I interviewed with Lyft in August 2025. I passed the initial DSA round, but another candidate got the offer. They told me I could reapply for other roles and skip to the final stage for six months. In September, I applied for a different position and reached the final round, which included a laptop interview, system design, and an experience interview. I expected the laptop round to be a day-to-day/OOP-style task based on their description, so I chose Go to showcase my skills. Instead, it turned out to be another DSA interview, and I ran out of time implementing a heap from scratch. Even the interviewer didn’t realize Go had that limitation. System design and the experience interview went fine, but I didn’t meet anyone from the actual team—including the “hiring manager,” who was from another group. Overall, it felt like they weren’t truly recruiting for the role.

Reflecting on the experience, I gained valuable insights, even though I ultimately declined the offer. The interview started with a technical round, where I faced a coding question about finding the smallest window in a string. It hit me that this was a problem I had worked on through PracHub just days before. Following that, there was a system design question focused on creating a real-time chat system. The process was smooth, and the interviewers were approachable, making it a positive journey overall.