I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Bloomberg (New York, NY) in Jun 2014
Interview
From the online application (bloomberg website) to the phone interview took around 4 weeks (a first interview was scheduled within 2 weeks but the interviewer didn't call so we rescheduled). The phone interview was quite straightforward and I was asked the following questions
1- Kind of a strange question. Generate all 3-digit combinations of 1-9 but not repeats in the sense that if you have 123, then 231, 321, etc. are not allowed. [nested for loops]
2- Reverse a given sentence (no use of library methods, arbitrary spaces between words). Make it faster. [start at the end and find and print words one-by-one].
3- You are given a 3L and a 5L container and unlimited supply of water. How to make 1L?[I found a longer solution but the short on is pour 3L into 5 twice.]
4- A program/algorithm which given mL and nL buckets figures out how (if possible) make kL. [we discussed the solution and the interviewer was nice and gave me a hint. Its a DP problem].
The next day, I received and invitation for on-site interview. The travel schedule part was straightforward and convenient.
I was invited to the NY office. There was a group of around 30 people like me. They hold you for a few minuts to issue a security badge. Then there is a tour about all the 31 or so aquariums and fishes at bloomberg. Eventually, there is breakfast and then the interviews come find you. There is 4 rounds of interview. Rounds 1-2 are technical, 3 is management, and 4 is HR.
Some questions I remember:
1- Find shortest path on a chessboard from low left corner to top right. You can move right and top only and some cells are inaccessible (DFS).
2- You have sorted arrays A and B with sizes m and n. Assume at the end of array "A" you have "n" empty slots. How to merge with minimum number of operations (start at the end instead of beginning). Prove it works (induction).
3- Some runners running in a field with some "k" sensors. We get events of runnings locations. How to print the top "m" runners? (array of lists or hash table of lists depending on the location of the sensors. each list is one sensor). Some questions on how to identify the ordering within each list.
4- CPU Cache implementation. How to implement the least frequently used procedure.
5- Scheduling some jobs over "m" servers. Centralized vs distributed implementation? How to implement.
The management interview was interesting and I liked the two managers. HR was fine too. I did not do any negotiations.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The chessboard problem. I first mentioned BFS and use of a Queue but the interviewer kept asking about some data structure with less memory that I could extract due to the simple structure of the graph. I did not understand what he meant. I eventually mentioned DFS and proved it works uses less memory.
The cache problem took a long time. I kind of though I failed it at some point. I had no prior knowledge of the topic since I am not a CS guy. I eventually, used an array to store the access time to different items and O(n) search through it to find the least frequently used one. The interviewer did not raise the complexity. He wanted me to write code on a paper (which is hard, esp. in C).
I applied through college or university. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Bloomberg (Indianapolis, IN) in Feb 2019
Interview
They had info session at school. I submitted my resume online and got the on-campus interview. The interview is 1 hour. Two engineers are the interviewer. Small talk at the beginning. Ask 1 or 2 questions about the resume. And then ask two technical questions. I finished the first one. But I did't have enough time to completed the second question. The first one is a string question. The second one is a tree question.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Bloomberg (Londres, Inglaterra) in Dec 2018
Interview
It was a very candidate-friendly interview process, had flexible on-site dates. Amazingly quick feedback. Overall a great experience.
Technical phone screen with an engineer (2 simple/average coding questions)
On-site (technical and behavioral rounds)
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Simple/average coding questions. Understanding recursion, stack, and heap, some basic C++ features, data structures characteristics
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Bloomberg (New York, NY) in Nov 2016
Interview
- There was one phone interview with a Bloomberg engineer.
- The onsite interview started with a so called tour of Bloomberg but abruptly ended with a museum of their colorful terminals. It was over in 5 minutes. The group of interviewees laughed a little when it ended.
- 2 rounds of technical interviews with a break of ~20 minutes. Found it easy. Mix of algorithm and design questions. All interviewers look satisfied when they left me.
- HR and recruiter forget that I exist. Forget to contact me for the next 40 minutes or so. I go to their front desk to inquire whether there are more rounds.
- HR appears slightly irritated but is polite. Next 30 minutes, HR tries to understand why after 6+ years of computer science education and working for a couple of years I "chose" to be a software engineer. Does not want to hear technical stuff. Had a hard time believing I could fit the role. I wondered whether I should have taken Psychology and then become a recruiter so I could judge potential candidates of a different discipline.
- At the end of the interview, was asked to "patiently" wait for the next round. Within 5 minutes, one more guy turns up and says the conference room is booked. Was once again asked to goto the front desk. Bloomberg office is huge and not all elevators goto front desk. :-( Reach somehow.
- Once again try telling the front desk people that I have an interview. Give the name of the host. Host appears after 15 minutes. Asks how the interviews are going.
I say "not that great". Asks whether - "Do you want to stay?". I lower my head and say "yes".
- In the conference room, realizes that the manager is out of office and the manager does not have my resume. Arranges a video conference. Asks the manager over conference to not keep him "busy" since he has a flight in flat 2.5 hours.
- Manager tries to understand how I ended up interviewing at Bloomberg and what role she could give me if I was chosen. It was nice but nothing productive. Interview ends in 30 minutes.
- Meet the so called organizer of the whole process. Asks whether the interview was awesome. I say it was "ok". Goes on a tirade on how people like me have a low attitude and should be happy to meet awesome people. After all, the process took only a day.
- Keeps repeating "Hope you get it". "Hope you get it" with a smirk while I collect my luggage and thank her for all the arrangements.
- Leave broken hearted and look tearfully at Lexington tower while I rush to the airport.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1. Deep copy a linked list with a random pointer.
2. Perimeter of the wall enclosed by an enemy. Eg:
121
121
If the enemy is labeled 2 in the above matrix, the wall size is 6.
3. Design a circle class and then on, utilities on top of it including randomly generating a point within a circle. How do you translate to polar coordinates and what changes I would make. What changes would be required for a Square/Rectangle/eclipse etc.