Are you just starting out in your career and interested in Dropbox? We’ve put together a list of our most common interview questions so you know what to expect!
What should I expect from the interview? How long will it last? What kinds of questions will they ask?
The interview process varies by role. Some opportunities require technical assessments, portfolio reviews, and virtual interviews with the team. Your recruiter will have more details for you on what to expect for each specific role.
Our interviews for software engineers are pretty academic, so you might want to study data structures and how to make algorithms before you go. Our most successful candidates find the right blend of coding with speed and precision.
We have a highly collaborative engineering environment. Good communication is very important. Be willing to tell the engineer how you came up with your ideas and ask questions if you need to before starting to work on the problem.
You should do as much hands-on practice as you can, especially with CoderPad, because that’s what you’ll use in your interviews with us. Some additional online resources we recommend checking out include Topcoder, Code Forces, Leetcode, and Project Euler. You can find a lot of old problems here that look like questions that tech companies have used before.
Our team works hard to get decisions to you quickly after they’ve been made, and we usually look over candidate feedback once a week. Feel free to get in touch with your recruiter directly if you’d like to know an exact date when you’ll hear back!
We assess visas on a case-by-case basis. Please chat with your recruiter regarding your specific visa needs.
Even though every day is different, you can expect to spend most of your time working on your project with your team. You’ll talk to your mentor every day and have regular one-on-ones with them and your manager during the week. You’ll also be able to go to events and workshops just for interns and apprentices, as well as company-wide events and programs. We want you to feel like you’re a part of the Dropbox community!
Dropbox is a Virtual First company, meaning our primary work experience is virtual. We have physical studio locations in several cities in the U. S. (San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, New York, and Washington D. C. ). While you’re an intern, if you happen to be close to a studio, you can use them just like any full-time Dropbox employee.
Don’t live near a studio? That’s okay—we’re proud of our thoughtful virtual work culture, and our internship program is set up so that you can do your work from anywhere.
We also have a separate 5-month apprenticeship program for people who haven’t gone to school or trained in the traditional way, like bootcamp graduates, self-taught professionals, veterans, people who want to change careers, and so on. ) who don’t have previous internship or full-time experience in the field and industry. This program runs twice a year, from April to August and from September to January. Applicants must be able to start full-time work right away if they are hired after the program is over.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to your Recruiter or Talent Coordinator with any additional questions!
Landing a job at Dropbox? Congratulations! You’ve already made it through the initial screening process and are now one step closer to joining this innovative tech giant. But before you celebrate there’s one more hurdle to overcome the interview.
Fear not, aspiring Dropboxian! This comprehensive guide will equip you with all the knowledge and resources you need to ace your interview and land your dream job
What to Expect:
Your Dropbox interview will likely consist of two parts: a behavioral interview and a technical interview. The behavioral interview will assess your soft skills, such as your communication, teamwork, and problem-solving abilities. The technical interview will evaluate your technical skills and knowledge, depending on the specific role you’re applying for.
Behavioral Interview
Typical questions
- Tell me about a time you faced a challenging project. How did you overcome it?
- Describe a situation where you had to collaborate with a difficult teammate. How did you handle it?
- Give an example of a time you had to make a tough decision. What was the decision and how did it impact the outcome?
- How do you contribute to diversity and inclusion in the workplace?
Pro tips:
- Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to structure your answers.
- Highlight your accomplishments and contributions to previous projects.
- Be honest and authentic in your responses.
- Show your enthusiasm for Dropbox and its mission.
Technical Interview:
Typical questions:
- Coding:
- Implement a data structure like a binary heap.
- Design a class to download a file using BitTorrent.
- Solve a classic coding problem like Conway’s Game of Life.
- Design a class to count website hits.
- Implement a multi-threaded web crawler.
- Explain the concept of a token bucket.
- Write a function to search the DOM of a webpage.
- System Design:
- Design an API to read and write files, ensuring access to the least recently written file.
- Scale the file API to work across a pool of servers.
- Design a phone number dictionary that allows searching for words based on their T9 keypad representation.
- Solve a dynamic programming problem like finding the minimum value along all maximal paths.
- Implement a Rabin-Karp rolling hash to find a byte pattern in a file.
- Solve LeetCode problems like “Count and Say,” “Number of Islands,” “Combination Sum,” “Find Duplicate Files,” etc.
Pro tips:
- Coding:
- Explain your thought process clearly and concisely.
- Write clean, well-commented code.
- Test your code thoroughly.
- Discuss the time and space complexity of your solution.
- System Design:
- Start with a high-level overview of your design.
- Discuss the trade-offs of different design choices.
- Explain how your design would handle scalability and fault tolerance.
- Be prepared to answer follow-up questions about your design.
Additional Resources
- Dropbox Interview Questions on Glassdoor: https://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Dropbox-Interview-Questions-E415350.htm
- Dropbox Onsite Interviews – A Guide: https://github.com/insideofdrop/Dropbox-Interview-Prep
- LeetCode: https://leetcode.com/
- System Design Interview: https://www.educative.io/courses/grokking-the-system-design-interview
Remember:
- Preparation is key. The more you prepare, the more confident you’ll feel during your interview.
- Be yourself. Authenticity goes a long way.
- Ask questions. Show your interest in Dropbox and the role.
- Relax and have fun. Enjoy the experience!
With the right preparation and a positive attitude, you’ll be well on your way to landing your dream job at Dropbox. Good luck!
Deep Dive Engineering Interview | | Life Inside Dropbox | Dropbox
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