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Interview questions from top companies, mapped to the exact round they show up in. Prep for what you will actually face.

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Online AssessmentDSA / CodingMachine CodingLow-Level Design

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The Loop aggregates publicly shared interview experiences and curated commonly-asked questions, each labeled with its source. Not affiliated with any company listed.

CC BY-NC 4.0 · © 2026

← Cerebras

Senior Backend at Cerebras

BackendSeniorOffer◆ Commonly asked· 2025

6-round senior backend process. Coding-heavy early, design and behavioral later.

The loop · 6 rounds

01

Round 01 · 3 questions

DSA / Coding

Data structures & algorithms on a whiteboard or shared editor.

  • Container with most water.
    SeniorMedium◆ Commonly asked
    #two-pointers#array
    PracticeLeetCode↗GeeksforGeeks↗
  • Contains duplicate.
    SeniorEasy◆ Commonly asked
    #array#hashmap
    PracticeLeetCode↗GeeksforGeeks↗
  • Best time to buy and sell stock.
    SeniorEasy◆ Commonly asked
    #array#greedy
    PracticeLeetCode↗GeeksforGeeks↗
02

Round 02 · 2 questions

Machine Coding

Build a working component or service under time pressure.

  • Implement cursor-based pagination over a sorted dataset.
    SeniorMedium◆ Commonly asked
    #pagination#api
    PracticeGeeksforGeeks↗Search↗
  • Parse and evaluate a simple expression/DSL.
    SeniorMedium◆ Commonly asked
    #parsing
    PracticeGeeksforGeeks↗Search↗
03

Round 03 · 2 questions

System Design

High-level architecture of a large-scale system.

  • Design a video streaming service like YouTube.
    SeniorHard◆ Commonly asked
    #cdn#storage#transcoding
    PracticeGeeksforGeeks↗Search↗
  • Design a search indexing pipeline (crawl to index to serve).
    SeniorHard◆ Commonly asked
    #indexing#pipeline
    PracticeGeeksforGeeks↗Search↗
04

Round 04 · 3 questions

Tech Deep-Dive

Deep questions on your core stack and fundamentals.

  • How does a bloom filter work and when would you use one?
    SeniorMedium◆ Commonly asked
    #data-structures#probabilistic
    PracticeGeeksforGeeks↗Search↗
  • SQL vs NoSQL — how do you choose for a given workload?
    SeniorMedium◆ Commonly asked
    #databases
    PracticeGeeksforGeeks↗Search↗
  • How would you design and version a public REST API?
    SeniorMedium◆ Commonly asked
    #api-design
    PracticeGeeksforGeeks↗Search↗
05

Round 05 · 1 question

Hiring Manager

Scope, ownership, and role-fit discussion with the manager.

  • Describe how you drove alignment across multiple teams.
    Senior◆ Commonly asked
    #collaboration#influence
06

Round 06 · 2 questions

Behavioral / HR

Values, collaboration, and past-experience (STAR) questions.

  • Tell me about a project you are most proud of.
    Senior◆ Commonly asked
    #star
  • Tell me about a time you led without a title.
    Senior◆ Commonly asked
    #leadership#star

Practice each round across every company

  • DSA / Coding
  • Machine Coding
  • System Design
  • Tech Deep-Dive
  • Hiring Manager
  • Behavioral / HR

◆ This experience is composed from commonly reported questions for this role and level. Real, individually-shared interviews will be layered in over time.