I applied online and got a technical phone screen set up. The problem was simple to solve brute force and didn't require much more thinking to solve optimally. However, for some reason, the interviewer felt I didn't know what I was talking about and began grilling me with questions about my solution. I answered all of them correctly, but he was still skeptical, so he asked me to implement one of the data structures used in my solution. The interviewer had indicated previously that this was to be a warmup question, but due to the follow-up questions, we never ended up getting to anything complex or interesting. I just ended up getting yelled at to explain basic syntax and data structure concepts. I don't understand where the interviewer's arrogance came from considering I have work experience at top companies and a degree from a top school, and I answered all his questions satisfactorily. He even said my solution was correct and optimal after I explained everything to him. It's a shame that the interviewer was so arrogant - Databricks sounded like an awesome company and I would have loved to learn more about it.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
For each index, find the minimum element within k indices prior to that index.
Apologize that your experience was not the greatest, we will check into this and make sure our phone interviews don't come across as a negative experience. Our process isn't perfect yet and we are working on making it better which is normal at a startup, but we do want to make sure everyone has a positive experience with us. Appreciate your feedback.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Databricks (San Francisco, CA)
Interview
I have a PhD in Computer Science from a top school, and was referred by a friend. The process was as follows:
- Talked to a cofounder over the phone about the company (vision, status, interview process, etc)
- Phone interview
- Onsite interviews (gave a talk about my PhD research, followed by 5 sessions including lunch)
- Coding assignment
The hardest interview question I got in all my interviews was from Databricks. There was one question that started innocently simple, but expanded into fancy algorithms, computer architecture, cache locality, and API design.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
A lot of algorithmic questions, design questions, and systems level optimization questions