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Charles Schwab coding interview / online assessment, format and difficulty, 2026

remote_swe_42 · 4 replies

took the charles schwab HackerRank online assessment a few weeks ago. no one ever posts the details so here's what i can share.

format: 2 coding problems 90 minutes total HackerRank platform, standard IDE no proctoring that i noticed (no webcam requirement)

difficulty: both problems felt like leetcode medium. one was array/string manipulation (think sliding window kind of logic), one was more of a tree or graph traversal, i don't want to be too specific. neither required exotic algorithms. clean working code with edge cases handled was clearly more important than finding some clever O(n log n) trick.

there were also 3-4 multiple choice questions at the start. sql, general cs concepts, one on REST API design. easy stuff, probably just filtering.

time: i finished with about 25 minutes left, so the time wasn't the stressor. the main thing is just getting both problems to pass all test cases. partial credit felt limited in my experience.

what i prepped: about two weeks of medium problems on leetcode, mostly arrays, strings, trees, and basic graphs. no DP grind needed in my case.

one note: they send the OA pretty quickly after the recruiter screen, sometimes same day. so if you schedule the recruiter call, have your prep somewhat in order before that call happens.

anyone else have recent data points? curious if the format has changed or if different teams give different assessments.

4 replies

newgrad_neil

really helpful. was the sql question on the MC section super hard? i'm solid on basic queries but some OAs throw window functions and CTEs at you.

remote_swe_42

no, it was pretty basic. like a join and a group by type question. nothing fancy.

bootcamp_bri

did a schwab OA last fall and the format was similar. i got two mediums as well. one of mine was more of a string parsing problem. i think the problem pool rotates but the difficulty tier seems consistent.

visa_vik

did they ask about visa sponsorship at any point in the recruiter screen? i'm on OPT and want to know if it's worth applying.