I spent more than 7 hours for the phone screen and virtual on-site interviews. It just ended up with a system-generated rejection email.
I asked the recrutier for some feeback on my performance so that I know where I can do better in the future, but I got no response at all.
It is okay for a company to have a high bar, but it should also respect candidate time and efforts.
Overall, bad experience.
Ho presentato la mia candidatura tramite segnalazione di un dipendente. La procedura ha richiesto 3 settimane. Ho sostenuto un colloquio presso Lyft (San Francisco, CA) nel mese di giu 2018
Colloquio
Was contacted by a recruiter and had a brief 1 hour technical interview set up. The technical interviewers was sharp and pleasant. Afterwards I was given a 'homework' assignment that was supposed to take 6 hours. 12-18 hours is more realistic. Got called into an in person interview and was given a beautiful, detailed document that outlined what to expect in the interview process. It recommended a fairly extensive review of basic combinatorics and probability which took several hours to go through, but during the in-person interview I wasn't asked about any of the material. It also didn't seem like most of the people I interviewed had a strong technical backgrounds with the exception of a couple junior employees asking about A/B testing.
I got the feeling that the group was more interested in the presentation style of the HW analysis and had much less concern for the content.
Ultimately we weren't a good fit.
My advice: Make sure you understand what the position you're applying for entails before investing in the homework. There are two analytics areas at Lyft, a "data science" area which seems to run A/B testing and product development, and a "research science" area where people do modeling and algorithm work.
Ho presentato la mia candidatura tramite un selezionatore. Ho sostenuto un colloquio presso Lyft nel mese di lug 2025
Colloquio
Interview process:
I completed the full onsite loop after multiple rounds. The process itself was structured (SQL, Python, product/decision science, and behavioral), and the team was sharp and engaging.
Where it fell apart:
After the final interview, communication broke down completely. I was told by the recruiter that a decision would be shared within 48–72 hours — instead, I heard nothing for 4+ weeks despite repeated check-ins. During that silence, the role was even re-posted on LinkedIn without any closure provided. Eventually, I received a generic rejection email.
Takeaway:
The lack of transparency and accountability at the final stage was disappointing and unprofessional, especially after investing significant time into the process. Lyft would benefit from respecting candidates’ timelines and providing timely, honest feedback.
Friendly interviewer, although not an easy live coding challenge. If you don't practice leetcode on the constant basis, forget.
Overall, Lyft follows BigTech principles of hiring with several-steps processes. It wasn't nice that the interviewer hasn't shared their video during the call - it felt a bit unpleasant impression.