days after the discussion, I received an email from HR regarding further rounds.

Round 2: Coding + Design [45 min] This round included one coding question and one mini design question. I was asked a medium-level question on Strings. I had solved a similar question before, so after discussing different approaches with the interviewer, I arrived at the solution and implemented it quickly. This took about 20 minutes, including constraint clarification, coding, and testing.

I was asked a design question based on my experience with cloud computing and serverless technologies, and I performed well according to the interviewer.

Round 3: Coding [45 min] This round included two medium-level coding questions: one related to subarrays and another related to Linked Lists. I was able to solve both questions. The interviewer was happy, and I received notification for two more rounds.

Round 4: Coding [45 mins] This round also included two coding questions: a Backtracking question and a popular caching question. I was able to solve both within the allotted time.

Round 5: Behavioral [45 mins] This round was again with the Director and focused on standard behavioral questions. The goal was to assess my suitability for the team.

Final Verdict: Offer!! The interview experience was positive, as the interviewers were very polite. In some rounds, I felt that communication and problem-solving skills were given more importance than coding, as some interviewers only asked me to implement pseudocode. However, I wrote the complete code, including boundary and edge cases, as I was fast enough from my Facebook preparation the previous year.

General Strategy for Coding Rounds:

1. Clarify requirements when you first receive the question.
2. Present a brute force solution first, but don't code it; just state the Big O.
3. Present an optimized solution by working through examples using your intuition from solving similar questions in the past. Explain the Big O, but don't code it yet.
4. If the interviewer is satisfied with your solution, then write the code. Before doing so, write test cases that your solution should pass. Consider good enough cases, as well as edge and boundary cases.
5. Implement the solution and dry run your test cases.
6. Profit!

Key Takeaways from my Interviewing Experience:

1. The interviewer is evaluating your coding skills, but they are also subconsciously assessing you as a potential teammate.
2. Don't code the first solution that comes to mind. Only code after the interviewer's approval.
3. Test cases and dry runs are crucial. Think about edge cases and boundary cases first, otherwise you may receive negative points, experience anxiety, and have to refactor your code if the interviewer catches a bug. Make it a habit to dry run in all your interviews. You will definitely receive extra points.
4. Be polite.

Preparation: I received a call from Facebook last year, but the position was frozen due to a hiring freeze. I dedicated two months to practicing Facebook-tagged questions, writing bug-free code on the first attempt, and dry running test cases. I believe this significantly improved my skills and gave me more confidence for the Salesforce interview.