Interview Experience: Bloomberg Summer Intern 2021
Writing as — Bloomberg Summer Intern 2021.
“Everything started in 2019”
Just like other students I was reaching out to various Bloomberg employees on LinkedIn for referrals. I luckily got a referral from XB, but unluckily for the wrong role — News Intern. It was getting late, so I ended up applying directly on the careers page.
October 5, 2019 — I applied for the Summer Internship at New York & Frankfurt office.
October 7, 2019 — I got an email from EP, where they asked if I want to apply to the Pune office instead. I agreed and quickly applied. After a few days, I scheduled my interview.
October 28, 2019 — The interview day. AFAIR I was asked two medium level questions. I was new to interviews and didn’t do that well. Was able to quickly code the first question but wasted all my time on a silly bug.
I still remember the bug. It was related to char & int. I was writing 1 instead of ‘1’ or vice versa. I moved to the next question but there wasn’t enough time to understand and code.
November 1, 2019 — I was rejected.
Before any interview, I usually spend some time preparing for commonly asked questions. ‘Why Bloomberg?’ was one of the questions I prepared for. But, while finding the answer, I found myself in love with the culture of this company.
This rejection was special as I wasn’t sad instead was motivated. I had one year before I could apply again. I started practicing DSA & questions on LeetCode. Maintained streaks. Took up challenges. Started a company. Joined UoA as Research Assistant Intern. Created projects. Studied regularly. It was all to make my profile better than it was before.
Application
October 2020 — I was waiting for the positions to open. I thought I got late in applying so I reached out to my old recruiter EP and asked them if the roles are still open.
They reverted back that the positions will open a little late. One month later they reached back saying that the roles are open. It was shocking to see that EP remembered my email and notified me. I am thankful to them.
November 26, 2020 — I applied for the 2021 Summer Internship at Pune.
The last time, I heard very soon from the team about my status. But this time it took a while. I thought I missed the chance. I started trying at other places.
Round 1
December 16, 2020 — I got an email. I was selected for the phone interview. Booked the slot immediately.
I started practicing more — 20 questions a day. This was my last chance. Every interview was a knockout.
December 29, 2020 — I joined the call with PM. Introduced myself. Did the first question over the phone. Before moving to next coding question, PM asked me a theoretical question and I was blank.
“I thought this is it. I am gonna fail again.”
I asked them if we could come back to this later as I was not sure about the answer. The next question had to be typed and explained. I remember talking about my approach and suddenly saying ‘No! I have a better one’.
I was typing it, explaining it, and answering any questions PM had for me simultaneously. The discussion went well and we came back to the question I didn’t know the answer of. I honestly confessed that I don’t know the answer.
PM said it was fine and started answering the question. I was listening to them and on the other hand, was stuck in a guilt trap to not be able to answer the question. I thought this was the end.
Round 2
December 29, 2020 — My recruiter MP mailed me and said that the feedback was positive and I had to choose the slot for the next interview. Oh my god!
“I started practicing 40 questions a day because if I lose I will be out of the tournament.”
January 14, 2021 — My second interview. It was a video interview with AMH & AG. They introduced themselves and I followed with my introduction. I was fascinated by the work they did. Luckily, I had a couple of projects related to the work they were doing currently.
We talked about my startup and moved on to the coding question. There was just one question that got completed pretty quickly. Overall, it went well.
“This time I was positive.”
Round 3
January 20, 2021 — MP emailed me that I was moving on to the System Design round. I was afraid of this round. Never did system design in my life. Had no guidance or clear path about what to do and what not.
“So I did everything available on the internet.”
I watched videos, read the official documentation, read Quora posts, read blogs, solved questions, created questions, solved those questions, practiced defending my solution, practiced analyzing my solution.
To remove any confusion about whom to watch or what to read, I watched and read everything. Now, when people ask me about it, I can’t even recall what all I did.
There was a moment when I started dreaming about designs at night. I was iterating my designs in sleep. I wanted this round to go well and come out of the interview with no regret.
February 11, 2021 — My interviewer PJ joined a little early. I thought I was late but we both were there early. Anyway, we started on time. The interview was not like what I practiced for.
It was half system design and half workflow design. I told PJ that I have never been to a system design interview and have never designed a workflow. PJ was ok with this and helped me throughout the interview.
I had a nice time with them. But I was confused about my result because they helped me and occasionally taking help in an interview is considered bad.
“I had no expectations.”
Round 4
February 12, 2021 — I moved to the final round which was with a recruiter and senior manager. It was planned to be based on my experience and motivation for the role.
February 19, 2021 — MP emailed about an additional interview before the final round that will cover system design in addition to my coding skills, and knowledge of data structures and algorithms.
My interviewer was located in New York. Now due to the time difference, I changed my sleep schedule. I used to sleep early and wake up early as the interview was to happen at 8 am. Might not be early for everyone but it was early for me.
“I had very little time to prepare for the World Cup. I practiced 80 questions a day with DSA & system design.”
February 25, 2021 — I joined the call with AR. I had no idea what to expect. I will keep this around a secret.
Round 5
March 4, 2021 [Part 1] — My last interview. I was on the call with AMK. Another interviewer couldn’t join the call due to some reason. We discussed non-technical things. I shared why I want to join Bloomberg, my story and background, my dream to work in New York City, and a lot more things.
March 4, 2021 [Part 2] — MP reached back to ask if I am available the same day to meet with the senior software engineer. I agreed.
March 4, 2021 [Part 3] — My actual last interview. I joined the call with AK. We talked about my resume and projects and my opinions on some topics. I had a good discussion.
“I was nervous about the result.”
March 8, 2021 — AMK reached out to meet as they had some questions for me. It was something related to the conflict of interest between my startup and Bloomberg.
Result
After the last round, I was literally checking my mail every 30 mins. I could not concentrate or sleep. I used to wake up many times at night and check if I got an email.
“Waiting is worst.”
March 19, 2021 — AMK mailed to have a quick chat. I thought ‘Oh! I failed’ and they are gonna tell me over the call. Even though I had good rounds, I had doubts. They called on the phone and said…
“Congratulations …”
And. This was it. I worked so hard for this. Specifically for this. This moment.
September 9, 2021 — I got the full-time offer for New York City. But that’s a story for another day.
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