I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Samsara in Sep 2024
Interview
Interview was in 4 phases. All virtual. Initial checkpoint with recruiter, then three back-to-back sessions, a coding session, a system design session, and an interview with the hiring manager. Coding session was with two tech employees watching, create a library that processes args for a command line. First check what args are defined and to what value, then other conditions were added. Main interviewer was very soft-spoken so felt like I spent lots of time trying to get clarification on each step. System Design was create a system to process Credit Card charges to ultimately be validated against GPS info. Manager interview was pretty standard my impression I just didn't have deep enough experience in the areas he was asking about.
I did get feedback afterwards which was rare but welcomed.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a large project where you led a group of people and what challenges did you face?
One of the worst interview experience that I had, the interviewer came more than 5 mins late. Then he gave me a question to solve and then straight away got busy on his phone. Some of the decisions that we
Only had an initial call with a frankly clueless recruiter. Could tell me very little about the role, what I would be working on, or even the tech stack. Interrupted me constantly and kept asking me if I had any more questions when she couldn't even answer the few I did have. Probably the worst HR phone screen I've ever had, and I've had a few.
Recruiter round was smooth and professional. However, the technical interview didn’t match what was described. The prep materials clearly said no Leetcode, and focused on Samsara's system related.
I prepared accordingly, but the interview ended up being a standard Leetcode medium. Disappointed by the mismatch — if algorithm questions are preferred, let candidates know.
Advice to others:
Prepare for Leetcode
Senior Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Samsara with 2.8 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 35% positive. To compare, the company-average is 50.8% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Senior Software Engineer roles take an average of 19 days to get hired, when considering 34 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Samsara overall takes an average of 24 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Samsara as a Senior Software Engineer according to 34 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 34%
One on one interview: 23%
Skills test: 18%
Group panel interview: 10%
Background check: 5%
Presentation: 3%
Other: 2%
Personality test: 2%
Drug test: 1%
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