The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Bloomberg (New York, NY) in Feb 2012
Interview
I applied to the position online, thinking it would go nowhere like all my other online applications. I got an email a couple days later asking me to take an assessment test (it was basically an IQ test). The test was about 30 questions, 3 minutes per question (it was timed per question) and the questions ranged in difficulty. I certainly didn't get all of them right, far from it. After that, I got an email asking me to set up a time for a phone interview. I responded, and then 1 week later they came to campus for a career fair. I went up to them and mentioned that I'd already begun the process online, and they took over the process from there. I interviewed 4 times within a week of approaching them at the career fair, and got my offer the following week. 3 interviews were technical, the last one was HR. The first two were knock-out rounds, and the last 2 were actually back to back, I went from the 3rd interview right to the 4th.
Interview questions [4]
Question 1
Say I have a deck of 52 cards, regular deck of cards. I put a joker in the deck somewhere and shuffle it up. Now I start dealing you cards until the joker shows up. Once it shows up, I stop dealing you cards. What is the probability that you have, in your set of cards, all 4 aces?
Can you cover an 8x8 chess board with dominos if two corner squares are removed (not two from the same side, 2 diagonal from each other). A domino covers 2 squares and no dominos can hang over the side of the board.
There is a panel containing 3 light switches in front of you. Each switch controls a light in a room somewhere. Doesn't really matter where. You can play with the switches as much as you like, but you're only allowed to enter the room once. How do you tell which switch controls which light? Again, you can only enter the room once, so you cannot play with the switches after you enter the room, but you can play with them as much as you want before you enter the room. One entry is all it takes to determine which switch controls which light.
I applied through 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 (London, England) 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.