2018–2026 IMC SWE New Grad OA / Interviews: 58 Experiences (Part 2 :)

Part 2 follows the heavy 2022–2023 OA period, when a small question bank repeated across many independent candidates.

Coverage: Reports 19–40 · IMC New Grad SWE / SDE / Graduate Software Engineer · OA and recorded video · August 2022 through October 2023

Date note: Every question below uses the report date shown directly under its numbered report heading.

Continued from Part 1 in the same IMC New Grad series.

What changed in 2023

The 2023 OA reports are unusually consistent. Many candidates received two questions from a three-question bank:

1. Avoiding Monsters.
2. Busy Intersection, sometimes called Congested Mountain Trail.
3. House Valuation, sometimes called Real Estate Analysis.

That does not mean every candidate saw all three. Several reports name the third problem only as an unreceived bank alternative. The timelines below count only what each candidate says they personally received.

Reports 19–35: the 2023 cycle

19: A different Graduate OA pair

Report date: October 15, 2023 · Role: SWE Graduate

1. A stack supported push, pop, and constant-time increments to the bottom group of elements. Adding Stack 2.0 is related practice; the report did not preserve whether the output was the top, the sum, or both.
2. A knight had to reach a target while avoiding a bishop's diagonal attacks. Practice the preserved variant in Knight Minimum Moves with a Capturable Bishop.
3. The candidate warned that large stack values might need a wider integer type.

This pair is closer to the older Adding Stack and knight family than the main August 2023 bank.

20: Busy Intersection plus Avoiding Monsters

Report date: October 10, 2023 · Role: SDE New Grad

1. The candidate identified Busy Intersection as the same family as LeetCode 2534.
2. The grid task matched Avoiding the Obstacles, the safest-path family represented by LeetCode 2812.
3. They used two queues and explicit time/direction state for the first task.
4. For the grid, they considered multi-source BFS followed by either a maximin search or distance-ordered union-find.

21: One photographed House Valuation question

Report date: September 11, 2023 · Role: New Grad SWE

The candidate preserved House Valuation. The readable image included the outlier rules, interpolation and extrapolation, price limits, and rounding. A longer example was cut off, so it stays incomplete.

22: Special stack, knight, then HireVue

Report date: September 1, 2023 · Role: Software Engineer Graduate · Location: Amsterdam

1. OA: a special stack and a knight-with-bishop question. Adding Stack with Top Values is the closest preserved stack practice.
2. HireVue: eight technical and behavioral questions.
3. One exact verbal prompt survived: explain a stack to someone without a technical background.

23: Two questions, both passed

Report date: August 31, 2023 · Role: New Grad SDE

The candidate received Avoiding the Obstacles and Busy Intersection. They said all tests passed on the monster problem with BFS plus a priority queue. The source gives the LeetCode family names but not the full contracts.

24: Two received questions and one secondhand alternative

Report date: August 29, 2023 · Role: New Grad SDE

1. Received: Avoiding the Obstacles.
2. Received: Busy Intersection.
3. Not received: House Valuation, mentioned only as another bank option.

The candidate passed all tests. Their recalled inequality for the monster threshold conflicts with the maximin goal, so that detail should not replace the photographed sources.

25: Monster grid plus House Valuation

Report date: August 17, 2023 · Role: New Grad SDE

The candidate used multi-source BFS and binary-search reachability for Avoiding the Obstacles but still missed cases. On House Valuation, they first included the current house in its own comparison group, then realized the outlier check had to use the other same-area houses.

26: A full HackerRank capture

Report date: August 15, 2023 · Role: Graduate Software Engineer

1. The admission screen showed two questions and 120 minutes.
2. Received: Avoiding the Obstacles and Busy Intersection.
3. The candidate's DFS timed out on the grid; multi-source BFS plus binary search passed.
4. House Valuation was discussed as an unreceived bank task, not another personal sighting.

27: Medium plus hard

Report date: August 13, 2023 · Role: SDE New Grad

The candidate described the pair as medium and hard: Avoiding the Obstacles and Busy Intersection. Their text preserved both statements and examples, including a couple of source typos that had to be checked against photographed copies.

28: All tests passed after a better grid search

Report date: August 12, 2023 · Role: SDE New Grad

The candidate received Avoiding the Obstacles and Busy Intersection. They moved from DFS to nearest-monster BFS plus a maximum-priority-queue search. House Valuation was only an unreceived alternative.

29: Clear images, limited solution detail

Report date: August 11, 2023 · Role: New Grad SDE

The report preserved strong source images for Avoiding the Obstacles and House Valuation, including interfaces, bounds, and examples. The candidate suggested memoized DFS for the grid and direct simulation for valuation but did not claim acceptance.

30: Two photographed openings

Report date: August 10, 2023 · Role: SWE New Grad · Result: Rejected after OA

The photos identified Avoiding the Obstacles and Busy Intersection but cut off some constraints and examples. The candidate gave no implementation notes.

31: Python attempts beside the prompt

Report date: August 10, 2023 · Role: SDE New Grad

The candidate photographed Avoiding the Obstacles and Busy Intersection next to Python attempts. The monster solution did not pass. The traffic attempt used two heaps and jumped over idle time, but the report did not present the code as verified.

32: Opening statements plus application timing

Report date: August 9, 2023 · Role: SDE New Grad

The candidate shared the opening of Avoiding the Obstacles and Busy Intersection. Later replies added only application timing and a vague LeetCode reference, not more task rules.

33: One task left untouched

Report date: August 8, 2023 · Role: New Grad SDE

The candidate spent most of the OA on Avoiding the Obstacles, tried several DFS/BFS combinations, and timed out. House Valuation was left unattempted with about 37 minutes remaining. Busy Intersection was an unreceived bank alternative.

34: Complete images, no clear pass claim

Report date: August 6, 2023 · Role: SDE New Grad

The report preserved complete images for Avoiding the Obstacles and Busy Intersection, including interfaces, constraints, and two examples each. The candidate mentioned a lot of code and many cases but did not say the solution passed.

35: The most detailed accepted 2023 approach report

Report date: August 5, 2023 · Role: SDE New Grad · Platform: HackerRank

1. Busy Intersection used two FIFO queues, an idle-time jump, and the previous direction.
2. Avoiding the Obstacles used multi-source BFS plus a max-heap search.
3. The candidate reported passing all tests after replacing a DP attempt that timed out.
4. Follow-up replies clarified boundary checks and monster-distance handling.

What changed in 2022

The main 2022 pair was different:

1. A monotone reaching-points problem with perfect-square obstacles.
2. Busy Intersection.

The recorded interview often followed quickly. Exact video questions vary, and several candidates reported groups of questions without writing them down.

Reports 36–40: October and September 2022

36: Early-career software assessment

Report date: October 7, 2022 · Level: New Grad / early career

The OA used Reaching Points with Perfect-Square Obstacles and Busy Intersection. Six images preserved statements, diagrams, interfaces, and examples. The candidate later reported rejection without adding new questions.

37: Explain binary search like a person

Report date: October 1, 2022 · Role: Software Engineer New Grad · Location: New York

Round 1 was a LeetCode-style task whose exact contract was not preserved. Round 2 asked the candidate to explain binary search to an ordinary person. General coding warm-up: Busy Intersection.

38: Python explanation after the OA

Report date: September 28, 2022 · Role: SDE New Grad

The candidate explained Reaching Points with Perfect-Square Obstacles and Busy Intersection in Python. Their screenshots were incomplete, and a small attached archive was not reviewed, so no missing code or examples are reconstructed.

39: HackerRank photos with Java code

Report date: September 23, 2022 · Role: Software New Grad

The candidate received Reaching Points with Perfect-Square Obstacles and Busy Intersection, then a video invitation the next day. Two photos show the HackerRank statements beside partial Java code, but the bounds, examples, and final runtime results are cropped.

40: One report that links several stages

Report date: September 22, 2022 · Role: New Grad SWE

The candidate named Reaching Points with Perfect-Square Obstacles and Busy Intersection, then linked separate detailed OA and video reports. Those source links do not prove that this candidate personally received every question from the linked video post.

Series navigation: Part 1 · Part 2 (you are here) · Part 3