FINRA Data Engineer Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 8 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at FINRA.
FINRA
Data Engineer
Entry Difficult Positive experience No offer 3 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen Onsite
Interview formats
Technical Coding
The interview process involved 3 rounds. First, a phone screen with a recruiter to discuss what FINRA does. Second, a virtual technical coding interview. Third, an on-site technical coding interview. The experience was smooth and professional, with quick responses between rounds.
Confirmed questions3 questions
- Tell me about FINRA.
- Could you write some SQL scripts?
- Do you have experience with Python data structures?
FINRA
Big Data Engineer
Senior Difficult Neutral experience No offer 3 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Phone screen Onsite
Interview formats
Technical Coding
To get an interview, you have to pass an assessment first. Then you'll have a phone screen and an onsite interview. But if you have an internal referral, you can skip all these steps. This is for a contract role, so I'm not sure how the full-time process works.
Confirmed questions1 question
- Given times for X{open, close} and Y{open, close} rec_type, status, and time, identify pairs of x-type and y-type records that have any temporal overlap.
FINRA
Big Data Engineer
Mid Easy Negative experience No offer 5 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Phone screen Take home Onsite Group
Interview formats
Technical Coding Behavioral Group
A recruiting company reached out about an Engineering role at FINRA. First, I had a phone interview, then a take-home assessment. After that, I went onsite to meet the team. I hadn't worked with one of their technologies, but they emphasized they prioritize problem-solvers who can learn new things. The onsite was supposed to be 2 hours, but I left after an hour. One supervisor was really dismissive about my lack of experience in X tech, even though others were fine with on-the-job learning. He wouldn't let me discuss my past work and how I could pick up the role quickly. Instead, in front of everyone (it was a group interview), he made belittling comments, like calling my past jobs minimum wage work. The others laughed, which showed me the team culture. I decided to end the interview early and leave. I value professionalism and aim for positive work environments. I wouldn't want to join a team with that kind of culture, regardless of the position. So, FINRA is out.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- How would you handle overlapping intervals?
- Find the second appearance of every character in a given string.
FINRA Data Engineer Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from FINRA interview reports.
“Find the second appearance of every character in a given string.”
Read reports →“Given times for X{open, close} and Y{open, close} rec_type, status, and time, identify pairs of x-type and y-type records that have any temporal overlap.”
Read reports →“Given two datasets, one being actual data and the other a reference dataset for lookup, how would you use MapReduce to find the relationship between them? For instance, if dataset 1 has child-parent pairs like C-B, D-B, E-B and reference dataset 2 has B-A, how would you use Hadoop to output B-A, C-A, D-A, E-A? This mirrors a real challenge they face with slow lookups in HBase.”
Read reports →“Suppose you have two datasets that should be identical in terms of rows and columns, how would you identify their differences using Spark? For example, if dataset 1 contains records like id, name, age, weight: 1, john, 28, 130; 2, jane, 25, 110; 3, jacob, 20, 150, and dataset 2 has: 1, john, 29, 150; 2, jane, 26, 115; 4, martha, 18, 105. Consider differences like the presence of 'jacob' in dataset 1 but not dataset 2, and vice versa for 'martha', as well as field-level changes like 'john's age changing from 28 to 29. How would you use the Spark API to perform this diff operation efficiently and avoid memory issues?”
Read reports →“Tell me about FINRA.”
Read report →“How do you approach SQL tuning?”
Read report →“Could you write some SQL scripts?”
Read report →“Tell me about dimensional modeling.”
Read report →“How would you handle overlapping intervals?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 8 FINRA interview reports.