cruise coding interview

20 Cruise Interview Questions and Answers

Prepare for the types of questions you are likely to be asked when interviewing for a position at Cruise.

When it comes to interviewing for a job at Cruise, there are a few things you can expect. First, you’ll likely be asked questions about your experience with self-driving vehicles. The interviewer will want to know if you have any experience working with autonomous vehicles, and if so, what kind of experience you have. You should also be prepared to answer questions about your skills and abilities when it comes to working with self-driving vehicles. In addition, the interviewer may ask you questions about your experience with the Cruise platform, as well as your experience with other Cruise products.

Cruise Interview Process

The interview process at Cruise can vary depending on the position you are applying for. However, most positions will require at least a phone screen and an onsite interview. The onsite interview will usually consist of meeting with multiple people from the team, including the hiring manager. There may also be a case study or technical assessment as part of the interview process. Overall, the interview process is generally positive, although some candidates have found the questions to be challenging.

What do you know about Cruise?
Give an example of a time when you had to solve a problem that was not straightforward. How did you approach the problem?
Do you have experience working with autonomous vehicles and/or robotics?
Have you ever worked in a team environment? If so, can you give me an example?
Tell us why you want to work at Cruise.
Are you comfortable working in a dynamic environment where things are constantly changing?
Describe your experience with software engineering.
How would you describe yourself as a teammate?
Describe your experience in systems development or operations.
Can you tell me about a project that you worked on that didn’t go well? Why do you think it didn’t go well? What could you have done differently?
How would you handle conflict if two teammates were disagreeing?
Tell us about a time where you made a mistake and how you handled it.
We need our engineers to be able to effectively communicate their thoughts and ideas in a variety of settings. Can you tell me about a time you had to deliver bad news to someone?
What is your desired salary range?
How many years of full-stack web application development experience do you have?
Our engineers often have to make important technical decisions independently. Can you tell me about a time you had to make an important decision without consulting anyone else?
Do you prefer to work alone or as part of a team?
Tell us about a time where you took initiative to improve a product or system.
Explain what Object Oriented Programming means to you.
A lot of our employees are big fans of automation. What tools do you use for testing and deployment?

1. What do you know about Cruise?

This question is a great way to test your knowledge of the company and its products. It also gives you an opportunity to show that you’ve done some research on the organization before your interview.

Example: “I know that Cruise was founded in 2013 by Kyle Vogt, Daniel Kan and Jorgen Vardoen. The three founders were former students at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab. They started the company with the goal of making self-driving cars safe and accessible for everyone. In 2016, they raised $12 million from GM Ventures and other investors. Then, in 2017, they launched their first product—a self-driving car service called Cruise Anywhere.”

2. Give an example of a time when you had to solve a problem that was not straightforward. How did you approach the problem?

This question can allow you to demonstrate your problem-solving skills and how you approach challenges. When answering this question, it can be helpful to provide a specific example of a time when you had to solve a complex problem that required critical thinking and analytical skills.

Example: “When I was working as an IT specialist for a large company, there were times when the network would slow down or even crash. This happened often enough that we needed to find a solution. We decided to hire another IT specialist who could work remotely and help us with these issues. It helped us save money on hiring full-time employees while still providing our employees with access to technology.”

3. Do you have experience working with autonomous vehicles and/or robotics?

This question is a great way to determine if the company you’re interviewing with has experience working with autonomous vehicles. If they do, it’s likely that you’ll be expected to work with them as well. It’s also an opportunity for you to show your knowledge of this technology and how it works.

Example: “I have worked with autonomous vehicles in my previous role as a software engineer. I was responsible for creating code that would allow the vehicle to navigate through its environment safely without human intervention. This included setting up sensors and cameras to detect obstacles and other vehicles on the road, as well as programming the car to respond appropriately.”

4. Have you ever worked in a team environment? If so, can you give me an example?

Cruise is a collaborative company, and they want to know that you’re comfortable working with others. This question helps them understand your teamwork skills and how you’ve used them in the past.

Example: “I have worked in teams before, and I find it beneficial because it allows everyone to contribute their unique skill set. In my last position, I was part of a team that developed an app for our client. We each had different roles, but we all worked together to create a successful product.”

5. Tell us why you want to work at Cruise.

This question is a great way to show your interest in the company and its values. It also gives you an opportunity to highlight any research you’ve done on the organization.

Example: “I want to work at Cruise because I’m passionate about self-driving vehicles, and I think this company has some of the best technology in the industry. I also love working with people who are as excited about their jobs as I am. Your mission statement really resonates with me, and I feel like I would be a good fit for this team.”

6. Are you comfortable working in a dynamic environment where things are constantly changing?

Cruise is a fast-paced company that’s constantly innovating and improving its products. Your interviewer may ask this question to see if you’re comfortable with change and can adapt quickly. Use your answer to show that you enjoy working in an environment where things are always changing. Explain how you use your problem-solving skills to adapt to new situations.

Example: “I love working for a company like Cruise because it means I’m always learning something new. In my last role, I worked as a software engineer on a team of developers who were constantly updating the app we were creating. It was challenging at times, but I enjoyed being able to solve problems and implement changes quickly.”

7. Describe your experience with software engineering.

Cruise is a software company, so it’s important that you have experience with the field. When answering this question, make sure to highlight your technical skills and how they can benefit the company.

Example: “I’ve been working as a software engineer for five years now. I started out in my career as an intern at a tech startup where I worked on building new features for their website. After graduating from college, I was hired by a large corporation where I worked on developing apps for smartphones. My most recent position was at a small startup where I helped build the first version of Cruise.”

8. How would you describe yourself as a teammate?

Cruise is a fast-growing company that values teamwork and collaboration. Your answer to this question can help the interviewer understand how you would fit into their team culture. Use your response to highlight any specific skills or traits that make you an effective teammate.

Example: “I am a highly motivated individual who thrives in collaborative environments. I enjoy working with others to solve problems, brainstorm ideas and find solutions. In my previous role as a software engineer, I was part of a team that developed new features for our product. We worked together to develop innovative solutions that helped us meet our deadlines.”

9. Describe your experience in systems development or operations.

Cruise is a technology company that develops and operates self-driving vehicles. This question helps the interviewer understand your experience in systems development or operations, which can be important for this role. Use examples from your past to show how you’ve used systems development or operations skills to achieve success.

Example: “In my last position as an IT specialist, I worked with a team of developers to create new software applications for our clients. We also monitored existing programs to ensure they were running smoothly. For example, we would check on the status of each application’s servers and make sure there weren’t any issues. If there was a problem, we would troubleshoot it and fix it before notifying the client.”

10. Can you tell me about a project that you worked on that didn’t go well? Why do you think it didn’t go well? What could you have done differently?

This question is designed to give the interviewer insight into your problem-solving skills and ability to learn from mistakes. Your answer should include a specific example, what you learned from it and how you would do things differently if given the opportunity.

Example: “In my last position as an engineer on a team that was building self-driving vehicles, I had a project where I needed to create a system for the vehicle to detect pedestrians in its path. After several weeks of work, we were able to get the system working but found out that it wasn’t accurate enough to be used in our vehicles. We decided to scrap the project and start over with a different approach.”

11. How would you handle conflict if two teammates were disagreeing?

The interviewer may ask you this question to assess your ability to work with a team and resolve conflict. Your answer should show that you can collaborate with others, communicate effectively and solve problems.

Example: “I would first make sure I understand the issue from both sides. Then, I would try to find common ground between the two teammates by asking questions to help them identify their shared goals. If they still disagree on how to achieve those goals, I would encourage them to come up with solutions together so we could all evaluate them and choose the best one.”

12. Tell us about a time where you made a mistake and how you handled it.

Cruise is looking for candidates who are willing to admit their mistakes and learn from them. This question can help you show your ability to take responsibility, apologize and improve yourself.

Example: “When I was working as a server at a restaurant, I accidentally gave the wrong order to one of my tables. When they brought it back to me, I apologized and offered to make them something else or give them a discount on their meal. They were very understanding and said that they would like another dish. I made sure to double-check the order before bringing it out.”

13. We need our engineers to be able to effectively communicate their thoughts and ideas in a variety of settings. Can you tell me about a time you had to deliver bad news to someone?

This question is designed to assess your communication skills and ability to handle difficult situations. When answering this question, it can be helpful to provide specific details about the situation and how you handled it.

Example: “When I was working as an engineer for a large tech company, we were developing a new app that would allow users to order food from their phones. We had been testing the app with several different restaurants in our area, but one of them started having issues after installing the app. The restaurant owner called me because they thought there was something wrong with the app.

I explained to him that the app was still being tested and that he should give us another week or two before making any final decisions. He agreed to wait, and when we released the app to the public, he was very happy with it.”

14. What is your desired salary range?

This question is a common one in many industries, but it’s especially important to be prepared for when interviewing with Cruise. The company has an open culture that encourages employees to share their opinions and ideas openly, so you should feel comfortable answering this question honestly.

Example: “I’m looking for a salary of $75,000 per year. I know that the position requires me to work on-call shifts, which means I would need to have enough money saved up to cover my expenses while working as a driver.”

15. How many years of full-stack web application development experience do you have?

This question is a great way to assess your experience level and determine if you’re qualified for the role. If you have less than five years of experience, it’s likely that you won’t be able to meet all of the requirements for this position. However, if you have more than five years of experience, you may still not be eligible for the job if you don’t have the required education or certifications.

Example: “I’ve been working as a full-stack web application developer for three years now. I started out as an entry-level developer but quickly gained valuable experience by taking on challenging projects and learning from my mistakes.”

16. Our engineers often have to make important technical decisions independently. Can you tell me about a time you had to make an important decision without consulting anyone else?

This question can help the interviewer understand your ability to make independent decisions and how you used critical thinking skills to solve a problem.

Example: “In my last role, I was tasked with creating an algorithm that would allow our company’s self-driving vehicles to navigate through traffic safely. The project required me to use complex math equations and algorithms to create a system that could identify objects in the road and respond appropriately. I had to research several different methods of coding before deciding on one that would work best for our company.”

17. Do you prefer to work alone or as part of a team?

Cruise is a collaborative environment, and the interviewer wants to know if you’re comfortable working with others. Your answer should show that you are willing to work in a team setting.

Example: “I enjoy both working alone and as part of a team. I find that when I’m working on my own, I can focus more on the task at hand, but collaborating with others helps me learn new things and solve problems faster. In fact, I prefer to start by working alone so I can get an idea of what needs to be done before involving others.”

18. Tell us about a time where you took initiative to improve a product or system.

Cruise is looking for candidates who are proactive and willing to take on challenges. Use this question as an opportunity to showcase your problem-solving skills, leadership qualities and ability to work in a team environment.

Example: “In my last role, I noticed that the company’s website was not mobile friendly. This made it difficult for customers to find information about our products. I brought up my concerns with management, and we decided to hire a web developer to create a new website. The project took several months to complete, but once it launched, customer engagement increased by 20%. My initiative helped the company save money while improving its online presence.”

19. Explain what Object Oriented Programming means to you.

This question is a great way to test your knowledge of computer programming. It also allows you to show the interviewer that you have experience with this type of coding and can apply it in real-world situations.

Example: “Object Oriented Programming, or OOP for short, is a method of writing code that uses objects. Objects are reusable pieces of code that contain data and functions. They’re useful because they allow me to write less code and reuse existing code when I need to. This saves time and money.”

20. A lot of our employees are big fans of automation. What tools do you use for testing and deployment?

This question is a great way to see how the candidate will fit in with your team. It’s also an opportunity for you to share some of Cruise’s culture and values.

Example: “I’m a big fan of automation myself, so I use tools like Jenkins and CircleCI for testing and deployment. These tools allow me to work more efficiently by automating many of my processes. They’re also easy to learn and implement, which makes them ideal for our company.”

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Cruise Hiring Process

The Cruise hiring process typically begins with a phone screen or an introductory call with a recruiter, followed by a technical or coding challenge. Candidates then proceed to a hiring manager interview and a loop interview, which may include multiple rounds with team members. The process can take about a month, with some candidates reporting a lack of communication and feedback from recruiters. Overall, the experience is described as informative and challenging, with smart and courteous team members involved in the interviews.

Common Cruise Interview Questions

1. how would you approach designing and implementing a scalable, fault-tolerant distributed system for our autonomous vehicles.

As the future of transportation is rapidly shifting towards autonomous vehicles, companies are seeking individuals who understand not only the technical aspects but also the scalability and reliability of such systems. This question tests your ability to design flexible systems that can adapt to growing demands, and handle potential failures without disrupting the entire operation. It’s all about ensuring smooth, efficient, and safe operations on a grand scale.

How to Answer:

Start by outlining your understanding of the system requirements, followed by explaining your thought process in designing a scalable and fault-tolerant distributed system. Discuss your experience with similar projects and the strategies you used to ensure scalability and fault tolerance. Highlight your familiarity with relevant technologies or methodologies. If you’re new to this field, share how you would approach learning and problem-solving to tackle this challenge. Don’t forget to touch upon how such a system could positively impact autonomous vehicles’ performance and safety.

Example: Designing a scalable, fault-tolerant distributed system for autonomous vehicles would require a microservices architecture. This design allows individual components to be scaled independently based on demand and ensures that if one service fails, it won’t bring down the entire system. Each vehicle could have its own set of services running locally, communicating with central services when necessary.

For implementation, I’d use containerization technologies like Docker or Kubernetes, which are excellent for managing and orchestrating microservices. They provide built-in mechanisms for scaling and recovery from failures. For data consistency across the distributed system, we can utilize eventual consistency models or conflict-free replicated data types (CRDTs).

To ensure fault tolerance, redundancy is crucial. We need to have backup services ready to take over in case of failure. Additionally, we should implement robust monitoring and alerting systems to detect and notify any anomalies or faults in real-time. Regular stress testing and chaos engineering practices can also help us prepare for unexpected scenarios and improve our system’s resilience.

2. Can you explain the importance of sensor fusion in autonomous vehicle development, and how you have utilized it previously?

This question is aiming to gauge your understanding of sensor fusion, a critical component in the development of autonomous vehicles. Sensor fusion combines data from different sensors to improve the system’s performance, ultimately making autonomous vehicles safer and more efficient. Your ability to effectively utilize sensor fusion can greatly impact the success and reliability of the autonomous vehicle technology. By asking about previous experience, it gives you a chance to demonstrate practical application of this skill.

Begin your answer by briefly explaining the concept of sensor fusion and its critical role in self-driving vehicle development. Then, illustrate with specific examples from your past experience where you have used sensor fusion techniques. Highlight any project where this has improved performance or efficiency. If you lack direct experience, discuss theoretical applications showcasing your understanding of the subject.

Example: Sensor fusion is crucial in autonomous vehicle development as it combines data from multiple sensors to improve the system’s perception and understanding of its surroundings. This process helps overcome limitations inherent in individual sensors, such as blind spots or susceptibility to certain weather conditions.

In a project I worked on previously, we utilized sensor fusion by integrating lidar, radar, and camera data for object detection and tracking. The lidar provided high-resolution spatial information, while the radar offered velocity data and robustness against poor visibility conditions. The cameras added color and texture details. By fusing these data sources, our system was able to accurately detect and track objects under various scenarios and conditions, enhancing the safety and reliability of the autonomous vehicle.

3. Describe your experience with developing safety-critical software systems, and what methodologies and tools you used to ensure their reliability.

Navigating the vast expanse of the sea, often far from immediate help, places a significant emphasis on safety. As a software developer for a cruise company, you’re tasked with creating systems that are both effective and reliable in critical situations. The question aims to probe your experience, methodologies, and tools used in creating such systems. It also gauges your understanding of the importance of safety and reliability in this context.

When discussing your experience with safety-critical software systems, focus on the specific projects you’ve worked on. Highlight the methodologies and tools you used to ensure reliability such as rigorous testing methods or utilizing certain programming languages known for their robustness. Emphasize any instances where your actions led to improved system safety or reliability. If you don’t have direct experience, discuss relevant skills that could be applied to developing and maintaining these types of systems.

Example: In my experience developing safety-critical software systems, I’ve primarily worked on avionics control systems. These require an extremely high level of reliability and accuracy due to the potential consequences of failure. To ensure this, we used a combination of rigorous testing methodologies and formal verification techniques.

We utilized Model-Based Design (MBD) methodology for system design and automatic code generation. This helped in maintaining consistency between design and implementation while speeding up the development process. For ensuring reliability, we followed DO-178C guidelines which are specifically designed for airborne systems. The tools we used included Simulink for MBD and Polyspace for static code analysis, which helps detect, prove, and correct coding errors.

Additionally, we also incorporated extensive fault-tolerant mechanisms into our designs. We implemented redundancy at both hardware and software levels and used watchdog timers to handle any unexpected system hang-ups. All these measures were critical in delivering a reliable and safe product.

4. How do you balance technical debt and feature development when working on large-scale software projects?

Behind this question is the desire to assess your strategic thinking and prioritization skills. Software development is often a balancing act between updating and maintaining existing features (managing ‘technical debt’) and creating new features to meet evolving user needs or business objectives. Your ability to navigate this balance demonstrates your understanding of the bigger picture and your capacity to make decisions that will benefit the company in the long term.

Begin by explaining your understanding of the balance between managing technical debt and pushing forward new features. Discuss your past experiences, emphasizing on successful instances where you prioritized tasks to ensure project deadlines were met without compromising on code quality. Highlight your ability to make strategic decisions based on the overall needs of a software project. Also, illustrate your proficiency in using modern tools or methodologies that assist in maintaining this balance effectively.

Example: Balancing technical debt and feature development is a delicate process that requires strategic planning. On one hand, it’s important to continuously innovate and deliver new features to stay competitive in the market. However, ignoring technical debt can lead to long-term issues like decreased productivity, increased bugs, and even system failures.

I believe in maintaining this balance by incorporating strategies such as regular refactoring and code reviews into our development cycles. For instance, if we notice certain parts of the codebase are becoming increasingly complex or difficult to maintain, we should allocate time in the next sprint to refactor and improve these areas. This proactive approach helps ensure that technical debt doesn’t accumulate excessively.

At the same time, I advocate for clear communication with stakeholders about the importance of managing technical debt. By helping them understand that investing time in reducing technical debt now can significantly speed up future feature development and reduce maintenance costs, we can gain their support in striking the right balance between the two.

5. Explain the concept of SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) and its role in autonomous vehicle navigation.

Autonomous vehicles are a cutting-edge technology and understanding concepts like SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) is essential to comprehend how these machines operate. It’s a technique used by robots and autonomous vehicles to build up a map within an unknown environment (simultaneously localizing itself), while keeping track of their current location. The ability to discuss such complex concepts demonstrates your technical knowledge, an understanding of the industry, and the ability to explain intricate topics in simple terms—a skill that’s highly valued in roles that involve communication between technical and non-technical team members.

Start your answer by confidently explaining the basics of SLAM, detailing how it involves a vehicle simultaneously determining its location within an environment while mapping that space. Then delve into its significance in autonomous navigation, discussing how it helps vehicles understand their surroundings and make decisions based on that understanding. If you have practical experience applying SLAM in past roles or projects, share those instances to showcase your hands-on knowledge. Always remember to keep your explanation simple, clear, and relatable.

Example: SLAM, or Simultaneous Localization and Mapping, is a critical concept in robotics and autonomous vehicles. It refers to the process by which a robot or vehicle can understand its environment while also tracking its own position within that environment. Essentially, it’s about building a map of an unknown environment while simultaneously using that map to navigate.

In terms of autonomous vehicle navigation, SLAM plays a crucial role. For instance, as an autonomous car drives through a city, it uses sensors like LIDAR and RADAR to gather data about its surroundings, such as other cars, pedestrians, buildings, etc. This data is then used to create a detailed 3D map of the environment. At the same time, the vehicle uses this real-time map to localize itself, calculate routes, and make decisions on how to safely navigate the streets. Hence, SLAM enables autonomous vehicles to operate safely and efficiently in complex, dynamic environments.

6. What strategies would you use to manage a diverse team of engineers, ensuring smooth collaboration and timely delivery of projects?

In an environment as dynamic as a cruise ship, where the safety and satisfaction of passengers are paramount, it’s critical that the engineering team works as a cohesive unit. This question is designed to gauge your leadership skills and your ability to manage a diverse team, fostering an environment of collaboration and efficiency. It also allows the interviewer to assess your strategic planning abilities and your understanding of how to prioritize tasks to ensure the successful and timely completion of projects.

Start your response by highlighting any past experiences managing diverse teams. Discuss how you embraced diversity and used it to foster innovation and creativity within the team. Explain your strategies like open communication, regular feedback sessions, and using project management tools for transparency in project timelines. If you’re inexperienced, discuss hypothetical but well-thought-out strategies such as creating an inclusive environment or promoting cross-cultural understanding for smooth collaboration.

Example: One strategy I would employ is fostering an inclusive culture that respects and values diverse perspectives. This involves creating a safe space where every team member feels comfortable sharing their ideas, regardless of their background or level of experience. Regular team meetings can be instrumental in achieving this, as they provide an opportunity for everyone to contribute to discussions and decision-making processes.

In terms of ensuring timely delivery of projects, I believe in the power of clear communication and setting realistic expectations from the onset. By defining roles, responsibilities, and deadlines clearly, each engineer knows what is expected of them and when. Additionally, utilizing project management tools can help keep track of progress and identify any potential bottlenecks early on.

Finally, continuous learning and development are crucial in managing a diverse team of engineers. Encouraging team members to upskill not only improves their individual performance but also enhances the overall productivity of the team. Offering opportunities for mentorship and cross-training can facilitate knowledge transfer within the team, promoting collaboration and cohesion.

7. Discuss your experience with testing and validating complex hardware-software systems, and how you’ve ensured thorough coverage of potential failure modes.

The ability to test, validate, and identify potential failures in complex hardware-software systems is pivotal in maintaining the safety and functionality of the company’s technology. As a position that requires deep technical expertise, interviewers want to see how you navigate these challenges, demonstrating your problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and your understanding of the specific systems in question.

Start by outlining your experience with hardware-software systems, focusing on the most complex ones you’ve handled. Highlight instances where you took a methodical approach to test and validate these systems, ensuring robustness and reliability. Discuss how you identified potential failure modes, perhaps using techniques like Fault Tree Analysis or Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. Mention any creative strategies you used for thorough coverage of these potential failures. If you were involved in developing preventive measures or corrective action plans, this would be an excellent point to bring up.

Example: In my experience, testing and validating complex hardware-software systems requires a systematic approach that includes both functional and non-functional testing. For instance, while working on an autonomous vehicle project, I employed various techniques such as unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and acceptance testing to ensure the robustness of the software. Additionally, I performed stress testing, load testing, and security testing to validate the reliability, performance, and safety of the hardware components.

To ensure thorough coverage of potential failure modes, I utilized Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). This involved identifying all possible failures in a design or process, assessing the risk associated with these failures, prioritizing them based on their severity, occurrence, and detection ratings, and then developing action plans to mitigate high-risk failures. Using this method, we were able to proactively address risks and improve the overall reliability and safety of our product.

8. How do you assess the readiness of an autonomous vehicle for on-road testing and eventual deployment?

The readiness of an autonomous vehicle is critical not just for safety, but also for the success of the company. If an autonomous vehicle isn’t ready for on-road testing and eventual deployment, it can lead to accidents, which can result in lawsuits, financial loss, and damage to the company’s reputation. Therefore, understanding how a candidate assesses readiness can help evaluate their ability to make critical judgments, assess risk, and ensure safety, which are all imperative in the deployment of autonomous vehicles.

Start by discussing your knowledge of autonomous vehicle technology and the key factors you consider for readiness assessment, such as software reliability, safety mechanisms, and system performance. Highlight any relevant experiences where you had to assess a complex technology’s readiness, and how you handled it. Show that you understand the importance of rigorous testing and compliance with industry standards in ensuring an autonomous vehicle is ready for deployment.

Example: Assessing the readiness of an autonomous vehicle for on-road testing and eventual deployment involves a multi-faceted approach. Initially, it’s crucial to conduct rigorous simulations and closed-course testing to ensure that the vehicle can handle a wide range of scenarios safely and efficiently. This includes not only standard driving situations but also edge cases where unpredictable factors come into play.

Once satisfactory results are achieved in controlled environments, gradual real-world testing can begin. This should start in less complex environments with clear weather conditions, low traffic volumes, and simpler road layouts before progressing to more challenging scenarios. Throughout this process, data collected needs to be continuously analyzed and used to further refine and improve the autonomous system.

Finally, there’s the regulatory aspect. The vehicle must meet all safety standards and regulations set by relevant authorities. It’s important to maintain open communication with these bodies throughout the development process, ensuring the vehicle is compliant and ready for public roads.

9. Describe your experience with real-time operating systems and how they can benefit the performance of autonomous vehicles.

Operating autonomous vehicles requires a seamless blend of software, hardware, and networking capabilities. Knowing how to work with real-time operating systems is critical because these systems can process high volumes of data instantly, ensure safety, and enhance the performance of autonomous vehicles. If you have experience with these, it indicates that you can contribute to the development and operation of such systems, a valuable asset for a company in this industry.

Begin by detailing your experience with real-time operating systems (RTOS), emphasizing tasks related to autonomous vehicles, such as managing sensors or controlling actuators. Then, discuss the benefits RTOS bring to these vehicles – like precise timing and multitasking capabilities that optimize performance and safety. If you’ve used an RTOS in a project, share how it improved operation efficiency. Be ready to explain complex technical concepts in simple terms, showing your understanding of their relevance to the role at hand.

Example: In my experience, real-time operating systems (RTOS) are crucial in the development and operation of autonomous vehicles. RTOS provides deterministic response times to critical processing tasks which is vital for safety-critical applications like self-driving cars where a delay could lead to catastrophic results. For instance, sensor data needs to be processed and acted upon immediately to ensure safe navigation.

I’ve worked with FreeRTOS on an autonomous robotics project where we leveraged its features such as task scheduling, inter-task communication, and synchronization primitives to manage multiple concurrent operations effectively. The use of RTOS enabled us to prioritize mission-critical tasks, ensuring they were executed promptly while less important tasks would wait. This kind of priority-based preemptive scheduling that RTOS offers can significantly enhance the performance of autonomous vehicles by ensuring timely execution of high-priority tasks like obstacle detection and avoidance, thus improving their reliability and safety.

10. How would you approach optimizing machine learning models for efficient execution on embedded hardware platforms?

This question is posed to gauge your ability to work with limited computational resources. In many real-world applications, such as autonomous vehicles or other hardware-reliant technologies, models need to be efficient and fast, running on embedded systems with limited processing power and memory. Hence, the ability to optimize machine learning models for such constraints is a valuable skill.

Start by discussing your past experiences with optimization of machine learning models on embedded systems. Highlight your knowledge in reducing model complexity, feature selection and using hardware-friendly algorithms. Remember to mention proactive problem-solving approaches like identifying bottlenecks through profiling tools. If you’re a beginner, discuss strategies you’d employ for efficient execution, such as collaboration with experienced colleagues or continuous learning initiatives.

Example: Optimizing machine learning models for efficient execution on embedded hardware platforms often involves a balance between computational resources and model performance. One approach is to use quantization, which reduces the numerical precision of the model’s parameters. This can significantly decrease memory requirements and computational cost without substantial loss in accuracy.

Another strategy is pruning, where we remove less important connections or neurons from neural networks, effectively reducing model size and complexity. We could also leverage knowledge distillation, training a smaller student model to mimic a larger teacher model’s behavior. For real-time applications, such as autonomous driving at Cruise, model inference speed is crucial. Techniques like model parallelism and pipelining can be used to reduce latency. Lastly, it’s essential to consider the specific constraints of the target hardware platform, using hardware-aware neural architecture search (NAS) methods to automatically design optimal network architectures.

11. Explain the role of functional safety standards like ISO 26262 in the development of automotive software, and how you have ensured compliance with them.

Safety is paramount in the automotive industry, and it’s even more critical when it comes to the development of automotive software. ISO 26262 is a specific standard for functional safety in electrical and electronic systems within vehicles. This standard is a key part of ensuring the safety of passengers and road users. Hiring managers want to know that you’re not only familiar with this standard, but also capable of complying with it and implementing it in your work. This is all part of ensuring the company produces safe, reliable, and high-quality products.

In answering this question, focus on your understanding of ISO 26262 and its importance in automotive software development. Discuss instances where you’ve ensured compliance with this standard or similar ones in past roles. Highlight the steps you took in risk management, system design, testing, validation, and more to meet safety requirements. If you have not directly worked with ISO 26262, share your experience with other safety regulations and express eagerness to learn and adapt.

Example: ISO 26262 is a functional safety standard that provides a framework for risk assessment, design, implementation, and validation procedures to ensure the safe operation of automotive software. It helps in identifying potential hazards early on in the development process, thereby reducing risks associated with failures.

In my experience, ensuring compliance with ISO 26262 involves integrating its principles into every stage of the software development lifecycle. For instance, during the design phase, we incorporated fault-tolerant architectures to handle system failures effectively. We also conducted rigorous testing and verification processes to validate the effectiveness of our safety mechanisms. Moreover, we maintained comprehensive documentation to demonstrate our adherence to the standard’s requirements. This systematic approach not only ensured the functional safety of our products but also facilitated their certification by regulatory bodies.

12. Discuss your familiarity with communication protocols commonly used in vehicular networks, such as CAN or FlexRay.

The heart of a successful cruise company lies in the safe and efficient operation of its fleet. Communication protocols like CAN or FlexRay are essential to ensure the smooth functioning of its vehicular networks. If you’re familiar with these, it signifies your ability to contribute effectively to the technical aspect of the company’s operations and can likely troubleshoot or enhance these systems. This shows you have the necessary technical skills to make a positive impact on the company’s performance.

Begin by detailing your hands-on experience with these protocols. You could mention projects or tasks where you implemented CAN or FlexRay in vehicular networks and the results of those endeavors. If you’re not well-versed with these specific protocols, it’s crucial to emphasize your adaptability and eagerness to learn new systems. Share examples of when you’ve quickly grasped new communication protocols in the past; this will display your capacity to grow technically within the role.

Example: I have a solid understanding of communication protocols used in vehicular networks, particularly CAN (Controller Area Network) and FlexRay. I’ve worked on projects where we utilized the CAN protocol due to its robustness and fault tolerance capabilities. For instance, it’s designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate without needing a host computer, which is crucial for real-time systems in vehicles.

On the other hand, I’m also familiar with FlexRay as it offers more bandwidth and flexibility than CAN, making it ideal for high-speed data transmission requirements such as those found in modern driver assistance systems. It provides deterministic data transmission and supports both time-triggered and event-triggered communication, allowing for precise synchronization between different vehicle components. In one project, we leveraged these features to enhance the performance of an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS), improving safety and reliability.

13. How do you prioritize tasks and allocate resources when managing multiple engineering projects concurrently?

Steering the ship towards success, quite literally, depends on efficient project management. The ability to effectively prioritize tasks and allocate resources is key to ensuring that all systems function seamlessly and deadlines are met, even amidst multiple ongoing projects. Efficient resource allocation can also help in preventing costly overruns and ensuring optimal utilization of manpower and materials. So, the interviewer wants to understand your ability to manage multiple projects effectively, ensuring smooth sailing for the cruise company.

Start by discussing your experience with multitasking and project management. Highlight your proficiency in using project management tools that aid task prioritization, resource allocation, and time management. Explain how you effectively delegate tasks according to the skills of each team member. Don’t forget to mention any successful outcomes from this approach, like completing a complex project on time or under budget. If new to such responsibilities, detail the strategies you would employ, emphasizing thoughtful planning and regular monitoring for efficient execution.

Example: Prioritizing tasks across multiple engineering projects requires a clear understanding of each project’s objectives, deadlines, and resources. I use a combination of tools like Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and risk assessment matrices to visualize the overall workload, track progress, and identify potential bottlenecks or risks.

Resource allocation is equally critical and should align with task prioritization. For example, if one project has a higher business impact or a tighter deadline, it may require more resources. However, this doesn’t mean neglecting other projects. It’s about striking a balance between urgent needs and long-term goals. Regular communication with team members also helps in identifying any resource constraints early on and making necessary adjustments.

In essence, effective multitasking in engineering management involves strategic planning, proactive risk management, and continuous monitoring for timely decision-making.

14. Describe your experience with high-performance computing and its applications to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

Diving deep into your experience with high-performance computing (HPC) and its applications to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) gives potential employers a glimpse into your technical prowess and your ability to leverage complex tools for practical applications. The question is designed to understand how you’ve utilized HPC to enhance ADAS, a critical aspect of autonomous vehicle technology. This allows them to gauge if your skills align with the innovative, tech-driven approach necessary in the cruise industry.

Dive into your past experiences where you’ve utilized high-performance computing in ADAS or similar domains. Highlight the technical skills you used, like programming languages or debugging techniques. Discuss specific projects where these systems were applied and their successful outcomes. If you lack direct experience, focus on relevant coursework or self-initiated learning. Remember to highlight your enthusiasm for this technology’s potential in advancing autonomous vehicles, showing that you are invested in contributing to such advancements.

Example: In my previous work, I’ve had extensive experience with high-performance computing (HPC) in the context of advanced driver assistance systems. One key project involved utilizing HPC for real-time data processing and decision-making algorithms. The ADAS system was dealing with a vast amount of sensor data from lidar, radar, cameras, and other sources. We used HPC to process this data in real time, enabling the vehicle to make quick decisions on the road.

The challenge we faced was ensuring that our computations were efficient enough to run on embedded systems while still being robust and accurate. To address this, we optimized our algorithms using parallel computing techniques to distribute the workload across multiple cores. This approach significantly improved our system’s performance, allowing us to achieve near-real-time responses. Furthermore, we also applied machine learning models for object detection and path planning, which were trained and validated using HPC infrastructure.

This experience has given me a deep understanding of how critical HPC is for ADAS applications, where speed, accuracy, and reliability are paramount. It’s not just about making computations faster but also optimizing them intelligently to ensure safety and efficiency in autonomous driving scenarios.

15. What techniques have you used to troubleshoot and resolve issues with complex electromechanical systems?

Behind the scenes of any cruise company is a complex network of electromechanical systems, all of which need to function properly for a successful journey. If something goes wrong, it can impact the entire operation and ultimately, the passenger experience. Therefore, hiring managers need to ensure that potential candidates possess the necessary skills and knowledge to troubleshoot and fix these issues effectively and efficiently. They want to gauge your problem-solving abilities, technical skills, and your ability to work under pressure.

Reflect on your past experiences where you have dealt with similar systems. Mention specific techniques you’ve used, like root cause analysis or failure mode effects analysis. Highlight your analytical skills and systematic approach to problem-solving. If applicable, share an instance where your troubleshooting led to a significant issue being resolved. Remember, the goal is to showcase your technical competence and ability to handle complex problems efficiently.

Example: In my experience, the first step in troubleshooting complex electromechanical systems is to conduct a thorough examination of the system and its documentation. This involves understanding how the system operates under normal conditions, identifying any deviations from the norm, and tracing these back to their source. For instance, when I was working on an automated assembly line that had suddenly started producing faulty products, I began by studying the schematics and operational guidelines for the machine.

Next, I used diagnostic tools such as multimeters and oscilloscopes to measure electrical properties like voltage, current, and resistance across different parts of the system. In this case, I discovered that one of the sensors was providing incorrect readings due to a short circuit. After isolating the issue, I replaced the faulty sensor and tested the system again to confirm that it was functioning correctly.

This approach not only resolved the immediate problem but also helped me develop a preventive maintenance plan to avoid similar issues in the future. By regularly monitoring key parameters and conducting routine inspections, we were able to significantly reduce downtime and improve overall system efficiency.

16. Explain how you would handle disagreements within your team regarding technical decisions or project direction.

This question is all about assessing your problem-solving and conflict resolution skills. Team dynamics are often pivotal for the successful completion of projects, and disagreements are inevitable. Therefore, the interviewer wants to understand your approach to resolving conflicts, maintaining team harmony, and ensuring that disagreements do not derail the project’s progress or affect the quality of output.

Showcase your problem-solving and leadership skills when answering this question. Discuss how you would facilitate open communication, encouraging each team member to express their views. Highlight the importance of data in decision-making – if disagreements arise, refer back to project goals or company objectives to guide decisions. If consensus isn’t reached, demonstrate your ability to make firm decisions after considering everyone’s input. Mention your experience resolving such issues, if any.

Example: In the event of a disagreement within my team, I would first ensure that every member has an opportunity to express their viewpoint. It’s crucial to foster an environment where everyone feels heard and valued. Once all perspectives are on the table, we can evaluate each based on its merits, considering factors such as feasibility, impact on project timeline, alignment with company goals, and potential risks or challenges.

If consensus still isn’t reached, I’d propose employing data-driven decision-making methods. For example, we could prototype different solutions and conduct A/B testing to gather empirical evidence on which approach is more effective. This way, decisions are not solely reliant on subjective opinions but are backed by concrete data. Ultimately, it’s about balancing differing viewpoints while keeping sight of our overall objectives and delivering value to the business.

17. How do you stay updated on advancements in autonomous vehicle technology and integrate relevant findings into your work?

As an industry constantly evolving and advancing, autonomous vehicle technology requires professionals to stay updated and innovative. The reason behind this question is to understand if you, as a potential employee, are proactive about learning and incorporating the latest technology advancements. This also gives an insight into your ability to apply this new knowledge to improve the company’s existing systems or processes.

Emphasize your natural curiosity and proactive approach to staying updated. Discuss how you follow industry leaders, read relevant publications/blogs, attend webinars or seminars in the field. Highlight instances when you have incorporated new findings into your work, showing that you can apply knowledge practically for innovation. Remember, show enthusiasm about continuous learning within autonomous vehicle technology.

Example: I stay updated on advancements in autonomous vehicle technology through a combination of professional journals, industry conferences, and networking. For instance, I regularly read publications like the Journal of Autonomous Vehicles and Systems, attend events such as the Automated Vehicles Symposium, and engage with experts in the field to discuss recent developments and challenges.

In terms of integrating relevant findings into my work, I believe it’s crucial to apply a critical lens to any new information or techniques. I evaluate their potential impact on our projects, considering factors like feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and alignment with our strategic objectives. A recent example would be when I came across a paper discussing an advanced sensor fusion technique for better object detection. After thorough analysis, I realized that this could significantly improve our vehicle’s perception capabilities. We implemented a pilot project to test its efficacy, which yielded positive results and is now part of our standard development process.

18. Describe your experience with model-based control design for vehicle dynamics and motion planning.

The essence of this question lies in the heart of the cruise industry – vehicle control and motion planning are fundamental to ensuring a smooth and safe journey for passengers. If you’re applying for a role that involves these areas, the interviewer wants to be sure you have the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively design and implement these systems. Your experience can make a significant difference to the company’s operations, and ultimately, the customer experience.

Reflect on your past projects where you’ve used model-based control design for vehicle dynamics or motion planning. Highlight specific instances, the tools you utilized, and the positive outcomes achieved. If new to this area, discuss relevant coursework or theoretical knowledge, emphasizing your eagerness to apply these principles practically. Remember, it’s crucial to demonstrate both technical proficiency and a problem-solving mindset.

Example: In my experience, model-based control design is crucial for vehicle dynamics and motion planning. I’ve worked extensively with Model Predictive Control (MPC) algorithms to optimize the trajectory of autonomous vehicles. For instance, in a project involving an unmanned ground vehicle, I used MPC to plan a path that minimized energy consumption while avoiding obstacles and adhering to speed limits.

Furthermore, to ensure accurate vehicle dynamics modeling, I have utilized software like CarSim and TruckSim. These tools allowed me to incorporate real-world physics into our models, improving the fidelity of our simulations and ultimately leading to more reliable control strategies. Additionally, I’ve also leveraged machine learning techniques to refine these models based on collected data, further enhancing their predictive accuracy and robustness.

19. How would you approach validating the performance of a newly developed machine learning algorithm for autonomous vehicle perception?

Performance validation of machine learning algorithms for autonomous vehicle perception is a critical part of ensuring safety and reliability. The question is asked to gauge your understanding of machine learning validation processes, your ability to be methodical and meticulous, and your knowledge of the specific challenges that come with autonomous vehicle technology. It also helps the interviewer assess your problem-solving skills and your ability to foresee potential issues.

Highlight your systematic approach to validating performance, incorporating data collection, rigorous testing under diverse scenarios, and use of metrics to quantify performance. Emphasize the importance of real-world testing alongside simulations, and continuous evaluation post-deployment. Mention any relevant experience with similar validation processes, focusing on how it led to improved algorithm efficiency or functionality.

Example: Validating the performance of a newly developed machine learning algorithm for autonomous vehicle perception would involve multiple steps. Firstly, I’d use cross-validation techniques during the training phase to ensure that the model is not overfitted and generalizes well on unseen data. This could be k-fold or stratified cross-validation depending upon the nature of the dataset.

Secondly, I’d set up robust evaluation metrics such as precision, recall, F1-score, ROC-AUC for classification tasks, or Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) for regression tasks. These metrics will give us a holistic view of the model’s performance.

Lastly, real-world testing plays a crucial role in this validation process. The algorithm should be tested under various conditions like different lighting, weather, traffic scenarios etc., to ensure its reliability and safety. It’s also important to have continuous monitoring and feedback mechanisms post-deployment to capture any anomalies or degradations in performance.

20. Discuss your familiarity with automotive cybersecurity practices, and how you have ensured the security of connected vehicles.

This is a probing question to gauge your understanding and experience with the specific requirements that come with ensuring the security of connected vehicles. With the rise of autonomous and connected vehicles, cybersecurity has become a critical issue. Your ability to protect these advanced technologies from potential threats could be a key factor in maintaining the safety and reliability of the vehicles, and ultimately, the company’s reputation and success.

In answering this question, focus on your hands-on experiences with automotive cybersecurity. Discuss specific methods you’ve used to secure connected vehicles such as intrusion detection systems or cryptographic techniques. If you have dealt with any security incidents or challenges, share how you effectively handled those situations while maintaining the integrity of the vehicle’s functionality and user privacy. Lastly, highlight your continuous learning attitude towards evolving threats in automotive cybersecurity to showcase your proactive approach.

Example: I have extensive experience in automotive cybersecurity, particularly as it pertains to connected vehicles. This has involved implementing security measures at every level of vehicle design and operation, from secure coding practices during software development to intrusion detection systems that monitor for unauthorized access.

One key project I worked on was the implementation of a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system for a fleet of connected cars. The SIEM provided real-time analysis of security alerts generated by applications and network hardware. It enabled us to detect any anomalies or potential threats quickly, thus minimizing the risk of cyber attacks. Additionally, we used encryption techniques to protect data both at rest and in transit, ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive information.

In terms of ensuring ongoing security, I’ve found continuous monitoring and regular penetration testing to be crucial. By simulating cyber-attacks, we were able to identify potential vulnerabilities before they could be exploited. Furthermore, staying abreast with the latest industry standards and best practices in automotive cybersecurity also played a significant role in maintaining robust security posture.

21. What strategies do you employ to manage risks associated with technology development projects, particularly those related to safety-critical systems?

Safety and reliability are paramount in the travel and hospitality industry, and that extends to the technology that companies in this sector utilize. If there’s a glitch in a non-critical system—say, the one that controls the digital signage around a ship—it’s an inconvenience. But if there’s a glitch in a safety-critical system, it could result in a serious incident. Therefore, hiring managers want to ensure that prospective hires understand the importance of risk management in technology development projects and have effective strategies in place for mitigating these risks.

Begin by discussing your process for identifying potential risks at the outset of a project. Share any specific methodologies or frameworks you use, such as SWOT analysis or FMEA. Highlight how you prioritize risks based on their impact and likelihood. Then, explain how you mitigate high-priority risks, perhaps through robust testing procedures or contingency planning. Finally, discuss your approach to monitoring these risks throughout the project lifecycle. Ensuring safety in technology development is crucial, so demonstrate your commitment to thorough risk management strategies.

Example: In managing risks associated with technology development projects, particularly safety-critical systems like autonomous vehicles, I employ a multi-faceted approach. Firstly, I advocate for the use of rigorous testing methodologies such as Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to systematically identify potential failure points in each system component. This allows us to proactively mitigate risks before they materialize.

Secondly, I believe in the importance of fostering a strong safety culture within the team. This involves ensuring that everyone understands their role in risk management and feels empowered to voice concerns about safety issues without fear of reprisal.

Lastly, given the rapidly evolving nature of technology, it’s crucial to stay abreast of industry trends and regulatory changes. By doing so, we can anticipate new risks and adapt our strategies accordingly. For instance, when developing AI-driven functionalities, understanding the ethical implications and potential biases is key to not only ensure compliance but also build trust with end-users.

22. Describe your experience working with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation tools and techniques.

This question is posed to understand your technical skillset and experience with HIL simulations, which are integral to the development, testing, and validation of complex systems. In industries like automotive or maritime, these simulations are critical for ensuring safety and functionality. Hence, the hiring team wants to know if you have the necessary skills to handle these tasks.

Focus on your firsthand experience with HIL simulation tools, indicating specific instances where you’ve used them. Discuss the results achieved and how it impacted projects to convey a clear understanding of their practical application. If you are new to HIL simulations but have related experiences like software-in-the-loop (SIL) or model-in-the-loop (MIL), mention those, emphasizing your adaptability in learning new systems and techniques.

Example: In my previous work, I extensively used HIL simulation tools to test control algorithms for autonomous vehicles. One of the major projects involved developing a new adaptive cruise control system. We first created a mathematical model of the vehicle dynamics and then designed the controller in a simulated environment. However, before deploying this algorithm on the actual hardware, we needed to ensure its robustness.

That’s where HIL came into play. We connected the real electronic control unit (ECU) with the simulated environment and tested our algorithm under various driving conditions and scenarios. This allowed us to observe how the ECU interacted with the rest of the system in real-time, helping us identify any discrepancies between the expected and actual performance. It also helped us detect potential issues that could arise due to hardware limitations or unexpected sensor readings, which are often overlooked in pure simulations.

Overall, my experience with HIL has taught me the importance of bridging the gap between theoretical design and practical implementation. It ensures that the developed systems are not only theoretically sound but also capable of handling real-world complexities.

23. How do you ensure that your engineering team remains focused on customer needs while developing complex technical solutions?

Balancing technical precision with customer satisfaction is one of the greatest challenges in any engineering role. In an industry where the customer experience is central to success, it’s imperative that a potential hire understands how to keep a team focused on the end user. This question helps identify candidates who can maintain this balance, ensuring that technical solutions not only function flawlessly but also enhance the customer experience.

Start by explaining your approach to keeping the customer at the forefront during project development. You might talk about regular team meetings where you discuss customer feedback or how you incorporate user experience design principles into your work. Highlight any specific methods or tools you use for ensuring customer focus, such as Agile methodologies or personas. Finally, share examples from past projects where your attention to customer needs led to effective technical solutions.

Example: To ensure that my engineering team remains focused on customer needs, I believe in the importance of fostering a culture of empathy and understanding towards our end users. This can be achieved by incorporating user research into our development process, such as regular feedback sessions with customers or usability testing. For instance, when we were developing a new feature for an autonomous vehicle software, we invited a group of potential users to test it out under supervised conditions. Their insights helped us understand their needs better and adjust our solution accordingly.

Additionally, I advocate for maintaining open lines of communication between the engineering team and other departments like sales and customer support. These teams are often the first to hear about any issues or suggestions from customers, so their input is invaluable in shaping our technical solutions. By prioritizing these strategies, we can ensure that even while dealing with complex problems, our focus remains firmly on providing value to our customers.

24. Explain the importance of data management and version control when working on large-scale collaborative software projects.

Smooth sailing in the sea of software development relies heavily on effective data management and version control. When teams are working together on expansive projects, the ability to track changes, revert to previous versions, and prevent overwriting of work is critical. This question is asked to gauge your understanding of these processes, and to ensure you can contribute to a harmonious and efficient work environment, particularly in large-scale collaborative endeavors.

You should emphasize your understanding of data management and version control’s role in maintaining consistency, avoiding conflicts, and ensuring seamless collaboration. Discuss specific tools you’ve used like Git or SVN and how they have aided in tracking changes and managing different versions of code. Include instances where effective data management helped eliminate errors or improve efficiency on past projects. If new to such tools, express your eagerness to learn and adapt quickly.

Example: Data management and version control are crucial in large-scale collaborative software projects for several reasons. Firstly, they ensure consistency and integrity of data by preventing accidental overwrites or loss of work. This is particularly important when multiple developers are working on the same codebase simultaneously as it allows changes to be tracked and rolled back if necessary.

For instance, consider a scenario where two teams are developing features that depend on a common module. Without proper version control, simultaneous modifications could lead to conflicts, bugs, or even loss of functionality. However, with a system like Git, each team can work independently on their own branch, then merge changes systematically, resolving any conflicts in a controlled manner. Similarly, robust data management practices would ensure all relevant data used or generated during development is catalogued and accessible, facilitating debugging and testing processes. Thus, these systems promote collaboration, efficiency, and risk mitigation, which are key to successful project execution.

25. Discuss your experience with Agile or Scrum methodologies, and how you’ve utilized them to improve productivity within your engineering team.

The heart of Agile and Scrum methodologies is about boosting efficiency, streamlining workflows, and driving productivity. As an engineer, your ability to implement these strategies is key to keeping projects on track and achieving business goals. By asking about your experience with these methodologies, the hiring team is trying to gauge your understanding and utilization of these strategies to drive success within your team.

When answering this, focus on specific instances where Agile or Scrum methodologies were beneficial in your past roles. Discuss the strategies you implemented and how they improved team productivity. Be sure to highlight your adaptability with these methods and your ability to use them effectively according to project needs. If possible, provide quantitative results demonstrating their success.

Example: In my experience, Agile and Scrum methodologies have been instrumental in driving efficiency and productivity within engineering teams. For instance, I once led a team that was working on a complex software development project with tight deadlines. We adopted Scrum to manage the work effectively. By breaking down the project into smaller, manageable sprints, we were able to maintain focus and deliver high-quality output consistently.

The daily stand-ups provided an opportunity for everyone to understand what each member was working on and identify any bottlenecks early. This transparency fostered accountability and helped us address issues promptly. The retrospectives allowed us to reflect on our performance after each sprint and implement improvements in the next one. Over time, this iterative approach resulted in significant productivity gains and quality enhancements. Moreover, it encouraged a culture of continuous learning and improvement within the team.

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Cruise Machine Learning Engineer Interview Guide

Back to Cruise Automation, Inc.

Getting ready for an Machine Learning Engineer interview at Cruise? The Cruise Machine Learning Engineer interview span across 10 to 12 different question topics. In preparing for the interview:

Know what skills are necessary for Cruise Machine Learning Engineer roles.
Gain insights into the Machine Learning Engineer interview process at Cruise.
Practice real Cruise Machine Learning Engineer interview questions.

Interview Query regularly analyzes interview experience data, and we've used that data to produce this guide, with sample interview questions and an overview of the Cruise Machine Learning Engineer interview.

Cruise Machine Learning Engineer Salary

Average Base Salary

Average Total Compensation

View the full Machine Learning Engineer at Cruise Automation, Inc. salary guide

Cruise Machine Learning Engineer Interview Process

Typically, interviews at Cruise vary by role and team, but commonly Machine Learning Engineer interviews follow a fairly standardized process across these question topics.

We've gathered this data from parsing thousands of interview experiences sourced from members.

Cruise Machine Learning Engineer Interview Questions

Practice for the Cruise Machine Learning Engineer interview with these recently asked interview questions.

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Cruise Machine Learning Engineer Jobs

General Topics

Cruise Automation: Any recent coding interview experience?

Is studying Cruise tagged questions on leetcode enough?

Interviewed with them a few months ago, did all the tagged questions and aced it but got low balled

Really? Could you share the numbers and the position?

L5, base 225k and 235k RSU.. not about to take that for no WLB

Tech Industry

SWE3 PhD boyfriend upset over less-qualified colleague promotions

Working Parents

Rejected by all colleges

Modi is a dictator really? Nonsense!

2024 Presidential Election

If you try to solve the border problem in a presidential year, I will destroy you

A typical Google day so hilarious

Cruise Technical Program Manager Interview Guide

Detailed, specific guidance on the Cruise Technical Program Manager interview process. Curated with the help of Senior and Staff TPMs at Cruise; with breakdowns of each interview stage, expectations from candidates, practice interview questions and tips to succeed.

The role of a Cruise Technical Program Manager

Cruise actively seeks super high impact folks to join their team as Technical Program Managers. The company is at the forefront of self-driving technology and is redefining transportation - both how it works and how its perceived.

A Technical Program Manager at Cruise is responsible for driving the end-to-end development of the company's self-driving vehicle platform. This encompasses overseeing critical aspects such as base vehicle hardware and software, autonomous driving capabilities, and the implementation of new product features across different next-generation Cruise platforms. As with most TPM roles, you'd be the glue tying large initiatives together - and the Cruise interview process is designed to understand if you can succeed in this mandate.

The average total compensation for the TPM role at Cruise is $451,057, which includes a base salary of $214,571, a yearly stock grant of $158,143, and a bonus of $78,343.

The Cruise Technical Program Manager (TPM) interview process typically consists of three main stages:

2 Phone Screens
On-site Panel (with up to 6 team members & stakeholders)

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Cruise: phone screens.

The first phone screening interview is conducted by a recruiter; it basically involves a discussion of your resume and the TPM role in further detail. The recruiter will ask questions about your basic qualifications, relevant experience, and try to gauge your interest in the position.

The second phone screen is with either a Hiring Manager or another TPM, and covers a range of topics including technical concepts, project management, and coding. Questions in this round focus on the unique aspects of being a Technical Program Manager at Cruise, such as the autonomous driving industry, system design challenges, and the coordination of cross-functional teams.

These interviews are essentially designed to assess your overall candidature, your ability to handle the responsibilities of a TPM—based on which the interviewer will assess your suitability for further rounds.

Interview Questions

What interests you about the TPM role at Cruise?
Can you provide examples of your experience managing complex technical projects and teams?
How familiar are you with the autonomous driving industry and the challenges it presents to TPMs?
How would you approach managing a complex project with multiple stakeholders and tight deadlines?
Can you explain a time when you had to make trade-offs between project scope, timeline, and resources?
How would you design a system to handle a high volume of data with real-time processing requirements?
Have you worked on system design for autonomous driving or similar technologies? Can you explain the challenges you encountered and how you addressed them?

Cruise TPM Onsite Interviews

If you successfully pass the phone interview, you will be invited for an on-site panel interview. This stage typically involves meeting with a panel of up to six team members (TPMs, engineers, product managers), and stakeholders from Cruise.

There are 2 main rounds:

Technical Interview

System design.

Technical (Theoretical) Interview
Program Management Interview

Behavioral Interview

This part of the interview process is an excellent opportunity to show your ability to work harmoniously with others and proactively address potential issues before they arise. Here, interviewers are particularly interested in understanding your working style and the impact you have made in previous program management roles.

Therefore, you can expect to encounter classic questions that delve into your past experiences in program management. For instance, they might ask you about troubleshooting program bottlenecks. In such a scenario, you should share an experience where you encountered a significant challenge and effectively resolved it. Emphasize the steps you took, the strategies you employed (focus on your collaboration and problem-solving abilities), and the positive outcomes that resulted from your actions.

You may also encounter questions about past qualifications. For instance, if you're coming from a mechanical engineering field, you may be asked "How does your experience in mechanical engineering for industry facilities translate to hardware for self driving cars?"

The idea is to have specific examples that highlight your expertise in various areas, whether it is troubleshooting program bottlenecks, resolving conflicts, managing cross-functional teams, or negotiating with engineers on design components, and so on.

Example questions for the behavioral interview may include:

Can you describe a time when you encountered a significant program bottleneck and how you resolved it?
Tell me about a situation where you had to manage conflicts within a cross-functional team and how you successfully resolved them.
How have you negotiated design components with engineers to ensure alignment between product requirements and technical feasibility?
Can you share an example of a program you managed that faced changing requirements, and how you adapted the program to meet the new demands?
Describe a time when you demonstrated strong leadership skills in managing a diverse cross-functional team towards a common goal.

The technical interview for the Cruise TPM position comprises two main components: the system design interview and the theoretical interview.

Technical (Theoretical) Round

During the theoretical round, the depth of your technical knowledge will be assessed, as well as your ability to effectively communicate complex concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Commonly asked questions include "Explain X technical concept" or “explain how the internet works” —make sure to prepare for them.

Although coding questions are relatively uncommon in TPM interviews, some candidates have reported encountering coding rounds, especially if they are transitioning from an engineering role to a TPM position. In these cases, you might be asked to write functional code or provide pseudocode, depending on the interviewer's preference. It's worth noting that the coding questions in TPM interviews at Cruise are typically easier compared to the more challenging Leetcode-style questions often encountered in software engineering interviews at companies like Meta, Amazon, or Google. Instead, the focus may be more on your previous project and program experience or specific products, such as rideshare services.

Here are some example questions that you may encounter during the technical interview:

Explain the concept of sensor fusion in the context of self-driving vehicles and its importance.
Describe the different levels of autonomy in autonomous driving and the technical challenges associated with each level.
How does machine learning play a role in autonomous vehicle perception and decision-making?
Discuss the trade-offs between different data storage and processing technologies in the context of handling large-scale sensor data in autonomous driving.
What happens when you enter a URL in your browser?
Explain the working of autonomous vehicles?

Here are two tips to prepare for the technical round:

Familiarize yourself with relevant system design principles and industry-specific knowledge related to autonomous driving and ride-sharing.
Think of your previous experiences and the technical aspects of your work that can help position you as a strong candidate for the TPM role.

The system design interview is designed to assess your technical knowledge and see how well you can explain architecture concepts. Typically, you can encounter two types of questions here: those related to systems you've worked on before or designing a brand-new system.

For example, one question might be "Design a ride-sharing app" or "Design Facebook". The idea is to test how well you can analyze and propose system designs that address scalability, reliability, and potential trade-offs, and performance considerations.

This round is typically complex and develops over a period of 30-45 minutes, so it's best to use a framework to answer system design questions.

Example system design interview questions for a Cruise TPM role may include:

Can you describe the architecture of a distributed messaging system you have previously worked on?
How would you design a recommendation system for a ride-sharing platform like Cruise, considering factors such as personalization, scalability, and real-time updates?
Design Twitter.
Walk me through the design considerations for building a scalable infrastructure to handle a high volume of ride requests in a rideshare service.
How would you approach optimizing the communication between multiple autonomous vehicles to ensure efficient coordination and decision-making?

Here are a few tips for this round:

Ask for clarification to understand the interviewer's expectations and system constraints. For example, undefinedundefined
Estimate metrics and outline key components, such as APIs and database choices. For instance, estimate the average number of active users for the ride-sharing app, the number of ride requests the app receives, etc.
Identify potential bottlenecks and explore specific components. For example, discuss how you would optimize the communication between multiple autonomous vehicles.
Finally, bring all these above aspects together. See if your solution addresses the bottlenecks and fulfills the goals discussed earlier in the interview.

Program Management

Program Managers are typically exceptional in planning, prioritization, and project delivery. Evidently, at this stage of the interview, your interviewer will look to assess your ability to think comprehensively about programs, whilst considering aspects such as resources, risks involved, managing stakeholders expectations, costs, deadlines, etc. Therefore, a track record of effective execution is essential.

You can expect the majority of the questions to be hypothetical in nature. Which means, rather than talking about past experiences, your focus should be on your future actions and strategies in handling program management from end-to-end. For example, "I would do "this" or "that" to manage programs effectively..."

Example questions for the program management interview include:

How would you approach managing a program that involves multiple stakeholders with conflicting priorities and limited resources?
Suppose you encounter a significant roadblock during program execution. How would you navigate this situation and ensure project delivery stays on track?
If you were given the responsibility of launching a new product within a tight timeline, how would you plan and coordinate the necessary activities to ensure a successful launch?
Can you describe a complex program you have managed in the past, and the strategies you employed to mitigate risks and ensure timely delivery?
Imagine you are responsible for overseeing a program that spans across different teams and time zones. How would you ensure effective communication and collaboration between team members to achieve program goals?

Cruise Technical Program Manager Roles and Responsibilities

As a Cruise TPM, you'll collaborate with cross-functional teams to align key Cruise Vehicle programs with business objectives.
You'll be responsible for developing and executing comprehensive program plans for new Cruise vehicle platforms.
You'll monitor and report on program progress to cross-functional teams and executive forums.
You'll proactively identify and mitigate issues and risks, working with diverse teams to ensure program success.
You'll drive scope and design changes while balancing short-term improvements and long-term solutions.
You'll resolve challenges across various areas, including base vehicle hardware/software, sensors, performance, networking, AV software, and embedded systems.
You’ll partner with testing teams to enhance subsystem and component testing processes.
You'll foster effective working relationships with multi-organizational and multi-functional groups, both internally and externally.

Cruise Technical Program Manager Skills and Qualifications

A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience is a prerequisite.
You will be expected to have extensive hands-on experience of over 15 years in Technical Program Management, successfully implementing complex integrated hardware/software products in industries such as automotive, robotics, consumer electronics, or aerospace.
For this role, you'll also require a minimum of 6 years of direct involvement as a systems, hardware, and/or software engineer, demonstrating proficiency in developing and managing intricate and integrated hardware and software systems.
Strong expertise in leading hardware and software process development and implementation is essential. You'll need a comprehensive understanding of both waterfall and Agile environments and the ability to effectively bridge between these methodologies.
Valuable experience in the development or participation in end-to-end robotics or automotive systems is highly desired.

Relevant interview guides

How to Rock the Coding Interview – Tips That Helped Me Land Job Offers from Google, Airbnb, and Dropbox

Back in 2017, I went through some coding interviews and got offers from several large tech companies. So at that point, I decided to share what I'd learned in this article.

And I've just updated it for 2022 so it'll be super useful and relevant if you're job hunting now.

Despite scoring decent grades in both my CS101 Algorithm class and my Data Structures class in university, I shudder at the thought of going through a coding interview that focuses on algorithms.

Hence I spent the last three months figuring out how to improve my coding interview skills and eventually received offers from big tech companies like Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Lyft, Dropbox and more.

In this post, I’ll be sharing the insights and tips I gained along the way. Experienced candidates can also expect System Design questions, but that is out of the scope of this post.

Many of the algorithmic concepts tested in coding interviews are not what I usually use at work, where I am a Front End Engineer (web). Naturally, I have forgotten quite a bit about these algorithms and data structures, which I learned mostly during my freshmen and sophomore years of college.

It’s stressful to have to produce (working) code in an interview, while someone scrutinizes every keystroke that you make. What’s worse is that as an interviewee, you’re encouraged to communicate your thought process out loud to the interviewer.

I used to think that being able to think, code, and communicate simultaneously was an impossible feat, until I realized that most people are just not good at coding interviews when they first start out. Interviewing is a skill that you can get better at by studying, preparing, and practicing for it.

My recent job search has led me on a journey to improve my coding interview skills. Front End Engineers like to rant about how the current hiring process is broken because technical interviews can include skills not related to front-end development. For example, writing a maze solving algorithm and merging two sorted lists of numbers. As a Front End Engineer myself, I can empathize with them.

Front end is a specialized domain where engineers have to care about many issues related to browser compatibilities, the Document Object Model, JavaScript performance, CSS layouts, and so on. It is uncommon for front-end engineers to implement some of the complex algorithms tested in interviews.

At companies like Facebook and Google, the people are software engineers first, domain experts second.

Unfortunately, rules are set by the companies, not the candidates. There is a high emphasis on general computer science concepts like algorithms, design patterns, data structures; core skills that a good software engineer should possess. If you want the job, you have to play by the rules set by the game masters — improve your coding interview skills!

This post is structured into the following two sections. Feel free to skip ahead to the section that interests you.

The breakdown of coding interviews, and how to prepare for them.
Helpful tips and hints for each algorithm topic (arrays, trees, dynamic programming, etc.), along with recommended LeetCode practice questions to review core concepts and to improve on those topics.

The content for this post can be found here . I'll make updates there when necessary.

If you are interested in Front End content, check out my front end interview handbook here .

Picking a programming language

Before anything else, you need to pick a programming language for your algorithmic coding interview.

Most companies will allow you to code in the language of your choice. The only exception I know is Google. They allow their candidates to pick from only Java, C++, Python, Go or JavaScript.

For the most part, I recommend using a language that you are extremely familiar with, rather than one that is new to you but that the company uses widely.

There are some languages that are more suitable than others for coding interviews. Then there are some that you absolutely want to avoid.

From my experience as an interviewer, most candidates pick Python or Java. Other languages commonly selected include JavaScript, Ruby, and C++. I would absolutely avoid lower-level languages like C or Go, simply because they lack standard library functions and data structures.

Personally, Python is my de facto choice for coding algorithms during interviews. It is succinct and has a huge library of functions and data structures.

One of the top reasons I recommend Python is that it uses consistent APIs that operate on different data structures, such as len() , for ... in ... and slicing notation on sequences (strings, lists, and tuples). Getting the last element in a sequence is arr[-1] , and reversing it is simply arr[::-1] . You can achieve a lot with minimal syntax in Python.

Java is a decent choice too. But because you will have to constantly declare types in your code, it means entering extra keystrokes. This will slow down the speed at which you code and type. This issue will be more apparent when you have to write on a whiteboard during on-site interviews.

The reasons for choosing or not choosing C++ are similar to Java. Ultimately, Python, Java, and C++ are decent choices. If you have been using Java for a while, and do not have time to become familiar with another language, I recommend sticking to Java instead of picking up Python from scratch. This helps you to avoid having to use one language for work and another one for interviews. Most of the time, the bottleneck is in the thinking and not the writing.

One exception to the convention of allowing the candidate to “pick any programming language they want” is when the interview is for a domain-specific position, such as front-end, iOS, or Android engineer roles. You need to be familiar with coding algorithms in JavaScript, Objective-C, Swift, and Java, respectively.

If you need to use a data structure that the language does not support, such as a queue or heap in JavaScript, ask the interviewer if you can assume that you have a data structure that implements certain methods with specified time complexities. If the implementation of that data structure is not crucial to solving the problem, the interviewer will usually allow it.

In reality, being aware of existing data structures and selecting the appropriate ones to tackle the problem at hand is more important than knowing the intricate implementation details.

Review your CS101

If you have been out of college for some time, it is highly advisable to review the CS fundamentals. I prefer to review it as I practice. I scan through my notes from college and revise the various algorithms as I work on the algorithm problems from LeetCode and Cracking the Coding Interview.

If you are interested in how data structures are implemented, check out Lago , a GitHub repository containing Data Structures and Algorithms examples in JavaScript.

Mastery through practice

Next, gain familiarity and mastery of the algorithms and data structures in your chosen programming language.

Practice and solve algorithm questions in your chosen language. While Cracking the Coding Interview is a good resource, I prefer solving problems by typing code, letting it run, and getting instant feedback.

There are various Online Judges, such as LeetCode , HackerRank , and CodeForces for you to practice questions online and to get used to the language. From my experience, LeetCode questions are most similar to the questions asked in interviews. HackerRank and CodeForces questions are more similar to questions in competitive programming.

If you practice enough LeetCode questions, there is a good chance that you will either see or complete one of your actual interview questions (or some variant of it).

Learn and understand the time and space complexities of the common operations in your chosen language. For Python, this page will come in handy. Also, learn about the underlying sorting algorithm being used in the language’s sort() function and its time and space complexities (in Python it’s Timsort, which is a hybrid).

After completing a question on LeetCode, I usually add the time and space complexities of the written code as comments above the function body. I use the comments to remind myself to communicate the analysis of the algorithm after I have completed the implementation.

Read up on the recommended coding style for your language and stick to it. If you choose Python, refer to the PEP 8 Style Guide . If you choose Java, refer to Google’s Java Style Guide .

Learn about and be familiar with the common pitfalls and caveats of the language. If you point them out during the interview and avoid falling into them, you will earn bonus points and impress the interviewer, regardless of whether the interviewer is familiar with the language or not.

Gain a broad exposure to questions from various topics. In the second half of the article, I mention algorithm topics and the useful questions for each topic to practice. Do around 100 to 200 LeetCode questions, and you should be good.

If you prefer courses where the learning is more structured, here are a few recommendations. In no way is taking online courses a must in order to pass interviews.

AlgoMonster aims to help you ace the technical interview in the shortest time possible . By Google engineers, AlgoMonster uses a data-driven approach to teach you the most useful key question patterns and has contents to help you quickly revise basic data structures and algorithms. Best of all, AlgoMonster is not subscription-based - pay a one-time fee and get lifetime access .
Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions by Educative expands on the recommended practice questions in this article but approaches the practicing from a questions pattern perspective, which is an approach I also agree with for learning and have personally used to get better at coding interviews. The course allows you to practice selected questions in Java, Python, C++, JavaScript and also provides sample solutions in those languages. Learn and understand patterns, not memorize answers.

And of course, practice, practice, and more practice!

Phases of a coding interview

Congratulations, you are ready to put your skills to practice! In a coding interview, you will be given a technical question by the interviewer. You will write the code in a real-time, collaborative editor (phone screen) or on a whiteboard (on-site), and have 30 to 45 minutes to solve the problem. This is where the real fun begins!

Your interviewer will be looking to see that you meet the requirements of the role. It is up to you to show them that you have the skills. Initially, it may feel weird to talk while you code, as most programmers do not make a habit of explaining out loud their thoughts while they are typing code.

However, it is hard for the interviewer to know what you are thinking by just looking at your code. If you communicate your approach to the interviewer even before you start to code, you can validate your approach with them. This way, the two of you can agree on an acceptable approach.

Preparing for a remote interview

For phone screens and remote interviews, have a paper and pen or pencil to jot down any notes or diagrams. If you are given a question about trees and graphs, it usually helps if you draw examples of the data structure.

Use earphones. Make sure you are in a quiet environment. You do not want to be holding a phone in one hand and typing with the other. Try to avoid using speakers. If the feedback is bad, communication is made harder. Having to repeat yourself will just result in the loss of valuable time.

What to do when you get the question

Many candidates start coding as soon as they hear the question. That is usually a big mistake. First, take a moment and repeat the question back to the interviewer to make sure that you understand the question. If you misunderstand the question, then the interviewer can clarify.

Always seek clarification about the question upon hearing it, even if you think it is clear. You might discover that you have missed something. It also lets the interviewer know that you are attentive to details.

Consider asking the following questions.

How big is the size of the input?
How big is the range of values?
What kind of values are there? Are there negative numbers? Floating points? Will there be empty inputs?
Are there duplicates within the input?
What are some extreme cases of the input?
How is the input stored? If you are given a dictionary of words, is it a list of strings or a trie?

After you have sufficiently clarified the scope and intention of the problem, explain your high-level approach to the interviewer, even if it is a naive solution. If you are stuck, consider various approaches and explain out loud why it may or may not work. Sometimes your interviewer might drop hints and lead you toward the right path.

Start with a brute-force approach. Communicate it to the interviewer. Explain the time and space complexities and clarify why it is bad. It is unlikely that the brute-force approach will be the one that you will be coding. At this point, the interviewer will usually pop the dreaded, “Can we do better?” question. This means they are looking for a more optimal approach.

This is usually the hardest part of the interview. In general, look for repeated work and try to optimize them by potentially caching the calculated result somewhere. Reference it later, rather than computing it all over again. I provide some tips on tackling topic-specific questions in detail below.

Only start coding after you and your interviewer have agreed on an approach and you have been given the green light.

Starting to code

Use a good style to write your code. Reading code written by others is usually not an enjoyable task. Reading horribly formatted code written by others is even worse. Your goal is to make your interviewer understand your code so that they can quickly evaluate if your code does what it is suppose to and if it solves a given problem.

Use clear variable names and avoid names that are single letters, unless they are for iteration. However, if you are coding on a whiteboard, avoid using verbose variable names. This reduces the amount of writing you will have to do.

Always explain to the interviewer what you are writing or typing. This is not about reading, verbatim, to the interviewer the code you are producing. Talk about the section of the code you are currently implementing at a higher level. Explain why it is written as such, and what it is trying to achieve.

When you copy and paste in code, consider whether it is necessary. Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not. If you find yourself copying and pasting a large chunk of code spanning multiple lines, it is probably an indicator that you can restructure the code by extracting those lines into a function. If it is just a single line you copied, usually it is fine.

However, remember to change the respective variables in your copied line of code where relevant. Copying and pasting errors are a common source of bugs, even in day-to-day coding!

After coding

After you have finished coding, do not immediately announce to the interviewer that you are done. In most cases, your code is usually not perfect. It may contain bugs or syntax errors. What you need to do is review your code.

First, look through your code from start to finish. Look at it as if it were written by someone else, and you are seeing it for the first time and trying to spot bugs in it. That’s exactly what your interviewer will be doing. Review and fix any issues you may find.

Next, come up with small test cases and step through the code (not your algorithm) with those sample input.

Interviewers like it when you read their minds. What they usually do after you have finished coding is get you to write tests. It is a huge plus if you write tests for your code even before they prompt you to do so. You should be emulating a debugger when stepping through your code. Jot down or tell them the values of certain variables as you walk the interviewer through the lines of code.

If there are large duplicated chunks of code in your solution, restructure the code to show the interviewer that you value quality coding. Also, look out for places where you can do short-circuit evaluation .

Lastly, give the time and space complexities of your code, and explain why it is such. You can annotate chunks of your code with their various time and space complexities to demonstrate your understanding of the code. You can even provide the APIs of your chosen programming language. Explain any trade-offs in your current approach versus alternative approaches, possibly in terms of time and space.

If your interviewer is happy with the solution, the interview usually ends here. It is also common that the interviewer asks you extension questions, such as how you would handle the problem if the whole input is too large to fit into memory, or if the input arrives as a stream. This is a common follow-up question at Google, where they care a lot about scale.

The answer is usually a divide-and-conquer approach — perform distributed processing of the data and only read certain chunks of the input from disk into memory, write the output back to disk and combine them later.

Practice with mock interviews

The steps mentioned above can be rehearsed over and over again until you have fully internalized them and they become second nature to you. A good way to practice is by partnering with a friend and taking turns to interview each other.

A great resource for preparing for coding interviews is interviewing.io . This platform provides free and anonymous practice interviews with Google and Facebook engineers, which can lead to real jobs and internships.

By virtue of being anonymous during the interview, the inclusive interview process is unbiased and low risk. At the end of the interview, both the interviewer and interviewee can provide feedback to each other for the purpose of helping one another improve.

Doing well in mock interviews will unlock the jobs page for candidates, and allow them to book interviews (also anonymously) with top companies like Uber, Lyft, Quora, Asana, and more. For those who are new to coding interviews, a demo interview can be viewed on this site . Note that this site requires users to sign in.

I have used interviewing.io, both as an interviewer and an interviewee. The experience was great. Aline Lerner , the CEO and co-founder of interviewing.io, and her team are passionate about revolutionizing the process for coding interviews and helping candidates improve their interview skills.

She has also published a number of coding interview-related articles on the interviewing.io blog . I recommend signing up as early as possible with interviewing.io, even though it's in beta, to increase the likelihood of receiving an invite.

Another platform that allows you to practice coding interviews is Pramp . Where interviewing.io matches potential job seekers with seasoned coding interviewers, Pramp takes a different approach. Pramp pairs you up with another peer who is also a job seeker. The two of you take turns assuming the roles of interviewer and interviewee. Pramp also prepares questions, and provides solutions and prompts to guide the interviewee.

Go forth and conquer

After doing a fair amount of questions on LeetCode and having enough practice doing mock interviews, go forth and put your new-found interviewing skills to the test.

Apply to your favorite companies or, better still, get referrals from your friends working for those companies. Referrals tend to get noticed earlier and have a faster response rate than applying without a referral. Good luck!

Practical tips for coding questions

This section dives deep into practical tips for specific topics of algorithms and data structures, which appear frequently in coding questions. Many algorithm questions involve techniques that can be applied to questions of a similar nature.

The more techniques you have in your arsenal, the greater your chances of passing the interview. For each topic, there is also a list of recommended questions, which is valuable for mastering the core concepts. Some of the questions are only available with a paid subscription to LeetCode, which in my opinion is absolutely worth the money if it lands you a job.

General tips

Always validate input first. Check for inputs that are invalid, empty, negative, or different. Never assume you are given the valid parameters. Alternatively, clarify with the interviewer whether you can assume valid input (usually yes), which can save you time from writing code that does input validation.

Are there any time and space complexities requirements or constraints?

Check for off-by-one errors.

In languages where there are no automatic type coercion, check that concatenation of values are of the same type: int , str , and list .

After you finish your code, use a few example inputs to test your solution.

Is the algorithm supposed to run multiple times, perhaps on a web server? If yes, the input can likely be pre-processed to improve the efficiency in each API call.

Use a mix of functional and imperative programming paradigms:

Write pure functions as often as possible.
Use pure functions because they are easier to reason with and can help reduce bugs in your implementation.
Avoid mutating the parameters passed into your function, especially if they are passed by reference, unless you are sure of what you are doing.
Achieve a balance between accuracy and efficiency. Use the right amount of functional and imperative code where appropriate. Functional programming is usually expensive in terms of space complexity because of non-mutation and the repeated allocation of new objects. On the other hand, imperative code is faster because you operate on existing objects.
Avoid relying on mutating global variables. Global variables introduce state.
Make sure that you do not accidentally mutate global variables, especially if you have to rely on them.

Generally, to improve the speed of a program, we can choose to either use an appropriate data structure or algorithm, or to use more memory. It’s a classic space and time trade off.

Data structures are your weapons. Choosing the right weapon for the right battle is the key to victory. Know the strengths of each data structure and the time complexity for its various operations.

Data structures can be augmented to achieve efficient time complexity across different operations. For example, a HashMap can be used together with a doubly-linked list to achieve O(1) time complexity for both the get and put operation in an LRU cache .

HashMaps are probably the most commonly used data structure for algorithm questions. If you are stuck on a question, your last resort can be to enumerate through the possible data structures (thankfully there aren’t that many) and consider whether each of them can be applied to the problem. This has worked for me at times.

If you are cutting corners in your code, state that out loud to your interviewer, and explain to them what you would do outside of an interview setting (no time constraints). For example, explain that you would write a regex to parse a string rather than using split , which does not cover all cases.

Arrays and strings are considered sequences (a string is a sequence of characters). There are tips for dealing with both arrays and strings, which will be covered here.

Are there duplicate values in the sequence? Would they affect the answer?

Check for sequence out of bounds.

Be mindful about slicing or concatenating sequences in your code. Typically, slicing and concatenating sequences require O(n) time. Use start and end indices to demarcate a subarray or substring where possible.

Sometimes you traverse the sequence from the right side rather than from the left.

Master the sliding window technique that applies to many substring or subarray problems.

When you are given two sequences to process, it is common to have one index per sequence to traverse. For example, we use the same approach to merge two sorted arrays.

Corner Cases

Empty sequence
Sequence with 1 or 2 elements
Sequence with repeated elements

Is the array sorted or partially sorted? If it is either, some form of binary search should be possible. This usually means that the interviewer is looking for a solution that is faster than O(n).

Can you sort the array? Sometimes sorting the array first may significantly simplify the problem. Make sure that the order of array elements do not need to be preserved before attempting to sort it.

For questions where summation or multiplication of a subarray is involved, pre-computation using hashing or a prefix, suffix sum, or product might be useful.

If you are given a sequence and the interviewer asks for O(1) space, it might be possible to use the array itself as a hash table. For example, if the array has values only from 1 to N, where N is the length of the array, negate the value at that index (minus one) to indicate the presence of that number.

Practice Questions

Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock
Contains Duplicate
Product of Array Except Self
Maximum Subarray
Maximum Product Subarray
Find Minimum in Rotated Sorted Array
Search in Rotated Sorted Array
Container With Most Water

Study Links

Bits, Bytes, Building With Binary

Questions involving binary representations and bitwise operations are asked sometimes. You must know how to convert a number from decimal form into binary form, and vice versa, in your chosen programming language.

Some helpful utility snippets:

Test kth bit is set: num & (1 << k) != 0
Set kth bit: num |= (1 << k)
Turn off kth bit: num &= ~(1 << k)
Toggle the kth bit: num ^= (1 << k)
To check if a number is a power of 2: num & num - 1 == 0 .
Check for overflow/underflow
Negative numbers
Sum of Two Integers
Number of 1 Bits
Counting Bits
Missing Number
Reverse Bits

Dynamic Programming

Demystifying Dynamic Programming

Dynamic Programming (DP) is usually used to solve optimization problems. Alaina Kafkes has written an awesome post on tackling DP problems. You should read it.

The only way to get better at DP is with practice. It takes lots of practice to recognize that a problem can be solved by DP.

To optimize space, sometimes you do not have to store the entire DP table in memory. The last two values or the last two rows of the matrix will suffice.

0/1 Knapsack
Climbing Stairs
Coin Change
Longest Increasing Subsequence
Longest Common Subsequence
Word Break Problem
Combination Sum
House Robber and House Robber II
Decode Ways
Unique Paths

When comparing Euclidean distance between two pairs of points, using dx² + dy² is sufficient. It is unnecessary to square root the value.

To find out if two circles overlap, check that the distance between the two centers of the circles is less than the sum of their radii.

From Theory To Practice: Representing Graphs
Deep Dive Through A Graph: DFS Traversal
Going Broad In A Graph: BFS Traversal

Be familiar with the various graph representations and graph search algorithms, and with their time and space complexities.

You can be given a list of edges and tasked to build your own graph from the edges to perform a traversal on. The common graph representations are

Adjacency matrix
Adjacency list
HashMap of HashMaps

Some inputs look like they are trees, but they are actually graphs. Clarify this with your interviewer. In that case, you will have to handle cycles and keep a set of visited nodes when traversing.

Graph search algorithms

Common: Breadth first search (BFS), Depth first search (DFS)
Uncommon: Topological sort, Dijkstra’s algorithm
Rare: Bellman-Ford algorithm, Floyd-Warshall algorithm, Prim’s algorithm, and Kruskal’s algorithm

In coding interviews, graphs are commonly represented as 2-D matrices, where cells are the nodes and each cell can traverse to its adjacent cells (up, down, left, and right). Hence it is important to be familiar with traversing a 2-D matrix.

When recursively traversing the matrix, always ensure that your next position is within the boundary of the matrix. More tips for doing DFS on a matrix can be found here . A simple template for doing DFS on a matrix appears something like this:

Empty graph
Graph with one or two nodes
Disjoint graphs
Graph with cycles
Clone Graph
Course Schedule
Alien Dictionary
Pacific Atlantic Water Flow
Number of Islands
Graph Valid Tree
Number of Connected Components in an Undirected Graph
Longest Consecutive Sequence

Interval questions are questions that give an array of two-element arrays (an interval). The two values represent a start and an end value. Interval questions are considered to be part of the array family, but they involve some common techniques. Hence, they have their own special section.

An example of an interval array: [[1, 2], [4, 7]] .

Interval questions can be tricky for those who do not have experience with them. This is because of the sheer number of cases to consider when interval arrays overlap.

Clarify with the interviewer whether [1, 2] and [2, 3] are considered overlapping intervals, because it affects how you will write your equality checks.

A common routine for interval questions is to sort the array of intervals by the start value of each interval.

Be familiar with writing code to check if two intervals overlap and to merge two overlapping intervals:

Single interval
Non-overlapping intervals
An interval totally consumed within another interval
Duplicate intervals
Insert Interval
Merge Intervals
Meeting Rooms and Meeting Rooms II
Non-overlapping Intervals

Linked List

Like arrays, linked lists are used to represent sequential data. The benefit of linked lists is that insertion and deletion of code from anywhere in the list is O(1), whereas in arrays, the elements have to be shifted.

Adding a dummy node at the head and /or tail might help to handle many edge cases where operations have to be performed at the head or the tail. The presence of dummy nodes ensures that operations will never have be executed on the head or the tail. Dummy nodes remove the headache of writing conditional checks to deal with null pointers. Be sure to remove them at the end of the operation.

Sometimes linked lists problem can be solved without additional storage. Try to borrow ideas from the for reverse a linked list problem.

For deletion in linked lists, you can either modify the node values or change the node pointers. You might need to keep a reference to the previous element.

For partitioning linked lists, create two separate linked lists and join them back together.

Linked lists problems share similarities with array problems. Think about how you would solve an array problem and apply it to a linked list.

Two pointer approaches are also common for linked lists:

Getting the kth from the last node: Have two pointers, where one is k nodes ahead of the other. When the node ahead reaches the end, the other node is k nodes behind.
Detecting cycles: Have two pointers, where one pointer increments twice as much as the other. If the two pointers meet, it means that there is a cycle.
Getting the middle node: Have two pointers. One pointer increments twice as much as the other. When the faster node reaches the end of the list, the slower node will be at the middle.

Be familiar with the following routines because many linked list questions make use of one or more of these routines in their solution.

Count the number of nodes in the linked list
Reverse a linked list in place
Find the middle node of the linked list using fast or slow pointers
Merge two lists together
Single node
Linked list has cycle. Clarify with the interviewer whether there can be a cycle in the list. Usually the answer is no.
Reverse a Linked List
Detect Cycle in a Linked List
Merge Two Sorted Lists
Merge K Sorted Lists
Remove Nth Node From End Of List
Reorder List

If the code involves division or modulo, remember to check for division or modulo by 0 case.

When a question involves “a multiple of a number”, modulo might be useful.

Check for and handle overflow and underflow if you are using a typed language like Java and C++. At the very least, mention that overflow or underflow is possible and ask whether you need to handle it.

Consider negative numbers and floating point numbers. This may sound obvious, but when you are under pressure in an interview, many obvious points go unnoticed.

If the question asks to implement an operator such as power, squareroot, or division, and it is to be faster than O(n), binary search is usually the approach.

Some common formulas

Sum of 1 to N = (n+1) * n/2
Sum of GP = 2⁰ + 2¹ + 2² + 2³ + … 2^n = 2^(n+1)-1
Permutations of N = N! / (N-K)!
Combinations of N = N! / (K! * (N-K)!)
Division by 0
Integer overflow and underflow
Integer to English Words

A matrix is a 2-dimensional array. Questions involving matrices are usually related to dynamic programming or graph traversal.

For questions involving traversal or dynamic programming, make a copy of the matrix with the same dimensions that are initialized to empty values. Use these values to store the visited state or dynamic programming table. Be familiar with this routine:

Many grid-based games can be modeled as a matrix. For example, Tic-Tac-Toe, Sudoku, Crossword, Connect 4, and Battleship. It is not uncommon to be asked to verify the winning condition of the game. For games like Tic-Tac-Toe, Connect 4, and Crosswords, verification has to be done vertically and horizontally. One trick is to write code to verify the matrix for the horizontal cells. Then transpose the matrix, reusing the logic used for horizontal verification to verify originally vertical cells (which are now horizontal).
Transposing a matrix in Python is simply:
Empty matrix. Check that none of the arrays are 0 length.
1 x 1 matrix.
Matrix with only one row or column.
Set Matrix Zeroes
Spiral Matrix
Rotate Image
Word Search

Recursion is useful for permutation, because it generates all combinations and tree-based questions. You should know how to generate all permutations of a sequence as well as how to handle duplicates.

Remember to always define a base case so that your recursion will end.

Recursion implicitly uses a stack. Hence all recursive approaches can be rewritten iteratively using a stack.

Beware of cases where the recursion level goes too deep and causes a stack overflow (the default limit in Python is 1000). You may get bonus points for pointing this out to the interviewer.

Recursion will never be O(1) space complexity because a stack is involved, unless there is tail call optimization (TCO). Find out if your chosen language supports TCO.

Subsets and Subsets II
Strobogrammatic Number II

Please read the above tips on sequence . They apply to strings too.

Ask about input character set and case sensitivity. Usually the characters are limited to lowercase Latin characters, for example a to z.

When you need to compare strings where the order isn’t important (like anagram), you may consider using a HashMap as a counter. If your language has a built-in Counter class like Python, ask to use that instead.

If you need to keep a counter of characters, a common mistake is to say that the space complexity required for the counter is O(n). The space required for a counter is O(1) not O(n). This is because the upper bound is the range of characters, which is usually a fixed constant of 26. The input set is just lowercase Latin characters.

Common data structures for looking up strings efficiently are

Trie/Prefix Tree
Suffix Tree

Common string algorithms are

Rabin Karp , which conducts efficient searches of substrings, using a rolling hash
KMP , which conducts efficient searches of substrings

Non-repeating characters

Use a 26-bit bitmask to indicate which lower case Latin characters are inside the string.

To determine if two strings have common characters, perform & on the two bitmasks. If the result is non-zero, mask_a & mask_b > 0 , then the two strings have common characters.

An anagram is word switch or word play. It is the result of re-arranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, while using all the original letters only once. In interviews, usually we are only bothered with words without spaces in them.

To determine if two strings are anagrams, there are a few plausible approaches:

Sorting both strings should produce the same resulting string. This takes O(nlgn) time and O(lgn) space.
If we map each character to a prime number and we multiply each mapped number together, anagrams should have the same multiple (prime factor decomposition). This takes O(n) time and O(1) space.
Frequency counting of characters will help to determine if two strings are anagrams. This also takes O(n) time and O(1) space.

A palindrome is a word, phrase, number , or other sequence of characters that reads the same backward and forward, such as madam or racecar .

Here are ways to determine if a string is a palindrome:

Reverse the string and it should be equal to itself.
Have two pointers at the start and end of the string. Move the pointers inward till they meet. At any point in time, the characters at both pointers should match.

The order of characters within the string matters, so HashMaps are usually not helpful.

When a question is about counting the number of palindromes, a common trick is to have two pointers that move outward, away from the middle. Note that palindromes can be even or odd length. For each middle pivot position, you need to check it twice: Once that includes the character and once without the character.

For substrings, you can terminate early once there is no match.
For subsequences, use dynamic programming as there are overlapping subproblems. Check out this question .
Empty string
Single-character string
Strings with only one distinct character
Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters
Longest Repeating Character Replacement
Minimum Window Substring
Encode and Decode Strings
Valid Anagram
Group Anagrams
Valid Parentheses
Valid Palindrome
Longest Palindromic Substring
Palindromic Substrings
Leaf It Up To Binary Trees

A tree is an undirected and connected acyclic graph.

Recursion is a common approach for trees. When you notice that the subtree problem can be used to solve the entire problem, try using recursion.

When using recursion, always remember to check for the base case, usually where the node is null .

When you are asked to traverse a tree by level, use depth first search.

Sometimes it is possible that your recursive function needs to return two values.

If the question involves summation of nodes along the way, be sure to check whether nodes can be negative.

You should be very familiar with writing pre-order, in-order, and post-order traversal recursively. As an extension, challenge yourself by writing them iteratively. Sometimes interviewers ask candidates for the iterative approach, especially if the candidate finishes writing the recursive approach too quickly.

Binary tree

In-order traversal of a binary tree is insufficient to uniquely serialize a tree. Pre-order or post-order traversal is also required.

Binary search tree (BST)

In-order traversal of a BST will give you all elements in order.

Be very familiar with the properties of a BST. Validate that a binary tree is a BST. This comes up more often than expected.

When a question involves a BST, the interviewer is usually looking for a solution which runs faster than O(n).

Very skewed tree (like a linked list)
Maximum Depth of Binary Tree
Invert or Flip Binary Tree
Binary Tree Maximum Path Sum
Binary Tree Level Order Traversal
Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree
Subtree of Another Tree
Construct Binary Tree from Preorder and Inorder Traversal
Validate Binary Search Tree
Kth Smallest Element in a BST
Lowest Common Ancestor of BST
Trying to Understand Tries
Implement Trie (Prefix Tree)

Tries are special trees (prefix trees) that make searching and storing strings more efficient. Tries have many practical applications, such as conducting searches and providing autocomplete. It is helpful to know these common applications so that you can easily identify when a problem can be efficiently solved using a trie.

Sometimes preprocessing a dictionary of words (given in a list) into a trie, will improve the efficiency of searching for a word of length k, among n words. Searching becomes O(k) instead of O(n).

Be familiar with implementing, from scratch, a Trie class and its add , remove , and search methods.

Add and Search Word
Word Search II
Learning to Love Heaps

If you see a top or lowest k mentioned in the question, it is usually a sign that a heap can be used to solve the problem, such as in Top K Frequent Elements .

If you require the top k elements, use a Min Heap of size k . Iterate through each element, pushing it into the heap. Whenever the heap size exceeds k , remove the minimum element. That will guarantee that you have the k largest elements.

Top K Frequent Elements
Find Median from Data Stream

Coding interviews are tough. But fortunately, you can get better at them by studying and practicing for them, and doing mock interviews.

To recap, to do well in coding interviews:

Decide on a programming language
Study CS fundamentals
Practice solving algorithm questions
Internalize the Do’s and Don’ts of interviews
Practice by doing mock technical interviews
Interview successfully to get the job

By following these steps, you will improve your coding interview skills, and be one step closer (or probably more) to landing your dream job.

All the best!

The content for this post can be found here . Future updates will be posted there. Pull requests for suggestions and corrections are welcome.

If you enjoyed this article, share it with your friends!

You can also follow me on GitHub and Twitter .

Full Front End Stack Engineer at Meta/Facebook

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Tips for How to Succeed in Coding Interviews

Software Engineer, FAANG

Did you know? We have over 3,000 mentors available right now!

Coding interviews are very daunting. You interview for your dream job, and a random stranger asks you to think on your feet for an hour. You are being put under a microscope, and every comment you make and every code you write is being analyzed intensely. Beads of sweat drip from your palms, and your mind ricochets everywhere. How do I solve this problem? Will my approach handle all edge cases? How many minutes are left? Are there any edge cases that I am missing? What was the facial expression of my interviewer?

I agree. It’s not an easy experience. It’s tough. Let's talk about how to make this experience smoother for you.

Photo by divinetechygirl on Pexels

1. Come up with a game plan

Before you start writing code, you should come up with a plan on how to tackle the problem. You should spend around 5 to 20 minutes on this portion. My game plan involves drawing diagrams and running through test cases. For instance, whenever I get a graph problem or a tree problem, I like to draw a recursion tree to identify the different states that I will be visiting and the order of states that I will be visiting. More importantly, drawing these trees highlights any logic I may need to perform, such as backtracking. Another example is if I plan to use hashmaps in my approach, I always list out what are all the key-value pairs that my hashmap is storing.

Coming up with a game plan has several advantages. First, the interviewer can inform you if you are heading in the wrong direction. If so, you just saved yourself 30 minutes from writing all that wrong code! Second, it is easy to pinpoint what data structures and variables will be needed to solve the problem.

If your initial game plan is not the most efficient, that is okay! Do not worry about defining the most efficient solution early on . This is because it is better to have a working code than a broken code or even worse no code. This tends to be the downfall of numerous interview candidates.

Once you have implemented your game plan, you can come back to refining your approach to be more optimal.

2. Always communicate

Because the interviewer does not know what is going on inside your head, you have to communicate your thought process to your interviewer. This is an important soft skill to focus on because the interviewer is evaluating your problem-solving skill and your journey to solve that problem.

I am stressing about this skill because communicating effectively landed me a job offer at a top company. During that onsite interview, a staff engineer asked me a difficult dynamic programming interview for a 45-minute session. I drew out a 2D auxiliary matrix and the different states in the matrix. However, I was stuck for the longest time in expressing the correct recurrence relation. I would test my recurrence relation on numerous edge cases, and my approach would yield an incorrect answer. I would explain why my recurrence relation was wrong and discuss approaches to refine it. I communicated every step of my thought process.

At the end of the session, I had a defined recurrence relation, but no code was written. Zero code. The whole entire whiteboard was filled with a bunch of matrices and arrows. As I walked out of the interview room, I was confident that I failed that interview. I would have bet my whole life savings that I failed. A few days later, I got a call that I got the job.

So when do you need to communicate?

You need to communicate

when you are coming up with a game plan
when you notice that there are several approaches to solving the problem, and you identify which approach is the most efficient one
when you see a bug in your code
when you are stepping through your final code with a test case to validate the correctness

3. Always Test Your Code

It is a rewarding feeling once you write out the final line of code. You feel accomplished for solving a difficult problem under pressure. However, you have not crossed the finish line yet. If you say to your interviewer that you are done with your code without validating it with test cases, you could be significantly jeopardizing the interview performance.

If the interviewer catches bugs in your code and informs them to you, the interviewer will mention in the feedback review that “the interview candidate did not test code, and I identified bugs for the candidate.” Not testing your code is not abiding by the most fundamental practices in software engineering. No one writes perfect code on the first try. You always need to validate your code in order to gain and maintain the trust of your customers.

So always make sure to step through your code with at least two test cases, and one of them should be an edge case. Make sure to communicate during the testing portion.

4. Ask about the input

Before you start coding, you need to think about the various forms of your input. This will determine which game plan to come up with.

You should pose these types of questions to your interviewer:

Can my input be null?
Is my array sorted or unsorted?
Is it a doubly linked list or a singularly linked list?
Will my array contain negative numbers?

How can asking this be helpful?

For instance, let’s say the task at hand is to find a target number in an array. If the interviewer confirms the array is sorted, then you can do a binary search, which has a runtime of O(log N). However, if the interviewer says the array is unsorted, then you have to do a linear search, which has a runtime of O(N). The nature of the input can change the approach to solving the problem.

5. It’s okay to ask for help but not too much

There may be situations where you have no idea what to do. It is okay to ask for guidance from the interviewer. You don’t want the interviewer to give away the solution, but you want him or her to nudge you in the right direction. If you are able to come up with the correct solution with just a hint or two, that is still positive feedback. It means you are still an independent thinker with the right guidance.

However, you do not want to keep asking for a lot of help. You do not want to seem you are incapable of problem-solving. A good safe number of hints to use is 2. Going more than that may drastically lower your chances of getting the job offer.

I do resume/interview workshops with clients applying for software engineering jobs. I have worked with over 50+ clients, and they have landed job offers at companies like DoorDash, Square, and 1Password.

Yen is a senior software engineer at a high-growth startup. He has worked with numerous clients on ramping up their technical skills for jobs with over 400 client sessions.

You can find him on Instagram .

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Navigating the Emotional Roller Coaster of Job Interviews and Career Planning

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Alex Georges | Mentor Cruise | 1/22/2024

This post delves into managing the emotional challenges of job interview prep, interviews, and career planning in tech, offering strategies for stress management, self-doubt, and maintaining a positive mindset. Gain insights on prioritizing mental well-being while navigating the pressures of the tech industry, empowering you with resilience and confidence.

Navigating the emotional rollercoaster of job interview prep, job interviews, and career planning can be overwhelming. As you embark on this professional journey, it’s common to experience a range of emotions, from excitement and anticipation to self-doubt and anxiety. In the fast-paced tech world, the pressure to perform can further exacerbate these emotional challenges.

It’s essential to address the emotional impact of this process and prioritize mental well-being. The weight of preparing for interviews, facing rejections, and making pivotal career decisions can take a toll on your mental health. Understanding and managing these emotional ups and downs is crucial for your overall success and happiness in your career.

In this blog post, we’ll delve into the emotional hurdles that often accompany job interview prep, actual interviews, and broader career strategizing. We’ll explore effective strategies for coping with stress, managing self-doubt, and maintaining a positive mindset throughout the process. Additionally, we’ll highlight the significance of mental health in job interviews and career planning, providing insights tailored to the unique challenges faced within the tech industry.

As you navigate this blog post, you’ll gain valuable insights into addressing the emotional aspects of career advancement, empowering you to approach job interviews and career planning with resilience and confidence.

Understanding the Emotional Roller Coaster of Job Search and Interview Prep

Embarking on a job search and preparing for interviews can evoke a myriad of emotions. It’s natural to experience anxiety, excitement, and uncertainty during this process. Understanding how to navigate these emotional ups and downs is crucial to maintaining a positive mindset and focus.

Read full article here

Exclusive: Costco will offer weight loss program to members through medical partner

Costco and its low-cost health care partner are expanding into weight-loss management.

Costco will begin offering its members in the U.S. access to a weight loss program through Sesame, a health care marketplace, Sesame exclusively told USA TODAY. The service, which will cost $179 every three months, is scheduled to become available April 2.

“We are witnessing important innovations in medically supervised weight loss,” said David Goldhill, Sesame‘s co-founder and CEO. “Sesame’s unique model allows us not only to make high-quality specialty care like weight loss much more accessible and affordable but also to empower clinicians to create care plans that are specific to − and appropriate for − each individual patient.”

Last fall, Costco began offering $29 visits with a primary care physician through its partnership with Sesame. It also offered virtual mental health therapy for $79 a session and health checkups with a standard lab panel and virtual follow-up consultation with a provider for $72.

The expansion into medical weight loss services by Sesame with Costco came as a result of inquiries from patients, Goldhill told USA TODAY.

"The No. 1 search term of Costco members seeking primary care on Sesame was around weight loss," Goldhill said.

Both parties got together about two months after the primary care doctor partnership started to begin looking into offering weight loss management because consumers were coming to Sesame "unprompted and saying 'What do you have?' " he said.

How does Costco's weight loss program work?

This is what's included for $179 every three months for Costco members:

Three months of clinical consultation.
Ability to select the clinician of your choice.
An initial live video consultation with the clinician.
Ability to message your clinician outside scheduled appointments.
A nutritional guide and recommendations.
An individualized, clinically appropriate treatment program.

Sesame clinicians will begin by collecting a detailed medical history from each patient and help patients with appropriate diet, exercise and lifestyle modifications.

Members can get more information at CostcoWeightLoss.com .

Can I get weight loss medication prescriptions like Ozempic?

When clinically appropriate, the clinician may pair these interventions with medications, subject to their availability, Sesame said.

Individual patient eligibility for drug therapies available through Sesame are determined by the assessment of appropriateness of each therapy by the Sesame-listed provider.

The doctor will see you: Costco partners with Sesame to offer members $29 virtual health visits

Can I use Sesame without a Costco membership?

Sesame is a two-way health marketplace for consumers and health care providers to connect for a low fee, Goldhill said. Insurance is not accepted. About two-thirds of Sesame consumers have insurance and may use a Sesame service for quicker access to a medical professional if they can't get an appointment with their regular doctor, Goldhill said.

Consumers without Costco memberships can use Sesame's services, but the price is further discounted for Costco members, he said.

Sesame has primary care doctors, nurse practitioners, more than 40 health specialties and lab and imaging centers. It offers primarily virtual care but has some in-person care available, too.

Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] or follow her on X, Facebook or Instagram @blinfisher . Sign up for our free The Daily Money newsletter, which will include consumer news on Fridays, here.

How one cruise line will keep kids from running wild on its new, huge cruise ships

It's no small feat to keep the largest cruise ships in the world from being overrun with children.

Megaship sailings are ideal for families with kids of all ages. Do it right, and you're making memories that will last a lifetime. Do it wrong, and you've got moody teens hanging out in stairwells, rowdy kids taking over hot tubs and screaming babies in the dining room.

That's why MSC Cruises is playing it smart with its newest megaships, 6,762-passenger, 215,863-ton MSC World Europa and its Miami-based twin, MSC World America , the latter of which debuts in 2025. (For context, these new World Class ships are similar in passenger count and ship size to Royal Caribbean's Oasis Class ships .)

After all, the line has plenty of experience with children; it carries 600,000 kids and teens annually. In high season, its largest ships sometimes see 2,000 kids and teens per cruise.

MSC's goal is to give kids and families plenty of options for fun — both together and apart — to keep everyone busy, happy and out of trouble (my words, not theirs).

"We are working every week to surprise them and give them something new," Matteo Mancini, MSC Cruises' senior manager of kids and family entertainment, told me during a Zoom interview. In the highly competitive family cruise market, MSC Cruises is not trying to dominate; its goal is "to be simply different and unique."

MSC Cruises is a privately owned family company, whose top executives are grandparents and parents themselves. So the line's mission to create appealing choices for families and kids is personal.

Here's how the Mediterranean-based cruise line plans to win over the littlest cruisers on its biggest new ships — and, consequently, keep those kids from running wild on board.

More space for kids

MSC Seascape , which debuted in late 2022 and currently sails weeklong Caribbean and Bahamas cruises, offers 700 square meters (more than 7,500 square feet) of Doremiland youth space between its Baby Club (for babies and toddlers younger than 3), Mini Club (ages 3 to 6), Junior Club (ages 7 to 11), Young Club (ages 12 to 14) and Teen Club (ages 15 to 17).

When MSC World America debuts next year, it will house more than 1,000 square meters (nearly 10,800 square feet) of youth space, as well as more youth staff members to accommodate more kids.

Plus, its upper decks, at least on the back half of the ship, will be filled with kid-friendly attractions, including waterslides, an arcade with virtual reality attractions, an indoor sports court and the aforementioned kids clubs.

The buffet is also in this area, and Mancini says that the ship will feature a new section of the buffet especially for kids and teens, with different food options daily. The line is also taking a page out of other cruise lines' books and bringing free soft-serve ice cream — a kid favorite — to the buffet.

Related: The 6 types of MSC Cruises ships, explained

Kid- and teen-approved activities

But how does MSC Cruises know what kids will like? They go to the source and ask.

"Every three months, both on board our ships and in the headquarters in Geneva, we do a kids committee with kids and teenagers," Mancini revealed. "We talk to kids and teenagers, and we ask them, 'Guys, are you having fun with our Doremiland program?'"

MSC asks what the kids like, what they don't like and which programs and activities the line should cancel.

The line also presents ideas it's toying with bringing to the ships, and its focus group of kids and teens tells them whether the ideas are worth exploring or not.

This process allows the line to continuously adapt and improve its youth programming. Changes that Mancini has seen include shortening activities from an hour to half an hour to get in a wider variety of events and giving kids the choice of joining in the group activity or continuing to do free play in the youth space.

The line has also changed how its staff approaches participation in youth club activities. "Because of social media, Instagram, YouTube, now teenagers want to be the star of what we're offering," says Mancini. "Once upon a time, they were like, OK, let's watch this activity. Now they want to be on stage, they want to be part of something, and we give them the opportunity if they feel like it."

Plus, the line has different options for what it means to participate. "I give you an example — at some point, we were doing dance competitions, but not everyone is comfortable in dancing," explains Mancini. "So we tell them, do you want to be the [judge] of the dance competition, and there we see magic because they say, 'Oh, yes,' and then you give them the microphone, and you discover another talent that you didn't expect."

With a game show-style activity, teens can choose to be the contestant, the judge, the emcee or the audience. Everyone can play a role and have fun in a way that works for them.

Related: MSC Cruises vs. Royal Caribbean: Which big-ship line is right for you?

High-tech activities go beyond video games

MSC Cruises knows that kids these days are immersed in technology, but its youth staff wants programming to be more than just video games. So it got creative.

Drone Academy is a new program that takes place in the Sportplex indoor sports court where teens learn how to pilot drones and race them around obstacles. Instead of typical arts and crafts with paper and crayons, kids can create images on computers and print them out on 3D printers. The activities blend innovation with technology, so kids are not just mindlessly playing Mario Kart all day long.

Don't worry, parents of video game-obsessed children — MSC cruise ships do also have PlayStations on board. But the youth staff tries to make the games social. "When you are on our cruise ships, you play together with other kids and teenagers," says Mancini. "You talk to them because you are playing in a group." The games serve as an entree into socializing and making friends, rather than a solitary activity.

Related: 5 best cruise lines for families

Kids clubs are inclusive

MSC Cruises is an international brand, and its ships routinely sail with 35 different nationalities on board. While the international vibe might be appealing to adults, it can be intimidating for kids to interact with peers who don't speak the same language.

But MSC has already thought about that.

"Right now, in the U.S., the majority of kids and teenagers we are having in our kids club are from America," says Mancini. "There is no issue to make friends." However, MSC's youth staff members all speak several languages so they can translate for kids if necessary.

Plus, this international vibe is the main reason why MSC pursued a relationship with Lego, whose beloved bricks are now found in kids clubs fleetwide.

"We went to Lego years ago and we say, 'Listen, we are having 35 different nationalities of kids. They are from different cultures and speak different languages, and the only toy that needs no explanation is a Lego brick. So we need you. Can you guys help us?' And they said yes for this reason."

It's not only different language speakers who are welcomed into MSC's kids clubs. The line also welcomes children with disabilities.

"At the end of 2023, we asked all our youth staff fleetwide to follow specific training to work and spend time with children with autism," says Mancini. When an autistic child comes on board, every member of the youth staff knows how to work with them and provide a welcoming environment within the kids club.

No-cost programming

When Mancini said MSC wants its program to be unique, he wasn't only referring to the specific activities. He was also referring to its cost — or lack thereof.

All of the Doremiland clubs are open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. free of charge. Other lines start charging for late-night babysitting after 10 p.m., but MSC Cruises gives kids an extra hour for free. In addition, babies and toddlers can be dropped off at the Baby Club for free — unlike on Royal Caribbean and Disney Cruise Line , where parents must pay for drop-off baby care.

In addition, the line has a program where kids and teens can eat lunch and dinner with the youth staff so parents can enjoy a leisurely meal and date night together. Again, this service is provided at no extra cost to families.

It's not just the big ships

MSC Cruises' Doremiland youth program is the same fleetwide, whether you're on the smallest ship or the biggest . You'll find the same Lego partnership, the same range of age-appropriate clubs, arcades and some kind of kid-friendly water attraction. Family programming, such as "Master Chef at Sea Juniors" or the "Guinness World Records" family game show, takes place across different sizes of ships.

When MSC World America debuts in Miami next year, the line hopes it will win the hearts of cruising families with its wealth of attractions and activities aimed at keeping kids and teens busy, not bored. But when MSC's newest fans decide to branch out and sail the line's smaller ships in Europe or South America, they won't have to settle for less-than kids programming.

And the adults on board fleetwide can breathe easier, knowing that the kids will be lured away from the stairwells and into the kids clubs — hopefully leaving the hot tubs free for some adult R&R.

Planning a cruise? Start with these stories:

The 5 most desirable cabin locations on any cruise ship
A beginners guide to picking a cruise line
The 8 worst cabin locations on any cruise ship
The ultimate guide to what to pack for a cruise
A quick guide to the most popular cruise lines
21 tips and tricks that will make your cruise go smoothly
Top ways cruisers waste money
The ultimate guide to choosing a cruise ship cabin

Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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Middle East latest: Ships loaded with 240 tonnes of aid to leave Gaza - as Israeli PM says 'unintended strike' killed charity workers

The IDF has expressed its "sincere sorrow" for the deaths of seven aid workers, including three Britons, in a strike it launched on Gaza. A spokesman insisted the IDF was "committed to international law" after the attack, and vowed to share findings of an investigation.

Tuesday 2 April 2024 18:12, UK

Israel-Hamas war

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Aid workers killed

Three British aid workers among seven killed in Israeli attack, charity says
Netanyahu: 'Unintended strike' killed workers
Ships carrying 240 tonnes of undelivered aid to turn back from Gaza
IDF insists it is 'professional' after deadly attack
Alistair Bunkall: Israel's admission will not stop foreign leaders demanding answers
Podcast: Will volunteers leave Gaza after aid deaths?
Iran promises 'harsh' response to strike on consulate in Syria - with top commanders killed
'Total destruction' left as IDF withdraws from Gaza's biggest hospital
Live reporting by Guy Birchall

A former prime minister of Israel has told Sky News he thinks Benjamin Netanyahu should be "removed immediately".

Ehud Olmert says he believes the prime minister has "failed the country" and branded the way he is handling the conflict and the internal situation in Israel "completely outrageous".

He said: "I think the main thing that must be said against Netanyahu is that he fails to take the necessary measures to protect civilians and get back the hostages.

"It seems that he is holding back the efforts by those who are taking part in the negotiations with Qatar and the US and that is appalling."

Asked if he thought there was some way Mr Netanyahu could be removed from office, he said: "I certainly hope so."

"The protest movement is growing, and I think they all want to bring down the government for their mistakes, their failures, wrong judgement and lack of responsibility in handling international affairs which is damaging our relationship with the US and Europe," he said.

He added there should be no ground assault in Rafah and that Israel needs to stop the war now.

"We won the war, any attempt to take over Rafah will not make any difference to the basic situation, it will just kill more Palestinians and Israeli soldiers. We don't need any of this."

He also described the deaths of the aid workers in the IDF strike on Gaza as "disgusting and terrible", adding he felt Israel should apologise formally for the incident but that he had "no doubt" the incident was a "mistake".

Our Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall says he suspects the UK government may take some sort of action after the deaths of three Britons in an IDF airstrike.

"It was not just a single airstrike - all three vehicles in that aid convoy spaced three kilometres apart were hit by missiles," he says.

"Clearly the fact that the aircraft, be it a drone or a jet, fired three separate missiles, shows it was the intention to strike this convoy.

"Perhaps they thought there were Hamas fighters in it.

"That is part of what the investigation will have to establish, but there were no Hamas fighters.

"It was aid workers, among them three Britons, an Australian and a Polish national as well.

"It is the first time that foreign nationals have been killed, and that is why it is significant.

"I think we will see an international reaction against Israel asking it to explain itself and possibly consequences, particularly from the British government."

He added the Israeli government was quick to accept responsibility and send their condolences, but Benjamin Netanyahu's explanation that "these things happen in war" was unlikely to "rub" with Britain, Australia or Poland.

After the death of seven aid workers in Gaza, we explore what working in a "death zone" in Gaza looks like for charity volunteers in today's episode of the Daily podcast.

Our data and forensics correspondent Tom Cheshire is joined by Ahmed Bayram, media adviser for Middle East and North Africa at the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Plus, our Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall reports on whether the IDF's review of the deaths will be enough to reassure foreign governments and humanitarian organisations.

Rishi Sunak has said Israel "must explain" how the IDF airstrike that killed aid workers in Gaza was allowed to happen.

Posting on X, the prime minister said...

Lord Cameron has told the Israeli foreign minister that the deaths of aid workers, including three Britons, in an IDF airstrike are "completely unacceptable".

In a post on X the foreign secretary said...

The Foreign Office has summoned the Israeli ambassador after three Britons were killed in an IDF airstrike in Gaza.

Andrew Mitchell, minister for Development and Africa, said: "Today, I summoned the ambassador of the Israeli embassy in London to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

"I set out the government's unequivocal condemnation of the appalling killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, including three British nationals."

Mr Mitchell added the UK requested a "quick and transparent investigation" and called on Israel to "put in place an effective deconfliction mechanism" and "urgently to scale up humanitarian access".

"We need to see an immediate humanitarian pause, to get aid in and the hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable ceasefire," he added.

Sir Keir Starmer has called the deaths of British nationals in an IDF airstrike in Gaza "outrageous and unacceptable".

The Labour leader said: "We condemn this strike. There must be a full investigation and those responsible must be held to account.

"Humanitarian workers put their lives in danger to serve others.

"Their deaths are outrageous and unacceptable - and it is not the first time aid workers have come under fire in Israel’s campaign."

Sir Keir went on to say that international law must be upheld and that the war "must stop now".

"Far too many innocent people have died in this conflict and more than a million are facing starvation," he said.

"Labour repeats our call for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages and full humanitarian access into Gaza."

Three British aid workers were among those killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza, the charity World Central Kitchen has said.

It had previously only confirmed the death of one Briton.

They were volunteers for the charity travelling in a three-car convoy when they were killed.

They had just unloaded more than 100 tonnes of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza by sea, the charity said.

Earlier the Associated Press cited hospital records as saying the dead also included an Australian, a Pole and an American-Canadian dual citizen.

By Sam Doak, OSINT producer

Geolocated footage and information from individuals with knowledge from the ground provides further insight into events surrounding the recent deaths of aid workers in central Gaza.

World Central Kitchen said their staff were travelling in three vehicles from the charity's Deir Al Balah warehouse.

Geolocated photographs show a burnt-out car on the side of the Al Rashid coastal road to the southwest of the city. Materials marked with World Central Kitchen’s branding can be seen in the back of the vehicle.

Photographs and footage of a second vehicle, with the charity's logo painted on its roof, place it around 810 metres southeast along the road. The roof appears to have been punctured by some kind of munition, and the interior is visibly damaged.

A third car appears to have been similarly destroyed. Geolocated footage posted to Instagram shows a white burnt-out vehicle in a field a further 1.6km southeast along the road. A high-visibility vest with World Central Kitchen branding is on the back seat.

Social media posts first mention the strikes at around 10.52pm local time. This fits with information provided to Sky News, which placed the attacks between 10.30 and 11pm.

Footage filmed shortly after shows that bodies were taken from The Al Rashid coastal road to Al Aqsa Hospital in the northeast of Deir Al Balah.

A Polish man has been named as one of the aid workers killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza.

Damian Sobol, from Przemysl in southeastern Poland, was named by his hometown mayor.

Officials lowered national flags to half-mast on the town's administration buildings.

Wojciech Bakun wrote on X that there were no words to describe the loss of this "fantastic young man".

According to his Facebook profile, Mr Sobol was educated at the Hotel and Catering School in Przemysl.

His latest posts showed him travelling a lot and volunteering for World Central Kitchen in Morocco and Corfu last year.

In 2022, he fundraised for the World Central Kitchen in Poland.

Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, said: "These brave people are changing the world for the better with their service and sacrifice for the others."

Israel has said the strike was "unintended" and will be investigated.

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Like Jewels, Will Travel

Gem- and jewelry-themed tours and excursions mix treasure hunting with adventure and cultural experiences.

A color illustration of a hand holding a martini glass, a jeweler and elements related to travel, jewelry and mining.

Text by Amy Elliott

Illustrations by Ben Pearce

Last year, when Roberto Ruiz visited the Carbonera mine in Querétaro, Mexico, he cracked open a grapefruit-size piece of rhyolite with a hammer. When he looked inside, “it was like finding a fire fossil,” he said during a recent phone interview from his home in San Antonio. Inside was an orangey-red fire opal that he likened to a flame, forever preserved in the sphere of igneous rock.

Mr. Ruiz and his wife, Erika Rodriguez, are among the few people who have traveled to the mine, a desolate spot located in Carbonera in central Mexico, a destination that’s well off the beaten tourist track, some 20 miles from the nearest city. Their journey was especially unusual as neither is in the gem trade: Mr. Ruiz is a corporate attorney and Ms. Rodriguez works in digital marketing.

But they are among a growing number of travel enthusiasts seeking unusual, hyper-specific vacation experiences that offer an insider’s view of the gem and fine jewelry industries, and a number of businesses are responding to the demand accordingly.

Mr. Ruiz said the idea of visiting an opal mine was appealing for a few reasons, starting with his lifelong fascination with gemstones and minerals.

The mine’s remote location in the rocky, semidesert wilderness (where snakes and scorpions are not uncommon) was also compelling: Ms. Rodriguez said she and her husband are usually inclined toward travel focused on outdoor adventure, from hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru to rock climbing around Krabi in southern Thailand.

“We had also gone to the American Museum of Natural History in New York and saw an opal from Querétaro, and Roberto is originally from there,” Ms. Rodriguez said. “We found out something that we didn’t even know existed and we became interested in learning how the opals are extracted — and meeting the people who were doing it.”

But a traveler cannot just show up at a mine and start digging. It requires a guide, someone well connected to the mine owners and well versed in what to expect: dirt and dust; lots of walking; the occasional explosion at the site; and, at times, security risks. Given their knowledge of the terrain, guides keep an ear to the ground for rumblings — both geological and political — and respond accordingly to keep travelers safe.

The couple arranged the trip through Carlos Torres, an acquaintance from New York who is a gemologist, commercial gem buyer and consultant. He had piqued their interest with tales of the mines he has visited, particularly on trips with his business partner, Laurent Massi, who has taught gemology at several institutions and now is the owner of the Neogem consultancy in Paris.

Mr. Torres and Dr. Massi have organized gem mining trips not just to Mexico, but also to destinations such as Colombia (for emeralds), Thailand (for rubies) and Brazil (for Paraiba tourmaline). Last fall, they started the Gem Odyssey , a business to structure similar gem-hunting expeditions as all-inclusive travel packages that start, on average, at about $3,700 per person, not including airfare.

Gem Odyssey itineraries are tailored to jewelry enthusiasts who are not industry professionals — offering plenty of education and explanation, while avoiding “inside baseball”-type industry talk. The trips typically span nine days, with at least three of those days spent at a mine site.

The founders say the schedules can be customized to include experiences such as tequila tastings or visits to local artisan markets; any given trip might include a mix of accommodations, with upscale hotels near the airports or central cities and more rustic facilities in the mining areas.

But his clients don’t come for the niceties, Mr. Torres said. “They like the idea of getting mud on their hands.”

And, he added, after receiving instruction in mining safety, they become part of the process: “They see the drilling, how the dynamite is used for extraction, and they get to experience breaking the stones and checking for gems.”

Dr. Massi, who also was on the phone interview with Mr. Torres, said that “witnessing the birth of a gemstone is not something anyone can do and see at home in their garden. We try to give them an experience, and see a part of a country, that they could not get access to on their own.”

Digging For Tourmalines

Perhaps it is not surprising, but gem- and jewelry-themed travel is a trend especially relevant to the tastes and inclinations of high-net worth individuals — people with at least $1 million in liquid assets — according to Milton Pedraza, the founder and chief executive of the Luxury Institute, a consultancy specializing in luxury consumer research with offices in New York and Florida.

Mr. Pedraza said the sophisticated traveler has “seen it, done it.” So, he said, when someone has the opportunity to access an exclusive experience in a far-flung part of the world, “it makes your life more unique,” he said,“and everybody wants to be seen as authentic, unique and genuine.”

The designer Pamela Hastry is connected to such clients through Morphée , her jewelry company in Paris, and the lectures that she regularly hosts in and around her hometown, Brussels. She also conducts private tours of Place Vendôme in Paris, a center for high jewelry, and of the Diamantkwartier, or Diamond Quarter, in Antwerp, Belgium, one of the jewelry industry’s oldest and most prominent diamond centers.

In November Ms. Hastry is planning to take a group to Namibia, in southern Africa, to discover the country’s beautiful tourmalines (while also making a stop at a mine that produces chrysocolla, an unusual blue-green type of chalcedony). Organized with Destination, a luxury travel agency in Belgium, the 10-day itinerary includes at least one night in a tent near one of the tourmaline mines (€8,986 or about $9,711, without airfare).

“You’re going to live — and dig — like a miner for a day and a half,” Ms. Hastry said.

Damien Van Bellinghen, the founder of Le Club des Etoiles, a business and social club in Brussels, has one of the 15 reservations for the Namibia trip. Mr. Van Bellinghen, who went on one of Ms. Hastry’s private tours of Antwerp’s diamond district, wrote in an email that he looked forward to discovering how gems are extracted, getting to know the miners and exploring the country through the lens of a jeweler.

“The types of trips that Pamela Hastry organizes plunge straight into the heart of where the most marvelous jewels come from,” he wrote. “Such visits can only be made if you are accompanied by someone who has ‘insider’ knowledge and, above all, who has the trust of the local people. And we’re lucky enough to enjoy it.”

The Royal Treatment

If you do find a gem during one of these mine trips, can it be used in a piece of jewelry? Both Ms. Hastry and Mr. Torres of the Gem Odyssey said that they could facilitate a purchase, although they noted that the item purchased would have to comply with international import/export regulations.

But some gem-loving travelers don’t want to dig for their treasures. They would rather a holiday centered on history, sightseeing and shopping for finished pieces of jewelry (with posh accommodations and amenities as a bonus).

“You can tour some cities very easily through the lens of the history of fine jewelry and jewelry-making,” said Camilla Davidson, who is head of destination management for Britain, France and Ireland at Red Savannah , a luxury travel agency in England. “And that would still enable you to see so many of the destination’s highlights.”

For example, the agency offers a tour of London called Couture and Crown Jewels, an extravagant option for jewelry enthusiasts with deep pockets ($550,000 for two people, without airfare). It offers a private tour of the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London and dinner in its White Tower; a four-night stay at the Raffles London at the OWO; and tickets to a West End show. And it includes a $125,000 credit toward a jewelry purchase at Humphrey Butler, an antique and estate jeweler.

Ms. Davidson said she developed the package in response to the world’s fascination with British royalty and was inspired by the idea of connecting a visit to the Crown Jewels to an exclusive jewelry shopping experience.

Humphrey Butler and his namesake business were a natural fit for the itinerary, she said: “He has the most impeccable collection and he as an individual is completely charming, exceptionally discreet, and just great fun to be around.”

Jewels at Sea

For some jewelry collectors, a travel experience that plays to, or enhances, their level of connoisseurship, is most appealing.

“Whatever their interest is, they want to learn more,” said Mr. Pedraza, the luxury consumer specialist. “So they make an adventure or journey out of it.”

One such example might be the Spotlight on Fabergé package offered by Regent Seven Seas Cruises in collaboration with Fabergé, the Russian heritage workshop known for its bejeweled eggs, which in 2009 moved its headquarters in London.

The first such excursion aboard the Seven Seas Grandeur liner is scheduled for July. Josina von dem Bussche-Kessell, Fabergé’s creative director, explained that the cruise is designed for “clients who care about art and culture and would happily sit for an hour or so to learn about the history of Fabergé’s royal clients then and now.”

The Grandeur, which was launched in November, has its own 1,600-piece art collection, including a Fabergé egg in an ocean theme with blue guilloché enamel, diamonds and pearls, called “Journey in Jewels,” which was commissioned by Regent Seven Seas. (The meetings on the commission actually led to the cruise collaboration.)

The 11-day voyage is scheduled to depart from the Civitavecchia port in Rome and to include destinations such as the Sicilian city of Taormina; Ibiza, Spain; and Nice, France, ending in Monaco (from $12,999 per person, including airfare).

The programming is to include Fabergé expert-led lectures, screenings and master classes, as well as shore excursions attuned to the participants’ interests in the decorative arts. As Ms. von dem Bussche-Kessell sees it, such a floating symposium — a kind of sleepover camp on a luxury scale — effectively creates a community for people who share a common passion.

Mr. Pedraza said that was an important incentive for certain travelers: “They love to engage with the product while meeting people who are their peers and who come through trusted brands and curators.”

And the return home is just as important as the journey itself, especially with a glittering souvenir to show friends and family.

“You get to demonstrate your expertise,” Mr. Pedraza said, “The experience has made you an insider.”

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9-1-1 boss breaks down the deadly cruise ship disaster finale — and what didn't make the final cut

The ABC first-responder drama's co-creator and showrunner, Tim Minear, also teases what's to come in season 7.

After three hours of pirates, explosions, and lots of water , 9-1-1 fans finally know who survived the epic, three-part season 7 premiere .

"It all happened really fast," co-creator and showrunner Tim Minear tells Entertainment Weekly of completing the cruise ship disaster episodes. "It was very difficult, and you always have that moment where you're just like, 'Am I going to be able to pull this off?'"

It may have felt quick, but getting Bobby ( Peter Krause ) and Athena ( Angela Bassett ) out of that sinking vessel actually took months of filming... and none of it on an actual cruise ship. As the series moves forward on dry land (though on one very wet driveway, with the Bachelor crossover coming next week ), we asked Minear to break down the deadly three-epsiode event, reveal what ideas never made it to air, and tease what's to come in the rest of season 7.

Chris Willard/Disney

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This was a big undertaking...

TIM MINEAR: Shooting Bobby and Athena on a honeymoon cruise was more challenging than many things I've done on this show in the last seven seasons. We never got an actual cruise ship, so we had to shoot in hotels and on different types of vessels, and then [use] special effects and CGI. But just the idea of that surprised me. I thought that would be easy: You'd rent a cruise ship, you'd shoot on it for three days, you'd get a lot of stuff on the decks. But it just didn't turn out that way. It was very difficult to get a cruise ship. No cruise line wanted to be associated with a capsized ship, which I guess I can understand.

Well it all made for a very dramatic three episodes. So many massive sets, so much rising water.

The water's not actually rising, the set is sinking! The set was built on a gimbal inside a water tank. We would slowly lower the set into the tank, and it gives the effect that the water's rising around them. And the casino set.... The lowering of the table with Norman [played by Daniel Roebuck] on it, that was complicated to write, and it was very complicated to shoot. But that's Peter up there. Peter is climbing across those ropes up there — that delighted me.

The other thing that absolutely delighted me was that Angela Bassett was game for anything. She went into that water. When the bomb goes off in episode 2, and she goes flying against that wall, she actually did it! There's a stunt woman in there too, but Angela, she was game for anything.

Was there anything you wanted to do with this disaster that you weren't able to?

There was one scene that I did have to cut, that I was sad to cut. It was when Wes [played by Denzel Johnson] opens the door and that fireball comes out. Originally in the script, they still continued in that direction, and when they looked into that room, it was an upside down restaurant and the water was on fire. And so it's like, "How do we get to the other side of the restaurant and stop the gas that is feeding this fire?" And in the scene, in the script, Lola [played by Romy Rosemont] actually dives under the fire and swims under the water to turn it off. It was very Shelley Winters [in The Poseidon Adventure .]

Time and money just prohibited that from happening, so I made a little bit more of Wes' death. And then did give Lola an opportunity to retrieve the flare gun later in the episode, so she still got to go underwater. But that was a moment that I was sad to lose. And I know Romy was too, but she still got a little bit of action there at the end.

So now that Bobby and Athena are rescued, what can you tease about the rest of the season?

I just finished locking episode 4 and I was like, "Hmm, there's no natural disasters. Things aren't blowing up all over the place." But there is the Bachelor crossover, so we have that to look forward to. And now we get to spend a little time breathing with the 118 and dig into their personal stories a little bit more. Yeah, I don't know how much I should spoil.... Definitely a beloved character will be returning in episode 4, I can put it that way....

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

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I interviewed at Cruise. Interview. About 5 interviews. Interviewers asked questions in the following areas: Autonomous Vehicle architecture Basic laws of Physics (newtons laws of motion) Object-oriented programming in Python or C++ programming languages Lidar, radar, or camera sensors technology. Interview Questions.
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The interview process at Cruise can vary depending on the position you are applying for. However, most positions will require at least a phone screen and an onsite interview. The onsite interview will usually consist of meeting with multiple people from the team, including the hiring manager. ... Example: "Object Oriented Programming, or OOP ...
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Cruise is usually more practical for the first coding interview. Still leetcode some as practice, but better practice is actually coding some useful library. Try to make a basic version of some useful libraries you use every day and apply them just so you can code quickly.
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Cruise Hiring Process. The Cruise hiring process typically begins with a phone screen or an introductory call with a recruiter, followed by a technical or coding challenge. Candidates then proceed to a hiring manager interview and a loop interview, which may include multiple rounds with team members.
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Prepare for Cruise Coding Engineering Manager interviews with our list of practice interview questions. Courses. Popular Courses. Product Management. Highlight your product sense and execution skills. Engineering Management. Communicate your leadership and management skills.
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I interviewed at Cruise. Interview. About 5 interviews. Interviewers asked questions in the following areas: Autonomous Vehicle architecture Basic laws of Physics (newtons laws of motion) Object-oriented programming in Python or C++ programming languages Lidar, radar, or camera sensors technology.
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Prepare for Cruise Coding Machine Learning Engineer interviews with our list of practice interview questions. Courses. Popular Courses. Product Management. Highlight your product sense and execution skills. Engineering Management. Communicate your leadership and management skills.
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Median: $415K. Mean (Average): $408K. Data points: 14. The average base salary for a Machine Learning Engineer at Cruise Automation, Inc. is $211,366. based on 28 data points. Adjusting the average for more recent salary data points, the average recency weighted base salary is $212,901. The estimated average total compensation is $407,798.
Cruise Automation: Any recent coding interview experience?
Is studying Cruise tagged questions on leetcode enough?
Name and Shame: Cruise Automation : r/cscareerquestions
The recruiter went on to ask why them over Cruise lol😭. Anyways currently I'm interviewing for fulltime positions and got another interview with Cruise recently. I was over what happened last time because things happen and everyone's human. 15 minutes before the interview they sent an email to reschedule after taking a while to even respond ...
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An exhaustive Cruise Technical Program Manager interview guide - interview questions and tips for each interview stage and type. Updated in 2024. ... It's worth noting that the coding questions in TPM interviews at Cruise are typically easier compared to the more challenging Leetcode-style questions often encountered in software engineering ...
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Phases of a coding interview. Congratulations, you are ready to put your skills to practice! In a coding interview, you will be given a technical question by the interviewer. You will write the code in a real-time, collaborative editor (phone screen) or on a whiteboard (on-site), and have 30 to 45 minutes to solve the problem.
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4.4. 49,018 reviews. Compare. Glassdoor has millions of jobs plus salary information, company reviews, and interview questions from people on the inside making it easy to find a job that's right for you. 51 Cruise Software Engineer interview questions and 45 interview reviews. Free interview details posted anonymously by Cruise interview ...
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During that onsite interview, a staff engineer asked me a difficult dynamic programming interview for a 45-minute session. I drew out a 2D auxiliary matrix and the different states in the matrix. However, I was stuck for the longest time in expressing the correct recurrence relation. I would test my recurrence relation on numerous edge cases ...
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