Pocket Gems·Backend Engineer

Pocket Gems Backend Engineer interview experience

No offer

Medium

Neutral

United StatesPosted Jun 2015 · Candidate report, summarized by Dataford

I had a more structured string-focused interview pattern where I got two coding rounds that leaned on StrStr and related string/array logic, using online collaborative editors over about a week or two.

Phone coding round 1 — I implemented StrStr() and also worked on a “top k frequent” style problem involving strings or arrays.
Phone coding round 2 — I was given existing code and asked to understand it, identify edge cases, and modify the implementation accordingly.
Follow-up expectations (debug/compile) — Some interactions emphasized producing compiling, runnable code rather than just pseudocode.
Outcome: I didn’t get an offer, and my takeaway was that rapid, correct syntax and edge-case handling mattered as much as the core algorithm idea.

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