I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Bloomberg (New York, NY) in Apr 2013
Interview
Applied Online - Called for a phone Interview after a month or so. Phone interview consisted of a little background check followed by an algorithms, data structure questions and a brain teaser. Answered all of them - Got an invitation for an in-house interview 3-4 days later.
In-house interview had 4 rounds. From what I understand from other postings, each of them are knock-out rounds. So if you are moving to the next round, its a good sign.
1st Round - Two software developers - Mostly Coding, data structures and algorithm based Qs.
2nd Round - Two senior software developers - Similar to the first round.
3rd Round - Senior Manager - This was mostly a fit interview with a coding question thrown in between.
4th Round - HR - This is a standard behavioral interview. Was given the offer the very next day.
I must admit that they work at a very impressive rate.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Most questions are developing algorithms and data structures for a given problem. Be prepared to write a piece of code on paper. I was asked to do that in all interviews except the phone interview.
Asked me three questions.
1. Use a stack to implement a queue.
2. How to decide if a binary tree is balanced.
3. Find the most frequently number in a linked list of ints.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Find the most frequently number in a linked list of ints.
I applied through college or university. The process took 1+ week. I interviewed at Bloomberg
Interview
I met Bloomberg recruiters at the career fair and dropped my resume. I spoke to them for 5-6 minutes but wasn't sure if they liked me or not. They called me the same day and scheduled an interview for the following day at my school campus. The interview was a 45 minute technical interview led by 2 mid-level employees. I stumbled a lot but they seemed to like me. I got a call back the same day to schedule another interview for the next day. It was another 45 minute technical interview led by other 2 mid-level employees. I did really well in this interview and I was called back the same day again to schedule the final interview for the following week (again on my school campus).
The final interview was suppose to be 45 minutes of behavioral interview and a 45 minute technical interview. The behavioral interview was with an HR person and it was very short, it only took 15 minutes. Then the technical interview was led by a high level employee. The questions were difficult, I failed to give the correct answer but the interviewer seemed to like my thinking process. I was told that they would get back to me in a week and I was offered a job a week later. I was given three weeks to make my decision. They also flew me out to visit Bloomberg before I had to make my decision. Their offer was by far the best offer I received, so I accepted the job offer.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given a matrix where all columns and rows are sorted and an integer k. How would you find k in the matrix?