Yahoo, Software Development Engineer I (Front-end) Phone screen, Oct 2018 Sunnyvale CA

Position: Software Development Engineer, Yahoo
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Interview time: 45 minutes

Technical Phone Screen (1): The interviewer was on time and the initial introductory part was not more than 5 minutes (that gave me good amount of time to solve the questions).

First question: To design a data structure that allows insert, remove, getRandom operations.

Once I solved the problem for no duplicacy case, I was asked to improvise the solution to take into account the case of duplicate numbers being allowed.

We had few minutes left, I asked him about the technology stack and about the team.

Technical Phone Screen (2): The interviewer was on time and started off with basic HTTP, JavaScript, CSS questions.

First question: Find if the two strings are anagram (cat, act) of each other or not. I implemented using counting the characters methos. Talked about time complexity. As we had some time, the interviewer asked me another question.

Second question: Given a 2D board and a word, find if the word exists in the grid. The word can be constructed from letters of sequentially adjacent cell (vertically and horizontally neighboring). I implemented using DFS method.

I asked the interviewer about the day to day activities and responsibilities of someone in this role and about his projects.

I got a call for onsite interview.

Overall experience was good. Both the interviewers were prepared, friendly and communicated clearly. I wish they process is faster. I had to wait for a month to schedule my onsite interview and that was not cool. But, to talk about the interview itself, it was conducted really well.

I’d like to also add that, before the interview starts, do try coderpad to practice some simple questions as the environment feels even weirder when you are under the pressure. It is always better to get the feel before your actual run. Be patient and communicate well and clearly! Ask for clarifications before you assume and dive into the solution. It is better to come up with a solution, even if it is not the best one as it gives you some confidence and cools your nerves. You can improvise later. Give yourself good amount of interview time by not beating around the bush and answering to the point.

And remember, everybody’s rooting for you!

Keep practicing, Good luck!