I applied online. I interviewed at Walmart in Jan 2022
Interview
Applied online. During the process it required me to pick a date for interview but without any date available. And the calendar's starting day wasn't fixed on Sunday but your choice of date. Pretty terrible interface. I couldn't move next if not finishing day picking. I had no idea whether I've applied or not.
After a few weeks, HR emailed and asked an phone interview. Instead of calling it an interview, I felt more like having a call with some sort of call center. All he did was repeating/confirming the questions that can be done online. He sounded so robotic and foreign. He didn't know the company's hiring process. All he could say was please wait for 7-10 business days. So interesting. I guess they outsource HR.
Then it was a phone screen interview with basic java question and a coding problem. They used HackerRank as the platform. It went smoothly. I was moved forward but things got utterly unprofessional.
The next was 3 interviews (tech with coding, tech with system design, and behavior interview) within one afternoon. I got stood up by the first one. Tried to reach out to the recruiter at once but no response. A few days later, the recruiter called and provided the second chance. Again 3 interviews were arranged in the afternoon. The first interviewer finally showed up, however the second and the third zoom links were invalid meeting ID.
I've lost enthusiasm for this company for being treated like this. It is way beyond my expectation that a big international retail company could be so unorganized and disrespectful.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Most of the questions are the ones you've already answered in the application. Java basic, static vs non-static, relational DB vs non-relational DB, etc. How to design a shopping cart. Things on your resume.
Looking back, I feel like I gained a clearer understanding of the process, even though I ultimately turned down the offer. The technical rounds were straightforward, featuring an implementation question on an LRU cache and a system design question about a rate limiter for an API. What helped me a lot was the walkthroughs for system design I went through on PracHub, which made those types of questions feel familiar. Overall, it was an easy experience, but I just didn't feel it was the right fit for me.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Implement an LRU cache with O(1) get and put using a hash map plus doubly linked list
First, standard short phone call with recruiter. Then a 1-hour interview with an engineer on the team, asked about technical experience and background, and did a live coding assessment via video call. Fairly standard Leetcode style questions
Intense but rewarding — the interview for the Software Engineer position at Walmart Labs was tougher than I anticipated. The technical rounds included an LRU Cache implementation question where I had to articulate my design thoughts on thread safety, followed by a complex system design for a real-time inventory service. What made a difference in my prep were the company-specific prompts I found on prachub.com; they really helped me understand the types of questions I might face. Despite the challenging nature of the interviews, I ultimately received an offer but chose to decline.