okay so I just went through the Reddit new grad SWE interview process and i want to leave a breadcrumb for people googling this the way I was.
First: the new grad pipeline at Reddit is not super clearly labeled. You might see it as "University New Grad" or just junior SWE openings. The process is slightly lighter than the full senior loop but not dramatically so.
What the process looked like for me:
Recruiter screen (20 min), then a 60-min technical phone screen, then a virtual onsite with 3 rounds.
The phone screen was two coding problems on Coderpad. I got an array manipulation question (felt like easy-medium leetcode) and a string parsing question. They were not overly tricky but the interviewer wanted me to talk through my thinking, not just produce code. Time complexity questions at the end.
Onsite (3 rounds): Coding round 1: Graph traversal. I got something BFS-related on a grid. Classic stuff, but they pushed for optimal solution and then asked me to handle an edge case that made it slightly more interesting. Coding round 2: Object-oriented design (light). Design a simplified version of a Reddit post voting system, classes and methods, no real system design. New grad friendly, they're not expecting distributed systems knowledge. Behavioral round: This one surprised me. They asked a legit behavioral question, "tell me about a project where you had to work with someone you disagreed with." For a new grad pool this felt more meaty than I expected. They weren't looking for a perfect STAR story but they did probe for what I learned.
Rejected after, but I got to debrief with the recruiter which was actually useful. The coding was fine, the behavioral round is where I was thin because I had only internship experience to draw from and I didn't make it specific enough.
My prep recommendations for new grads specifically: Leetcode medium is the sweet spot. Hard problems showed up very rarely from what I can tell. Practice talking while you code. Literally out loud. It feels ridiculous but it matters. Prep 3-4 real behavioral stories from coursework or internships. They do ask, even at entry level. Learn basic graph traversal (BFS/DFS) cold. It shows up constantly.
Good luck. the process was actually pretty fair. i just needed more reps.