I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Cruise (San Francisco, CA) in Mar 2018
Interview
I was reached out by an external recruiter to apply to cruise. Afterwards, I was referred to an internal recruiter to schedule my phone interview. Standard process, algorithmic question over an online interpreter. After passing this, we scheduled an onsite for about a month later, since I had complications with my schedule.
Onsite was in Cruise offices on San Francisco. I was asked to bring my own laptop to work on the coding exercises. The schedule was
- 2 coding exercises with my laptop. The interviewer stated the problem, we discussed the solution together and then I implemented it on the computer, running it against an example. The questions were planted on the spot, they weren't from a standard bank of questions
- 1 architecture design interview. Explain architecture of a service on a whiteboard.
- 1 interview with the manager about the team and the position I was applying to
- 1 interview with the recruiter about standard HR stuff.
I found the people that were working on the projects really passionate about the work that they do and had a very insightful architecture discussion with the team. The coding and design interviews also felt more collaborative than in other places: if I happened to be stuck with something unrelated to the problem statement they would not hesitate to lend a hand. Although I didn't got an offer I was offered a call with the recruiter with feedback about my interview, which very few companies do. Overall I found it a pleasant experience.
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Cruise (San Francisco, CA)
Interview
The interview process consisted of an initial recruiter screen followed by a technical phone interview focused on data structures and problem-solving in Python. The onsite loop included 4 rounds: one coding round (medium LeetCode-style problem), one system design round focused on building a scalable ML data processing pipeline, one backend/API design round, and one behavioral round. Interviewers emphasized real-world problem solving, tradeoffs, and communication. Overall, the process was structured and aligned with large-scale distributed systems and ML infrastructure.
Online submission. Then contacted by recruiter. The phone screening, and then onsite, which lasted an entire day in San Francisco office. Sat in a room while interviewers came and left.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
generic questions, nothing to really test what I knew. The interviewers seemed to not know how to interview a candidate and what to look for. I didn't want to work there after what i saw.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Cruise in Nov 2024
Interview
The interview process consisted of a one-hour coding challenge followed by a one-hour deep dive with the hiring manager.
The coding challenge involved solving a LeetCode hard-level problem,
The discussion with the hiring manager focused on previous experience. Mismatch in chemistry. Rejected.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
coding round: lc high frequency hard
HM round: project deep dive
