Stripe [No offer]

My interview experience at Stripe was a bit confusing. The phone screen involved a remote coding challenge on Coderpad. The question wasn't a typical Leetcode problem, but more of a real-world scenario with tricky combinations. They added new requirements as I completed each step, making it straightforward. The upside was that I could run my code.

The onsite interview consisted of several rounds:

• Manager interview: This was a generic discussion about my personality and motivation.
• Design round: A typical design problem, where I had to solve a concrete problem without needing to write actual queries.
• Coding round: Similar to the phone screen, I had to solve a coding problem.
• Debugging round: I had 45 minutes to clone and fix a bug in a real-world project. I was presented with a Scala example which was extremely challenging and a Python example, which was easier but still poorly written and uncommented.
• Build a feature round: I had 45 minutes to build a feature from scratch.

My takeaway is that Scala is not the best choice for the debugging or build-a-feature rounds due to the setup time and the nature of the problems. Since these rounds use a local IDE and Zoom can slow down computers, a slow compiler can be an issue. It's important to ensure your IDE is set up to run and debug local unit tests in a step-through manner.

After the interview, I spent a few hours looking at the Scala debugging question. It involved finding a bug in a massively parallel graph-processing library written by a large tech company. I couldn't find the bug after hours of reviewing the code, which was complex and involved multiple levels of loops with asynchronous operations and side effects.

One positive aspect was that all the interviewers I spoke to were friendly and had strong communication skills.

Ultimately, I had a better offer from another company. However, I wanted to share my experience with the community.