I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Electronic Arts (Burnaby, BC) in Nov 2018
Interview
I applied online and was contacted by a recruiter in the US over a month later.
Initial technical phone screen on C/C++, OOP, and data structures with a senior engineer in their HQ in US. The interviewer was professional and it was a pleasant experience.
Then I was asked to go to their Burnaby campus for a 5 hour onsite interview. I scheduled for a week later to give myself some time to prepare the whiteboarding questions. However that turned out to be a waste of time as I was only asked 1 coding questions on the white board and it was ridiculously easy. The 2 rounds of interview with engineers were very easy as well. They were very easy to talk to and it was not stressful at all. They asked easy open ended questions and said they wanted to know how I think and how my approach is. Also some discussions about your background such as your projects, when you started programming or why you love programming. I was surprised I wasn’t bombarded with leetcode questions like binary tree level order traversal or stuff like that. Overall this is the easiest technical interview I ever got. The engineers were so nice they spent a lot of time clarifying the questions/scenarios that when they were doing that I already knew exactly what they were talking about and started thinking about the answer. The lunch after that was great too, they made me feel like I already got the job (LOL!).
3rd round was a video call with a director in their HQ. Talked about experiences and projects. A few technical concept questions. He asked me a technical jargon I’ve never heard of, but it was just something about pointer usage and nothing deep at all.
Last round was with a manager, asked a bunch of behavioral questions, nothing special.
I left the interview feeling excited. This interview was much easier than I expected and I thought I did well. A few days later I followed up with the recruiter and got something like “the team enjoyed talking to you as well … but you were weak in knowledge like memory”. This is exactly all he said. He said he could give me more details if I want to know more. I politely asked, but got no further response.
Honestly I don’t know what to think. This rejection is completely random. What is “weak in knowledge like memory”? I don’t even recall being asked memory management related questions. Honestly I would much rather have a difficult/stressful interview than a comfortable interview with a random rejection. What’s the point of making the candidate feel great if you are not going to give an offer? If you think I am not good enough for the job, just be upfront about it: We need people with experience in x, y, z. You seem to be good in x but don’t know much about y and z. Who knows, maybe I do know y and z but you just didn’t ask! At the very least I know why I am rejected.
BTW, this is a job I am genuinely passionate about.
I applied online. The process took 8 weeks. I interviewed at Electronic Arts (Melbourne) in Jul 2018
Interview
Phone interviewed by recruitment manager. After 4 weeks long wait, I was invited to a do a programming test at home. After another 4 weeks long wait I was rejected.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
Your experience at previous company, and other questions asking details
I applied through other source. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Electronic Arts (Seattle, WA) in May 2018
Interview
The whole process took about a month and a half, I was first contacted by the recruiter and scheduled a phone call, which involved general question about my background and work experience. Also the recruiter explained the interview process, briefed about team and the role. After that I was scheduled for a technical phone interview. The call lasted for 1 hour. Again general experience question, basic programming question about C++ and then 1 coding question using google docs. It was fairly simple and I can easily say the they are looking for logic not syntactical errors. After that I was called for an onsite interview to Seattle. I interviewed with 6 people over 5 hours. Every one was really very friendly, and the lunch was good too, I didnt feel pressured at all and they were just talking to me as if I already work with them. That kinda made me feel relaxed for the interviews later. Onsite they went into my work experience in details. Then multiple coding questions involving algorithms and system design. And lots of questions about C++. Nothing too difficult but very experience based questions, cracking the coding interview and high difficulty medium level leetcode questions are good way to prepare. Cant go into details as NDA.
Just a day after the interview I got a call saying that they want to extend me an offer, discussed the salary details and then after 2 weeks got my offer letter.
The recruiter is really amazing in communication, unlike lots of other studios they dont ghost you for ages. They reply promptly to your email.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Cant go into detail because NDA, but be good with details of C++, practice leetcode and cracking the coding interview