Pinterest General Intern Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 12 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at Pinterest.
Pinterest
Intern
Intern Average Positive experience No offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Technical screen Technical screen
Interview formats
Coding
They give you 4 coding problems to solve on a platform with a timer, and then you move to an interview with a software developer, where you have to code in real-time with a timer too.
Confirmed questions1 question
- About matrices and arrays
Pinterest
Intern
Intern Average Positive experience No offer 3 rounds
Interview process
Take home Technical screen Technical screen
Interview formats
Coding Technical
The process started with a quick online coding challenge where I had 24 hours to finish two problems. They were pretty basic, mostly checking fundamental algorithms and object-oriented design. After a few weeks, I had a 1-hour technical interview with one coding problem, a 'reverse look-and-say' type. It wasn't super tough but had some neat edge cases to handle. A few weeks later, another hour-long technical interview came up, again with one question. This one involved filtering a paragraph for specific buzz-words. It was a bit trickier, and honestly, I didn't solve it during the interview but figured it out afterward. I didn't make it past this stage. The whole process was pretty standard. I actually got interviewers who were alumni from my university, so we had a good amount of small talk. The technical questions were enjoyable and interesting, not overly difficult. It was a typical interview setup, but the people were great, and the company seems awesome. Too bad I didn't get the internship.
Confirmed questions1 question
- When building a search engine, after a user enters buzz-words, you'll want to show search results along with text snippets from the webpages that demonstrate their relevance to the buzz-words. So, how would you design an algorithm to find the smallest snippet of text in a given paragraph that includes all the specified buzz-words?
Pinterest
Intern
Intern Average Neutral experience No offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Technical screen
Interview formats
Technical Coding
The process started with a recruiter phone call where we discussed why I chose to study CS and why I'm interested in Pinterest. Following that, I had a technical interview with a Pinterest-themed LeetCode-like question that used HashMaps. It was a single question with three distinct parts, each having its own set of test cases. I needed to adjust my code to pass all of them. I managed to pass two test cases, but the third one was quite challenging, so I eventually gave up on it. The interviewer was somewhat supportive, and it was hard for me to gauge if they were lenient or not. I'm currently waiting to hear back from Pinterest about their decision.
Confirmed questions1 question
- There was one question focused on HashMaps, with some minor Object-Oriented Programming concepts, though I was anticipating around three questions.
Pinterest General Intern Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from Pinterest interview reports.
“Write SQL statements.”
Read reports →“When building a search engine, after a user enters buzz-words, you'll want to show search results along with text snippets from the webpages that demonstrate their relevance to the buzz-words. So, how would you design an algorithm to find the smallest snippet of text in a given paragraph that includes all the specified buzz-words?”
Read reports →“Tell me about your favorite feature on Pinterest.”
Read reports →“How would you approach matrix processing calculations and scaling? This seems easy if you're familiar with graphics programming.”
Read reports →“What are your thoughts on Leetcode style questions?”
Read report →“What makes you want to apply for this job?”
Read report →“Tell me about a time you took the lead on a project.”
Read report →“Tell me about a project you completed and the specific challenges you faced and overcame.”
Read report →“Walk me through one of your previous projects and describe how you solved problems that arose.”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 12 Pinterest interview reports.