Snowflake Software Engineer interview experience

The first was a LeetCode medium, and the second was also a LeetCode medium, but the second one didn’t feel structured at all. I remember starting with a brute-force solution and saying I’d move toward optimization after confirming correctness, then spending more time than expected debugging because it involved a tree problem where I had to define inputs and wrestle with test cases.

When I pivoted to the follow-up optimization, the timing got tight—there were only about ten minutes left. The interviewer came across as combative about whether my optimal approach was truly optimal and whether