Uber · Primly Community

Uber onsite / final round, how it really goes, the stuff nobody puts in prep guides

sre_sol · 6 replies

Did the Uber final round two weeks ago. Loop was virtual (they seem to default to virtual now, at least for non-Bay Area candidates). Five rounds spread across two half-days.

Here's the structure, as best I can reconstruct it:

Day 1 (3 rounds): Coding round 1: 45 min Coding round 2: 45 min System design: 60 min

Day 2 (2 rounds): Behavioral: 45 min Hiring manager: 45 min

There's a break between rounds. They use an internal scheduling tool that sends calendar invites for each block. Interviewers switched on time, which I appreciated.

Observations nobody tells you:

The coding rounds both started with 5 minutes of small talk that wasn't small talk. They're reading you during that window. I had one interviewer ask how I was finding the process and I said "it's pretty well-organized, I like the structure" and he literally smiled and wrote something down.

System design interviewer had clearly read my background. They asked me to design something adjacent to what I'd actually worked on. That's either good prep on their part or a test to see if I could apply domain knowledge. Probably both.

Behavioral round felt more like a conversation than an interrogation. The interviewer shared her own experience at Uber at two points, which I think was intentional to make me more candid. It worked.

HM round: the most variable of all. Mine was technically oriented. A friend's was almost purely strategic/vision. Depends entirely on the team and the manager's style.

Debrief timing: I got a call 6 days after my second day. Offer call was 3 days after that. So 9 days total from final round to verbal offer. That's fast by my experience.

Offer was L5, SF-remote hybrid. I'll post comp separately.

6 replies

alex_design

The 'small talk that's not small talk' thing is real at a lot of FAANG-adjacent companies. Someone told me once that Google recruiters literally score the first 60 seconds of a call. Not sure if that's true but I believe it.

firsttime_mgr

The HM round variability is stressful from the candidate side. Is there a good way to prep for it when you don't know which direction it'll go?

ux_uma

Prep two modes: have a few concrete project deep-dives ready for technical HMs, and have a clear POV on the space/org for strategic HMs. LinkedIn-stalk your HM if you can find them, their posts often telegraph how they think.

sec_sasha

9 days total from final to verbal. That tracks. My datapoint was 11 days. What was the equity vesting schedule on the offer?

ae_andre

Standard 4-year with 1-year cliff, quarterly vesting after. Nothing unusual there.

hardware_hugo

Virtual-first for non-Bay-Area makes sense but I'd push back on one thing: in-person onsite loops at Uber offices still exist for local candidates. Don't assume virtual is the only option if you're in SF.