I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at LinkedIn (Bengaluru) in Jun 2017
Interview
3 Phone screens. Followed by 5 onsite technical rounds. The interview panel appeared bored, disinterested and strangely full of ego at the bangalore office. The funniest part was the interview by the hiring manager. He appeared to be completely unimpressed by whatever I had to say in the interview often stopping my answers mid way with sarcastic comments. There were many instances in the interview where the manager made me feel like I know little about the team's technical stack and while I agreed I had a learning curve, I was a bit surprised at how a hiring manager would sell his team and project so short to a candidate they are trying to hire. I was offered a job at the end of this painful experience but I received a ton of joy in kicking the offer. I didn't so much as wait for the salary numbers. I flatly declined stating the role was not interesting. Interview panel needs to understand that the candidates are interviewing the company and the culture as well and while LinkedIn has a great office and benefits, this experience made me run away from the idea of working or reporting to a manager with serious attitude problems. LinkedIn, get your act straight. Is this really the work of a "best place to work for?". Some panelists were delightful to interview with. I like a interview that is challenging but also informative and makes me want to work with those team members. Especially the hiring manager round for me is an insight into the future with the team. Even if the manager was trying to put me under stress, this is a big gamble which in his case turned completely upside down for me as I was turned off. If he didnt want me on the team, the offer shouldnt have been rolled out in the first place. Very weird experience. I have interviewed with LinkedIn before with their mountain view teams and save for a difficult interview experience, the panelists were humble and down to earth, a far cry from the bored, boastful Bangalore panelists. Clearly LinkedIn Bangalore has much to learn from their US counterparts in brand building during interviews. I feel like rather than going anonymous on glassdoor, I should have shared this feedback with the recruiter but I decided to not paint all of LinkedIn in the same color due to one panelist's bad attitude. Although, the other panelists werent too great either (save 2). I know LinkedIn is serious about their brand as a employee friendly place so I hope this feedback reaches the right people and I sincerely hope this was an aberration.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Find 3 numbers in an array, that sum or are closest to given sum.
Culture fit and behavior round: Mostly around past projects and dealing and handling team members in large complex software projects
Onsite:
Find connected islands in a matrix of 1s and 0s
Write approx function for sqrt n
Design a tiny url service
Software craftsmanship - Describe what quality controls do you suggest for a critical highly available service before deploying to production
A very weird managerial round. Most important accomplishment. Do you describe yourself as a leader or a individual contributor? What kind of managerial style do you prefer?
Describe any technical project you worked on in the past. Technical communication round.
Recruiter emailed me for exploring interview. Then, I was invited to a phone screening interview.
I was asked to implement LFU similar data structure. I've never implemented that before. I've done with LRU though. It was very difficult to me to come up with appropriate solution on site.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
LFU-like question was asked, which was very difficult for me to solve.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at LinkedIn in Jul 2025
Interview
3 DSA rounds ( leetcode hard ) + 2 system design rounds + 1 managerial round focussed on projects and behavioural questions. Process was well organised in terms of scheduling.
The interviewers seemed rigid in evaluating candidates by narrow checklists rather than engineering depth. Feedback reflected a bias towards specific solution paths - even when alternate valid approaches were discussed clearly and with tradeoffs.
The interview culture also gave little space for collaborative discussion; it felt more like evaluative than explorative, especially in architecture rounds. I was also penalised for choosing a simple, scalable design before incrementally adding complexity.
Advice to Management"
Staff+ roles demand open mindedness and an appreciation for diverse design perspectives. Encourage interviewers to listen with curiosity rather than just matching against predefined answers.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Leetcode hard questions and couple of system design questions
Get contacted for a Silicon Valley position, finished screening and onsite (5 rounds). Have not heard back from anybody after 25 days, even after I followed up with the recruiter at the 14 day mark.
