I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Bloomberg (New York, NY) in Oct 2009
Interview
This is a very difficult interview process so the keyword here is preparation. The skills test is very SPECIFIC, not high level concepts. You'll be asked to pick a language (C,C++,Java) so pick the one you know THOROUGHLY. Also another interviewee posted about using brainbench.com tests as preparation. DO IT. A majority of the questions are off this site but you have to pay 200 bucks for a full year subscription. I for one know if I hadn't take the brainbench tests, there is no way I would have passed. The phone interview wasn't any better (Know your data structures, time complexities, and algorithms). Also, be aware of brain teasers. I thought I did horrible on the phone interview but I still got called for an on-site interview. On-site: THEY WILL GRILL YOU! At least that's what they did to me. Best advice is to study from careercup.com and hope they ask those kinds of questions, but in my case they didn't. They asked about balancing binary trees and I knew then itself I wouldn't get the offer and I was right. To me, I felt it was asked on purpose just to screw me since not even Microsoft asked me that kind of question. Other thoughts: the office is incredible looking with all the modern art, I have never seen an office building like that before. No cubicles, just rows of computers with people so it sort of looked like the world war 2 films where they show rows of women helping out in the factories. Also my on-site interview was only ONE interview by 2 r&d recruiters. Others seem to have received several interviews throughout the day, so I don't how they decide that.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Phone Interview: Describe your most recent project, why use static variables, where are the static variables stored, how to tell if a stack grows up or down, a stupid brainteaser question involving a 100 light bulbs (can look up the question and answer online), and what data structure would use to work with a word processor.
I applied through college or university. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Bloomberg (Indianapolis, IN) in Feb 2019
Interview
They had info session at school. I submitted my resume online and got the on-campus interview. The interview is 1 hour. Two engineers are the interviewer. Small talk at the beginning. Ask 1 or 2 questions about the resume. And then ask two technical questions. I finished the first one. But I did't have enough time to completed the second question. The first one is a string question. The second one is a tree question.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Bloomberg (London, England) in Dec 2018
Interview
It was a very candidate-friendly interview process, had flexible on-site dates. Amazingly quick feedback. Overall a great experience.
Technical phone screen with an engineer (2 simple/average coding questions)
On-site (technical and behavioral rounds)
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Simple/average coding questions. Understanding recursion, stack, and heap, some basic C++ features, data structures characteristics
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Bloomberg (New York, NY) in Nov 2016
Interview
- There was one phone interview with a Bloomberg engineer.
- The onsite interview started with a so called tour of Bloomberg but abruptly ended with a museum of their colorful terminals. It was over in 5 minutes. The group of interviewees laughed a little when it ended.
- 2 rounds of technical interviews with a break of ~20 minutes. Found it easy. Mix of algorithm and design questions. All interviewers look satisfied when they left me.
- HR and recruiter forget that I exist. Forget to contact me for the next 40 minutes or so. I go to their front desk to inquire whether there are more rounds.
- HR appears slightly irritated but is polite. Next 30 minutes, HR tries to understand why after 6+ years of computer science education and working for a couple of years I "chose" to be a software engineer. Does not want to hear technical stuff. Had a hard time believing I could fit the role. I wondered whether I should have taken Psychology and then become a recruiter so I could judge potential candidates of a different discipline.
- At the end of the interview, was asked to "patiently" wait for the next round. Within 5 minutes, one more guy turns up and says the conference room is booked. Was once again asked to goto the front desk. Bloomberg office is huge and not all elevators goto front desk. :-( Reach somehow.
- Once again try telling the front desk people that I have an interview. Give the name of the host. Host appears after 15 minutes. Asks how the interviews are going.
I say "not that great". Asks whether - "Do you want to stay?". I lower my head and say "yes".
- In the conference room, realizes that the manager is out of office and the manager does not have my resume. Arranges a video conference. Asks the manager over conference to not keep him "busy" since he has a flight in flat 2.5 hours.
- Manager tries to understand how I ended up interviewing at Bloomberg and what role she could give me if I was chosen. It was nice but nothing productive. Interview ends in 30 minutes.
- Meet the so called organizer of the whole process. Asks whether the interview was awesome. I say it was "ok". Goes on a tirade on how people like me have a low attitude and should be happy to meet awesome people. After all, the process took only a day.
- Keeps repeating "Hope you get it". "Hope you get it" with a smirk while I collect my luggage and thank her for all the arrangements.
- Leave broken hearted and look tearfully at Lexington tower while I rush to the airport.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1. Deep copy a linked list with a random pointer.
2. Perimeter of the wall enclosed by an enemy. Eg:
121
121
If the enemy is labeled 2 in the above matrix, the wall size is 6.
3. Design a circle class and then on, utilities on top of it including randomly generating a point within a circle. How do you translate to polar coordinates and what changes I would make. What changes would be required for a Square/Rectangle/eclipse etc.