I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Block (Melbourne) in Apr 2021
Interview
I applied this role, "Senior Machine Learning Engineer", via LinkedIn advertisement.
In a few days my recruiter contacted me and the process started.
1. Simple phone screen, the recruiter didn't ask question for phone screening but asked about me and my current experience.
2. Code exercise, I had two options. One is a online pairing for 1 hour and another one is a code assignment with 1 week. I chose the code assessment since I am not a fan of "Leetcode" style testing. The recruiter was kind enough to share what would be assessment criteria and tips to pass the assessment
3. After passing the code assessment, I was invited a day-long interviews. Also my recruiter shared tips for the interviews.
Square hiring interview process is the best one of all interviews I had for companies in Australia.
Overall my experience for the hiring process is that Square tried to help me to do my best for the interviews and help me to pass the interviews rather than ambushing me with surprising questions.
All interviewers are nice and kind.
I did not do well with one of interviews but got my offer so that is another reason I am saying that "Square try to help you pass the hiring process rather setting strict bar just to filter you out"
Inital take home, followed by extension interview, followed by a coding challenge, followed by system design interview.
The whole process took 3 months!
The interviewers are usually really nice and want you to do your best.
The interviewer was nice, and he is friendly and willing to give hint, the question has 2 follow-ups, it was hard to complete in time. The question was not a typical LeetCode
Phone screen and then a full day of interviews. 3 pair programming challenges, a system design review and a prior experience interview. There was also an onsite lunch with a person from the company.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
To design a hotel booking system. Pick any part (backend, frontend, database, api etc) and deepdive into that, explaining the decisions along the way.
