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Have you ever wondered what it takes to break into the elusive Big Tech?

Well, I’m no stranger to the process.

Back in 2016, I remember desperately wanting to land a strategy role in the Valley. I interviewed with 20+ people, flew to their HQ in Boston and San Francisco for final rounds, sent more follow-up emails, sketchy thank you notes in quasi-pleading tones than I care to admit.

After a slew of case studies, take home assignments and presentations, they went “a different direction.”

I got turned down by not one but TWO companies after being grilled for months.

At the time, I was devastated.

But the entire ordeal also gave me a glimpse of the rigor tech companies place on original problem-solving abilities of their hires. And it eventually led to my opportunity at Walmart Ecommerce.

So this week we are going to dive into a few examples of weird but real tech interview questions.

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But FIRST

If you are new, welcome to OCE’s weekly newsletter curated for the ambitious youth…here are some articles you missed from previous weeks:

📈 5 lessons learned—so for your next internship, you don’t ​Read More →​

🎨 Are you a victim of FOMO? ​ ​ ​Read More​ →​

📘 U.S. Universities With The Best Pay For New Graduates ​Read More​ →​

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Growth Strategy at Credit Karma

“Let’s say you are a PE firm looking to invest in Spotify. How would you go about estimating how much revenue they generate?”

We actually went through this estimation exercise during our previous cohort.

The key here is tackling an open-ended question in a creative way — without all of the data and answers.

How am I going to approximate with only broad strokes of knowledge? How does the Spotify business model work? What are the key variables (Market Segments? Revenue Streams? Unit Economics?), and how far can I go in 30 minutes?

There’s no right answer. Instead, it’s a window into your process of thinking with uncertain variables.

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Operations Strategy at Uber

“How would you launch in a new city?”

It’s not an immediately technical or product-based experience, and yet it’s an interesting question that might actually become more and more relevant.

How would you attract users? How would you build partnerships that the ecosystem requires? What mechanisms would you employ to grow the footprint in that city?

It’s very revealing to see how people approach the 0 to 1 problem when they have no templates, when they start from scratch.

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Sales Operations at Google

“How does YouTube grow?” and “If you are the CEO of Walmart Ecommerce, what would be your top 3 objectives for the company?” - that last question is probably geared towards my experience lol

These are “bullshit tests” to make sure that candidates aren’t merely fluent in blog posts. It usually entails the candidate drawing out the process/idea while explaining in detail.

This exercise ensures your capacity goes beyond knowing the superficial concepts, and that you have a depth of process understanding that you can bring to anything you do next.

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Growth Strategy at Wayfair

“If you just got a new computer at work, what apps would you immediately set up?”

Here they are looking for your take on a piece of software that you care about, and then how you articulate it. This exercise reveals insight into how in touch you are with the industry, how much you’re seeking out things that are different or somewhat common, and whether you’re an early adopter of things.

These are just a few examples of cases that I’ve been asked during tech interviews.

Of course, there are other components to the interview such as working with datasets to build out an operations model or optimizing an investment portfolio.

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Here’s the truth I clung to: interview is a two way conversation.

They can ask you questions but you can also ask them.

Probe for metrics. Get into the specifics.

If you don’t know how something works, ask directly.

There is no need to pretend.

And you keep going. Keep asking questions about the metrics until your interviewer stops you and says, “It’s too detailed and we can’t give that out in an interview”.

You should get as much information as you possibly can. Not only will you know what type of situation you’re walking into, it’s also a great way to demonstrate your listening skills and the depth of your analytical abilities.

In school we are always graded based on getting the “correct” answer, but in the real world, it’s all about asking good questions.

Dig deep. Question everything.

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PS. The goal of OCE is to make you THINK. We don't have all the answers, far from it, but start thinking critically for yourself. We run a summer cohort for ambitious youth (high school and undergrads) to work directly with world-class founders while learning from Silicon Valley leaders. ​ OCE Summer Cohort ​ You can also explore purposeful opportunities through our Impact Internship Opportunities Database. ​ Get Curious.

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Lena

​https://www.openclassroomexperience.com/​