Linkedin recruiter reached out to me over the phone and scheduled 2 hr. phone interview for Senior Staff Engineer position.
Phone Interview:
Code Interview: Code interview was started 7 mins late. The only technical question asked in this interview was "TWO Sum" problem. I was surprised by this easy code question for a Senior Staff Engineer interview and on top of it i solved the same problem in leetcode as part of my interview coding practice :). I explained three effective solutions with scenarios and Time complexity to solve this problem. I provided executable code for two approaches. Interviewer was not able to look into my code because of collabedit.com sync issues. But, he was inline with the solution approaches i explained to him in the call. My coding interview was cut-short to 30 mins with no further technical questions may be because of collabedit.com sync issues. I also sent my code in email after the interview to make sure he received my code.
Background Interview: This interview was very detail. Interviewer was clearly impressed with my previous work, leadership and technical decisions making process. This interview was extended to 1hr. 15mins. Interviewer was very professional. He tried his best to clarify my questions related job and Linkedin work environment.
After 1 day i got the feedback that, they rejected me based on my Code Interview.
I was completely surprised by this decision. It seems to be a predetermined interview.
Like many of you, LinkedIn is one of my favorite company to work. I was excited by this job opportunity and prepared weeks to make best attempt to present my technical skills in that 1 hr. technical/code interview. Unfortunately my code interview was cut short to 30 mins with just one easy technical question which i coded work solution in effective ways. No other technical questions were asked, No technical discussions, No code review/inputs and no option to present my technical skills - which are supposed to be part of this code interview.
My Recommendation:
Don't waste your time and efforts on these predetermined interviews.
It seems Linkedin interview panel and process was completely broken. No transparency in feedback process and No rejection reasons/details. Refer the Glassdoor negative interview experience % (~30%) - which is very high for a top rated tech company.
Positive thing is Linkedin recruiters are very professional and followed up very well throughout the interview process.