I applied to Software Engineer position at Uber. I had a technical interview with senior engineer online. Just like other interviews, started well and he explained the process to me. It was supposed to be total 45 mins of coding challenge. He wrote down the question, I asked him questions about his expectation from the result and explained him how I will solve it. I started coding. I was also talking to him and he was asking me questions along the way. After around 15 mins, he asked me questions about my plan how I would continue if I had the variable that I was supposed to have. I explained to him what i would do next. Then, I told him that "Let's continue coding" after my explanation. He stopped me there and he said "we are done here", and we are now moving into Q&A. The passed time was 25 mins when he said. I still had another 20 mins to continue, I found it a bit awkward why he stopped me there. It was sort of different tone that he didn't wanna hear during technical interview. It was a bit weird situation. I asked him few questions about the company, and then completed the phone call. i am not sure what is their expectation from an engineer, I still don't understand why he didn't want me continue coding even though I had more time to continue. After couple days, they informed me that I was rejected.
The interview process started with a recruiter screen where they covered my background and the role's expectations. Next, I had a phone screen focused on technical skills where I faced a DSA question on frequent elements in an array. I had practiced similar problems on prachub.com beforehand, which helped me tackle it effectively. The technical rounds consisted of coding and system design questions, including rate limiting. Finally, I had a behavioral interview where they assessed cultural fit. Overall, the experience was average, but I received and accepted an offer.
I interviewed at Uber (San Francisco, CA) in Apr 2026
Interview
Recruiter screen then there was a hiring manager round which felt more like a mix of product sense + execution - mostly a mix of OOP algorithms in Python or Java and some high-level system design. The onsite was 5 back to back rounds covering data structures, database management (heavy on SQL and data lifecycles), deep sys design, and behavioral. The sys design round was the real test where I had to walk through building a scalable real-time gaming leaderboard, discussing tradeoffs ofcourse in architecture, APIs, and data flow. The coding rounds was around things like linked lists and tree traversals, while the behavioral part focused heavily on ownership of my code and handling feedback. When you prep, make sure you can go a level deeper on database management and object oriented patterns instead of just grinding LC I’d say. I did grind LC though but ensure you understand the depth behind everything you solve. I also did a few mocks with uber swe on prepfully specifically for the sys design and database rounds and that honestly helped me catch some blind spots in my architecture knowledge and practice explaining my tradeoffs clearly. I’d say get a mock or two from anywhere if you can - helped me a lot!
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