Western Digital Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process for the Rotational Program was quite long and frankly, not great. It started with a recruiter screening call, which happened about two weeks after I applied. Then, there was a 30-minute chat with the hiring manager, and that took another two weeks to schedule. After that, I had an hour-long panel interview with people I might end up working with, which was another three weeks later. The final step was an interview with a director, which took another two weeks. So, a lot of waiting and back and forth between stages. It also felt like they didn't really keep me in the loop – I sent follow-up emails but mostly got random emails back with no acknowledgment of my messages. I'm still not sure if I'll get an offer or if I'm being ghosted.

Had a great interview with the internal head of recruiting. Was told that I was going to be nominated to move to next round, details to follow. Then nothing for 2 weeks. Sent a follow-up email to inquire as to status of the process, and ask if I was still being considered as a possible candidate , etc. Nothing. No reply.

The interview process was fast, but the first interviewer was unprofessional and arrogant. He was located in India and was looking for someone who could work both IST and Pacific Time zones, which would mean working 60-80 hours a week. I have strong routing and switching knowledge from my 12 years of focus, and I could answer most of the network fundamentals questions. However, he said I had a good grasp of fundamentals but they needed someone with more hands-on experience, which I found unprofessional as no interviewer had ever said that before. I have hands-on experience with Cisco, Arista, and Palo Alto. It seemed like he wasn't interested in hiring someone from the US and maybe wanted someone in India who could match his time zone. I don't get why WD would outsource management roles if they need people working Pacific Time hours. There's plenty of talent in the US for this. Even if I got an offer, I would have declined it because syncing with a manager in India would mean working off-hours daily for updates.

First, there was a phone screening where they asked about my GPA and for brief explanations of my projects. Then, I took a Hackerrank exam which was pretty tough with over 30 questions about linked lists, reading resistor values, circuit readings, and sizing/reading communication protocols. Finally, I had an interview with my mentor and the manager where we discussed my resume and projects. They asked some deeper follow-up questions about the projects after I explained them. I got the job offer after this.