HackTheRounds Interview Experiences

Bloomberg Software Engineer Interview Experience (2026): New Grad Onsite, Coding & Behavioral

Two day Bloomberg SDE new grad onsite: behavioral deep dives, binary tree traversal, trapping rain water, and tips for the fast paced format.

By Anonymous · 2025-10-03

Background

I applied for Bloomberg's New Grad SDE position through my university's campus recruiting portal in fall 2025. The response was fast — I submitted my resume on September 23rd and got an HR invitation the same day. Two rounds were scheduled back-to-back on October 2nd and 3rd, both on-site at their office.

Round 1: Technical + Behavioral (October 2)

The interviewer was friendly and the atmosphere was relaxed. The round started with 20 minutes of behavioral questions before moving to coding.

Behavioral questions: - Walk me through your most representative project - What was the most challenging technical problem you faced? - Describe a time you had to deal with ambiguous requirements — how did you clarify them?

Bloomberg really emphasizes communication skills. They probed deeply on how I collaborated with my team and whether the outcomes aligned with what stakeholders expected.

Coding Problem 1: Valid Triangles from Array Given an array of integers, count the number of valid triangles you can form. I sorted the array first, then used a two-pointer approach scanning from the largest side down. Standard medium-level problem.

Coding Problem 2: Flatten Multilevel Linked List A linked list where each node can have a next pointer and a child pointer (pointing to a sub-list). Flatten it into a single-level list. I used a stack-based DFS approach — push next onto the stack, then process child first.

Finished both quickly. The interviewer joked "were these too easy?" and we spent the remaining time discussing my projects in more depth.

Round 2: Technical Deep Dive (October 3)

Two interviewers this round — much more rigorous than Round 1.

Resume deep dive: - What would you improve about your main project if you started over? - Walk me through your smart pointer implementation in detail - How did you handle memory management edge cases?

They tested whether I truly understood my own work versus just having it on paper.

Coding Problem 1: Level with Most Nodes in Binary Tree Standard BFS level-order traversal. Track the node count per level and return the level with the maximum. Solved in about five minutes.

Coding Problem 2: Trapping Rain Water The classic problem. I initially wrote the standard O(n) space solution with prefix max arrays. The interviewer then asked me to optimize to O(1) space — I switched to the two-pointer approach, maintaining left and right max values while converging inward.

The interviewers appreciated that I explained my reasoning before optimizing, rather than jumping straight to the optimal solution.

Tips

  1. Pace is fast — each round is about 60 minutes with both behavioral and coding. Don't spend too long on any single question
  2. Communication matters as much as code — Bloomberg evaluates "logical expression + follow-up reasoning." Think out loud
  3. Expect optimization follow-ups — solve it first, then they'll ask you to improve space or time complexity
  4. Know your resume deeply — they will probe your projects in detail. Shallow knowledge is a red flag
  5. Medium difficulty, but thorough — problems are LeetCode Medium level but they expect polished, bug-free solutions

The interview felt more like a technical conversation than an exam. Bloomberg's culture clearly values engineers who can communicate and iterate.