Rubrik Software Engineer Winter Internship Interview Experience (Off-Campus)

📌 Application Process

I applied for the Rubrik Software Engineer Winter Internship in October 2025 through the Rubrik Careers page.

The shortlisting criteria were primarily based on:

• CGPA
• Competitive programming ratings (Codeforces / CodeChef)

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Shortlisting & Webinar

After around one month, I received an email from Rubrik asking me to fill out a Google Form with more details such as:

• Achievements(ICPC, IOI, USACO)
• Coding profile ratings
• Technical background

Later that same week, I received a Webinar invitation mail, which confirmed that I was shortlisted for the interview process.

In the webinar, they explained:

• About Rubrik as a company
• Internship details (stipend, work culture, projects)
• Life at Rubrik
• Past interns shared their experiences

They also gave important information about the HackerRank test and interviews:

• There would be 3 coding questions in the HackerRank test
• Difficulty level: roughly Codeforces rating 1600–2100
• Interview rounds structure
• Dual camera setup was mandatory.

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💻 HackerRank Coding Test

In the first week of November, I received:

• HackerRank test link
• Zoom meeting link (for monitoring)

We had to:

• Join the Zoom call on phone
• Solve 3 coding problems on HackerRank using laptop

I managed to solve 2.5 questions out of 3.

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📞 Interview Shortlisting

After about one week, I got a call from HR saying that I was shortlisted for the interview rounds.

Important points:

• All interview rounds would be conducted on a single day
• All rounds were elimination rounds
• Dual camera setup was mandatory

I locked myself in a room from 9:00 AM onwards for the interview day.

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📌 Round 1: Technical Interview

Time: 9:00 AM
Platform: HackerRank Interview

The interviewer asked a competitive programming problem based on Trees.

I:

• Explained the intuition and approach
• Started coding

In the last 5 minutes, I struggled with a bug. However:

The interviewer was very friendly
He gave me an extra 10 minutes to debug

Finally, I:

• Fixed the bug
• Ran the code successfully
• Passed all test cases

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📌 Round 2: Technical Interview (Advanced CP Problem)

Time: 11:00 AM
Interviewers: SDE-2 at Rubrik + 2 panelists

They asked a problem of around Codeforces 1800–1900 rating.

The discussion included:

• My approach
• Alternative approaches
• Time and space complexity comparison

They asked which approach I would choose and why. I explained clearly.

During coding:

• The interviewers were very friendly
• They guided me when I went slightly off track
• We collaboratively reached the final solution

They seemed satisfied with my explanation and implementation.

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📌 Round 3: Hiring Manager (HM) Round

After just 10 minutes, HR called and informed me that I was shortlisted for the Hiring Manager round.

The HM round was taken by an Engineering Manager.

Questions were mostly about:

• My projects
• Past internships
• Resume-based questions
• Achievements

This round was more about:

• Understanding my background
• My problem-solving journey
• My experience with projects

After around 1 hour, HR called again and asked me to send my achievements via email, which I did.

She mentioned:

> "Since it’s Friday and weekends are off, you can expect the result on Monday or Tuesday."

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📌 Extra Round (ICPC World Finalist Panel)

On Tuesday, I got another call from HR saying:

> They scheduled one more technical round with ICPC World Finalist panelist.

This was unexpected because during the webinar they had mentioned only:

• 2 technical rounds
• 1 HM round

It seemed that:

• Candidates with ICPC achievements or Tier-1 colleges were sometimes given more priority

• This round was taken by 2 panelists.

• They asked a problem related to:

🔹 Heavy Light Decomposition (HLD)

Unfortunately:

• I was not very comfortable with HLD
• I had only studied it theoretically

I:

• Explained the intuition and approach
• Tried to describe how HLD works

But they did not seem fully satisfied.

In the last 5–10 minutes, they asked me to code the solution.

Due to time pressure:

• I tried writing the code
• Time ran out
• They told me to submit whatever I had written

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Final Result

After a couple of weeks, I followed up with HR.

She replied:

• My status was not yet updated in their portal
• She asked me for my interview date again

The next day, I received the rejection email.

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Overall Experience

Although I was rejected, the interview experience was:

Very professional
Friendly
Encouraging

The HR and interviewers were supportive and polite at every step.

However, the difficulty level was extremely high.

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Preparation Advice

If you are preparing for Rubrik SWE Internship:

• Practice a lot on Codeforces
• Focus heavily on Tree problems
• Prepare topics like:

• 1.Binary Lifting
• 2.LCA
• 3.DFS / BFS on trees
• 4.Segment Trees
• 5.Heavy Light Decomposition (HLD)

Recommended difficulty range:

• Codeforces rating: 1700–2200

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🏁 Conclusion

Rubrik’s interview process is challenging but rewarding. Even though I couldn’t make it through the final round, the journey taught me:

• How real-world CP interviews are conducted
• The importance of deep understanding of advanced data structures
• Confidence in explaining and defending my approach

It was a great learning experience and I’m grateful for the opportunity.

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✨ All the best to future candidates preparing for Rubrik interviews!*