PayPal Interview prep for Senior Software Engineer
I have an interview with PayPal next week for a Senior Software Engineer role. Since many of the PayPal engineers in Taro are currently unavailable, I'm posting here for advice.
The interview consists of four rounds: coding, system design, object-oriented programming (OOP), and behavioural questions. While I am confident about the Software Engineer 2 level, I view this Senior role as a more ambitious challenge.
Initially, I was hesitant to ask for guidance, but after reviewing "Acing the SE Interview," I gained some confidence and decided to reach out. Any insights or advice on preparing for these rounds would be greatly appreciated.
Discussion
(2 comments)- 2a month agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
Just wanted to say that the recruiter might also have information to share. Just ask!
I'm really excited to interview at PayPal and learn more about the company. Could you share any recommended resources as I prepare?
- 1
a month agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroPayPal is massive tech company with 2,500+ engineers and 20+ years of history. As I talk about in the job searching course, I recommend checking Glassdoor and LeetCode Premium data: https://www.jointaro.com/course/ace-your-tech-interview-and-get-a-job-as-a-software-engineer/scout-online/
When it comes to my personal interview experience at PayPal (both as a candidate and as the interviewer), the interview process didn't feel standardized. However, I interviewed at PayPal 10+ years ago, so they've probably improved by then (I heard from coworkers that PayPal raised their engineering bar after they went public and had a stock rally). Your interview seems quite standard.
In terms of my interview, I don't remember all of it:
- Take home: Build a website with Node.js (I actually bought a Node.js book to pass this and spent a long time understanding what a callback was)
- Phone screen: OOP - I remember it being a pretty standard question.
- Onsite:
- 1 round with a QA where I was asked to come up with test cases for a particular API
- 1 round with a Director of Engineering where I had to build an LRU cache (classic LeetCode problem)
- I don't remember the other rounds
For behavioral, I recommend this: [Course] Master The Behavioral Interview As A Software Engineer
This is advice I give for all interviews, but it's very relevant for PayPal as it's in finance: Be very thorough with edge-cases and following general system principles (reliability, observability, scalability, etc).
Here's a good place to start in the code quality course to level up your thinking around edge cases: https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/sweat-the-details-call-out-edge-cases/
