Sony · Primly Community

Went through the PlayStation Studios mobile interview loop, here's the breakdown

mobile_mara · 5 replies

Interviewed for a senior iOS role at PlayStation Studios about two months ago. Posting because I couldn't find much current info before going in.

The loop: recruiter call (30 min, pretty standard) technical screen with a hiring manager (45 min, mix of iOS fundamentals and one behavioral question about a time I owned a launch) take-home coding challenge, gave me a week, estimated 3-4 hours (it was more like 5) on-site: 4 back-to-back sessions over a half day. Two coding, one system design focused on a client-server architecture for a mobile game feature, one behavioral panel with 3 people

The system design round caught me off guard. They wanted me to think through syncing game state across unreliable connections, which is not a question I'd prepped for specifically. I think I passed it by narrating my assumptions clearly and not pretending I knew more than I did.

Behavioral stuff was very STAR-focused. They asked about cross-team collaboration twice in different forms. "Tell me about a time engineering and design disagreed and you were in the middle" type stuff.

I got an offer. Base came in a bit below what I make now but the PS brand is hard to ignore and remote is flexible. Still thinking about it honestly.

Happy to answer specific questions.

5 replies

jp_newgrad

this is super helpful, thank you. did they ask leetcode style questions in the coding rounds or more real-world stuff? i've been grinding blind 150 and wondering if that's the right prep

mobile_mara

honestly a mix. one round was closer to a real implementation problem, build out a small caching layer, which is very prep-able. the other was more of a classic medium-level algorithmic question. blind 150 won't hurt you but don't skip the system design, that's where i saw people stumble according to the recruiter debrief.

returner_ren

the part about narrating assumptions resonates. i've been back interviewing after a gap and that's the thing i keep hearing from interviewers who gave me feedback. show your thinking, don't just arrive at the answer. good reminder.

infra_ines

client-server game state sync is a genuinely interesting system design topic. did they push on consistency vs. availability tradeoffs or stay higher level?

mobile_mara

they pushed on it a little once i mentioned CAP. kept it practical though, more 'what would you actually do in production' than 'draw me a theory diagram.' felt collaborative, not adversarial.