interview guides

How they actually interview.

Real loops, built from all the publicly accessible data we can verify. What each company publishes about its own process, plus real interview data. Read the round, then run it against your resume with an interviewer that pushes back.

companies

263

curated rounds

233

answered FAQs

08·12

sources verified

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Google7 rounds · 2 roles · verified 08·08

Four published hiring attributes, each assigned to specific interviewers, and a hiring committee of Googlers who never met you making the actual decision from written notes.

BehavioralScreenCoding

Amazon5 rounds · coding · behavioral Meta5 rounds · coding · behavioral Goldman Sachs8 rounds · coding · behavioral McKinsey3 rounds · case Jane Street7 rounds · behavioral · coding

Engineering21 companies · 114 rounds

AtlassianA published loop with a round most companies skip: a dedicated Values interview run by someone off the hiring team, weighed alongside the coding and system design rounds.7 rounds08·10 GoogleFour published hiring attributes, each assigned to specific interviewers, and a hiring committee of Googlers who never met you making the actual decision from written notes.7 rounds08·08 StripeA loop built to resemble the day job: a bug fixed in a public open source project, an integration round spent extending code you did not write, a design conversation from a one-line requirement, a short algorithmic exercise, and a manager interview. You use your own laptop, your own editor and the internet throughout.7 rounds08·11 AirbnbAirbnb's loop demands fully runnable code rather than pseudocode, adds a dedicated code-review round on pull-request-style code, and leans hard on dynamic programming. A Core Values round run by a trained cross-functional interviewer can sink an otherwise strong technical performance.6 rounds08·10 DatabricksA loop that codes on a laptop with runnable code, sometimes hands you an unfamiliar language to see whether you can read the docs, and includes a concurrency round. Ownership and learning agility are the signals.6 rounds08·10 DoorDashA marketplace-shaped loop on four value themes, and in 2025 a coding round rebuilt as an AI-assisted working session on a realistic project, scored on judgment and rigor over finishing.6 rounds08·10 SalesforceA values-led loop built on Trust, Customer Success and the Ohana culture, where coding weighs stack fluency and the behavioral round leans on supporting teammates and customers.6 rounds08·10 AdobeAdobe publishes one hiring process for every product org, and what changes is the role: technical candidates get coding challenges, system design discussions or portfolio reviews, creative candidates get briefs and design exercises. Be Genuine is a named company value, and Adobe asks candidates to lead with their own voice.5 rounds08·11 AmazonEverything runs on the 16 Leadership Principles. Every interviewer owns a couple, a Bar Raiser from outside the team guards the bar with relentless dive-deep follow-ups, and STAR answers with real ownership and numbers are the currency.5 rounds08·10 AnthropicA loop that weighs how you reason and communicate as heavily as whether the code runs, with a strong pull toward mission and the careful, safe deployment of AI.5 rounds08·11 AppleHiring runs team by team rather than through one pipeline. Expect deep ownership of your past work, a real reason for Apple, and interviewers who reward detail and collaborative debate.5 rounds08·10 CoinbasePair programming graded on production-grade code rather than the optimal one-liner, assessed almost entirely through published cultural tenets, with a bar raiser who holds a hell-yes-or-no standard on every panel.5 rounds08·10 LinkedInA four-phase loop that hires for potential, with each interview owning a named skill area, coding, craftsmanship, engineering design, communication and leadership.5 rounds08·10 MetaTwo coding rounds at LeetCode pace, a system design round for experienced hires, and a behavioral round that reads for drive, conflict and impact. Fast, signal-dense and level-calibrated.5 rounds08·10 MicrosoftA loop that mixes coding, a design or fundamentals conversation, and a behavioral read, with a final as-appropriate interviewer weighing the hire. Collaboration and growth mindset carry real weight.5 rounds08·10 NetflixA senior-heavy loop where the culture memo is load-bearing: candid, high-context conversations about judgment, impact and the keeper test, alongside the technical rounds.5 rounds08·10 NvidiaA team-owned loop where an in-person onsite is required before any offer, coding runs on HackerRank, and the technical bar is gated tightly to the domain, from CUDA and systems to deep-learning internals.5 rounds08·10 PalantirA loop built around real, open-ended problem solving and a read on whether you would thrive as a forward-deployed engineer, plus coding that rewards pragmatism over puzzle tricks.5 rounds08·10 SpotifyA values-heavy loop where ownership, adaptability and collaboration are weighed as hard as the code. Technical work runs in CoderPad and Mural, and Spotify says every decision on advancement and hiring is made by human recruiters and hiring managers, not an automated tool.5 rounds08·11 UberUber publishes its engineering loop stage by stage: a recruiter call, a HackerRank assessment, a 60-minute technical screen that covers design and architecture as well as coding, then two 60-minute coding rounds and a named collaboration and leadership round.5 rounds08·10 ShopifyA loop known for its Life Story interview, a long, candid conversation about your whole trajectory, alongside a craft-focused technical round. Craft and self-awareness over polish.4 rounds08·10

Consulting10 companies · 31 rounds

EYEY hires against a published strengths framework and scores every behavioral answer on three things: the experience, the action, the result. This guide covers the spoken fit rounds, not the online assessments or the EY-Parthenon case.4 rounds08·11 AccentureAccenture's behavioral interview is about how you manage and overcome hard situations, mapped to its six core values. This guide covers the fit round, not the online assessment or case.3 rounds08·10 BainBain runs an experience interview alongside each case: a warm but pointed conversation about your past, scored on individual ownership, quantified impact and genuine fit. This guide covers that fit portion; the case is a separate exercise.3 rounds08·10 BCGBCG opens every interview with a fit and experience conversation before the case, roughly the first ten to fifteen minutes, scored on drive, communication and a specific reason for BCG. This guide covers that fit portion, not the case.3 rounds08·10 DeloitteDeloitte's behavioral interview is competency-based and STAR-driven, scored on achievement, communication, leadership and resilience. This guide covers the fit round, not the case.3 rounds08·10 KearneyKearney runs behavioral interviews as a named round conducted by consultants, and publishes exactly what it reads you against: curiosity, generosity, boldness, solidarity and passions. This guide covers that round, not the case.3 rounds08·11 KPMGKPMG publishes the exact competencies it recruits against and scores you on them one at a time, ending at an assessment centre it calls Launch Pad. This guide covers the spoken competency rounds, not the online assessments or the recorded video interview.3 rounds08·11 McKinseyEvery McKinsey interview opens with the Personal Experience Interview: one real story taken apart for ten to fifteen minutes on connection, drive, leadership and growth (McKinsey renamed these dimensions in 2025). This guide runs the PEI; the case and the Solve game are separate.3 rounds08·10 Oliver WymanOliver Wyman calls its fit round a conversational interview, and means it: no named behavioral instrument, just your interest in business, your accomplishments and what you do outside your studies. This guide covers that conversation, not the case.3 rounds08·11 PwCPwC scores candidates against the PwC Professional, its global framework, and runs behavioral interviews back-to-back live. This guide covers the spoken fit rounds, not the online assessment or the Advisory case interview.3 rounds08·11

Finance & IB23 companies · 118 rounds

Citadel SecuritiesAn engineering onsite built as one real problem that keeps evolving as constraints are added, design, build, defend, extend, with the same interviewer. The point is not to defend your code, it is to evolve it.9 rounds08·10 JPMorganA four-stage process that hires the whole person, running two different loops underneath it. Both start with the on-demand recorded video interview JPMorgan publishes; software engineers then get a technical assessment and live coding, investment banking analysts get accounting, valuation and back-to-back fit seats.9 rounds08·11 Goldman SachsTwo separate loops behind one name. Both open with the 30-minute recorded video interview Goldman publishes, then split: engineering applicants get a HackerRank assessment and a coding superday, banking analysts get accounting, valuation and a fit seat with senior bankers. The superday itself is two to five interviews, depending on the division.8 rounds08·11 Two SigmaA remote, personalized loop across engineering and quant research where interviews care how you reached a solution, not just the answer, and intellectual humility is a real signal.8 rounds08·10 Jane StreetInterviews run as conversations, not quizzes: probability, expected value, making markets and estimation, all reasoned out loud. No finance knowledge, and you code in any language you like.7 rounds08·10 BloombergA genuine engineering loop, coding on HackerRank over Zoom plus a decision-bearing behavioral hour where a weak reason for Bloomberg turns down strong coders.6 rounds08·10 Capital OneA centralized, program-based pipeline that ends in a Power Day of back-to-back virtual interviews. The distinctive part for engineers: Capital One lists a business case interview as a required Power Day component for its Technology Development Program, alongside behavioral and technical rounds.6 rounds08·11 PlaidA fintech loop that grades coding on cleanliness and testing rather than trick algorithms, and reads for motivation, opportunity spotting and how you handle conflict. Non-traditional backgrounds are welcome.5 rounds08·10 Bank of AmericaOne of the few banks that publishes the mechanics of its recorded video round and a different stage list for each region: a superday in the Americas, an assessment center in EMEA, competency-based interviews in Asia Pacific. The technicals are the most merger-model weighted of the bulge brackets.4 rounds08·12 BarclaysThe one bulge bracket whose published process is UK-shaped: an application, two short interactive assessments, and an assessment centre of two or three stages including a motivational interview with a member of the leadership team. The technicals start with accounting and carry a visible financial-institutions slant.4 rounds08·12 BMO Capital MarketsBest known for a distinctive recorded video round that opens the funnel, usually with a markets question. After that it is fit-first: a VP or associate first round, then a fast superday with a behavioral seat, an associate technical seat and a VP vibe check.4 rounds08·10 Centerview PartnersSays bankers at Centerview are made, not born, and hires across schools and disciplines rather than on pedigree. That shows up in the interview: alongside standard valuation, the reported analyst bank is dominated by brain teasers, market sizing and mental math, which cannot be memorised the way a DCF walk can.4 rounds08·12 CIBC Capital MarketsOne of the few Canadian banks that publishes its process: a five-stage loop with a pre-recorded video interview among its assessments, then a fit-heavy first round that asks why banking several different ways, and a superday that escalates in seniority to a director or MD.4 rounds08·10 CitiPublishes a five-step process and says outright that the final stage differs by program and location, which is the honest version of what the last day looks like. The question mix is the most valuation-weighted of the bulge brackets, and its global footprint turns up as genuinely cross-border valuation questions.4 rounds08·12 EvercoreThe largest of the independent advisory firms, and the one whose analyst interview carries the most restructuring content. The funnel is short and unusually deliberate: cover letters are required, candidates get two applications a year, and anyone reaching final rounds has to pick a single location and position.4 rounds08·12 LazardThe oldest independent advisory house, and it hires for stated qualities rather than a stated process: intellectual curiosity, thoughtfulness and wisdom. The reported analyst loop is a screen, banker interviews and a senior final round, with a markets and sector bias in the technicals.4 rounds08·12 Moelis & CompanyOne of the few banks that publishes its actual interview stages: an application with no cover letter, the Suited Assessment for US and UK candidates, one to two first-round interviews with bankers that are explicitly technical and behavioral, then an onsite final with multiple senior bankers.4 rounds08·12 Morgan StanleyPublishes what its own senior interviewers look for rather than a stage list, and the message is blunt: know the deals the firm has done recently, and be able to defend every line of your resume without reading it. Its technicals lean harder on markets and macro than any of its bulge-bracket peers.4 rounds08·12 National Bank FinancialThe Montreal-headquartered challenger to the Big Five, with heavy Quebec deal flow and bilingual recruiting for Montreal roles. National Bank publishes nothing about its interview stages, but the reported loop is fit-first: a video screen, an analyst-plus-VP first round, and a senior superday.4 rounds08·10 PJT PartnersPublishes a four-stage process (Explore, Application Selection, Interview, Offer Decisions) and says the interview assesses aptitude, potential and cultural fit through questions on industry understanding and corporate finance fundamentals. Restructuring and Special Situations is a firm-defining business, and the analyst technicals go there early.4 rounds08·12 RBC Capital MarketsCanada's largest bank and its best-known M&A team, recruiting early and on rolling review. The loop is fit-first: a one-way video, a two-associate first round where you defend your group ranking, and a superday of VPs and MDs with one dedicated technical seat.4 rounds08·10 Scotiabank GBMGlobal Banking and Markets spans investment banking, corporate banking and capital markets, and its corporate and credit lean shows up in the interview: alongside standard fundamentals, the superday technical seat often includes a credit case, essentially should the bank lend to this company.4 rounds08·10 TD SecuritiesA fit-and-networking-driven loop with a collaborative reputation: a reported video screen, a first round often run by a few junior bankers at once, and a superday of three seats where the last is a dedicated technical round.4 rounds08·10