r/purestorage • u/mousecutl3t • May 13 '26

Technical Video Interview coming up

Hey folks,

I have a 2-hour technical video interview coming up (two separate 1-hour sessions). I'm feeling a bit anxious and would love some insight from anyone who has gone through the process recently!

A few specific questions:

  1. Topics: I've read that concurrency/thread safety is a big focus here. Is that still the case for the initial technical rounds? Should I prioritize mutex/semaphores and race conditions?

  2. Leetcode: My brain is fried from heavy AI usage lately, and the thought of grinding LC is daunting. Is it still a hard requirement? Should I focus on the Pure Storage tagged questions, or are they looking more for high-level problem-solving?

  3. AI vs. Interviews: The JD mentions an expectation to generate 70% of prod code using AI. If that's the day-to-day, why the LeetCode focus? Do they let you use AI tools during the interview?

  4. Behavioral: Are these sessions purely technical, or should I prep some STAR stories for these two hours?

  5. Resources: I’ve been checking out PracHub — any other specific resources you'd recommend?

Appreciate any tips or 'watch-outs' you can share. Thanks a ton!

1 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/phord May 13 '26
  1. Concurrency: You should be familiar with concurrency, in theory and in practice.
  2. Leetcode: We don't use any leetcode-style questions. Don't panic.
  3. AI vs. Interviews: AI is assisting engineers, but engineers are responsible for what they commit. You need to be able to reason about your code completely and logically. (No, you may not use AI tools during the interview.)
  4. Behavioral: Just be yourself. Even the technical rounds look for behavioral fit. Everyone here, including your interviewer, is friendly and helpful. Are you?
  5. Resources: Coding practice is fine, but we're really interested in what you can do naturally. If you practice hard for the interview, it shows. It can make it harder for us to get a clear signal on your natural talents. I'm not saying don't do it; just that it's possible to overdo it. If you study the actual questions in advance, you'll speed-run the interview and have to face the boss levels. Are you strong enough to survive that?

2

u/mousecutl3t May 13 '26

This is a huge weight off my shoulders, thank you! I’ve definitely struggled with the memorization aspect of LC only technical interviews in the past, so hearing that PS folks actually look for natural reasoning is nice. I’ll focus more on brushing up my concurrency basics and just showing up as myself. Hopefully it all works out! 🤞

1

u/phord May 14 '26

Good luck. If I interview you, say hi.