Interview Experience - 152 - LinkedIn | Senior Front End Engineer | Senior (IC3)
Summary
📌 Job Role: Senior Front End Engineer
🔢 Number of Rounds: 7
📜 Offer Status: Rejected
📍 Location: Bangalore
👤 Candidate Name: Not disclosing due to signed NDA
Interview Process
I had an opportunity to interview with LinkedIn for a Senior Front End Engineer role based out of their Bangalore office. The role was at Senior (IC3) level.
The interview process consisted of 7 rounds in total:
Phone Screen
System Design
Pragmatic UI
DS & Algo
JavaScript Coding
Product Sense
Hiring Manager
Overall, the interview process was very structured and well-coordinated. However, once the interviews were completed, the communication from the recruiter side was a bit delayed. I finished the interviews around two weeks ago but didn’t hear back until I followed up multiple times.
Eventually, I received a rejection email. The feedback mentioned that during the DSA round, I received hints for the DOM API-related question. Additionally, in the System Design round, I didn’t exhibit strong enough signals expected from a candidate at a senior level.
Preparation Guide
While I didn’t follow a single preparation resource or structured plan, having 7 years of experience in frontend development helped me stay confident throughout. Each round focused on a different skill area — from pure JavaScript to system design and product thinking — so being versatile in multiple areas of frontend engineering was necessary.
Interview Rounds
Round 1: Phone Screen
Duration: 60 minutes
Difficulty Level: Medium
Experience
This round tested my JavaScript fundamentals quite deeply. The questions weren’t Leetcode-style or algorithmic but rather focused on real-world understanding.
The interviewer started with tricky JavaScript output-based questions. These required a deep understanding of hoisting, scope, closures, and coercion.
We then discussed concepts like prototype inheritance, event handling, and optimization techniques used in modern web development.
For the practical part, the interviewer shared an image and asked me to replicate the UI widget. This involved writing semantic HTML, well-structured CSS, and modular JavaScript.
The expectation was to follow best practices, focus on accessibility, and show design sense in building the component.
Key Learnings
Be thorough with JavaScript internals and be ready for UI implementation challenges that test code modularity and semantics. Skip Leetcode here — it’s more about how you write production-ready frontend code.
Round 2: System Design
Duration: 60 minutes
Difficulty Level: Medium
Experience
This round was focused entirely on frontend system design. The discussion revolved around an autocomplete widget.
We talked in-depth about its architecture, data flow, and performance optimization.
Eventually, I was asked to implement the autocomplete widget — considering debounce mechanisms, network calls, and efficient rendering.
The interviewer also evaluated how I approach problem decomposition and component design.
Key Learnings
Frontend system design is not just about UI — it’s about how efficiently you can architect a component. Be clear about trade-offs, performance bottlenecks, and scalability.
Round 3: Pragmatic UI
Duration: 60 minutes
Difficulty Level: Medium
Experience
This round tested my practical understanding of UI and front-end design patterns.
I was asked to design a calculator — not just the UI, but also the component logic and state management.
We had a deep discussion on design patterns like MVC, MVVM, and how they translate into frontend architecture.
The interviewer also threw a curveball by asking about the pros and cons of injecting widgets into an iframe. It led to a detailed discussion around security, isolation, and communication between frames.
Key Learnings
Understand the “why” behind UI choices, not just the “how”. Real-world trade-offs matter, and being able to articulate them clearly is crucial.
Round 4: DS & Algo
Duration: 60 minutes
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Experience
This was the most challenging round.
The first question was around the DOM API: Given two DOM nodes, determine if one is a child of the other.
I initially proposed a top-down traversal approach.
The interviewer hinted at an alternative — going from child to parent and comparing along the way.
I modified the solution accordingly, showing flexibility in approach.
The second question was a standard Maximum Subarray Sum (Kadane’s Algorithm) problem.
Key Learnings
Be ready for both DOM-based problems and standard DS&A questions. Also, showing adaptability when receiving hints is important, but sometimes being too reliant on hints can be a negative signal.
Round 5: JavaScript Coding
Duration: 60 minutes
Difficulty Level: Medium
Experience
This round involved hands-on coding in JavaScript.
First task: Implement a utility function called
clearAllTimeout()— a function that clears all currently set timeouts.Second task: Implement infinite scrolling for a UI component — handle scroll events, append content dynamically, and ensure optimal performance.
Key Learnings
You must have a strong command over browser APIs and should be able to implement real-world features using vanilla JavaScript. Focus on correctness as well as performance.
Round 6: Product Sense
Duration: 60 minutes
Difficulty Level: Medium
Experience
This was not a traditional technical round.
I was asked to talk about an app I use daily and what makes it compelling.
We discussed how A/B testing works, how to implement it as an engineer, and the kind of metrics to track.
The interviewer also asked some PM-style product questions, evaluating how engineers can think from a product perspective.
Key Learnings
As a senior engineer, product thinking is crucial. You should be able to reason about user behavior, experiment design, and feature impact.
Round 7: Hiring Manager
Duration: 45 minutes
Difficulty Level: Easy
Experience
This was a behavioral and fitment round.
The hiring manager asked about my current project, team structure, and the kind of problems I solve.
We discussed my aspirations, what motivates me, and the kind of environment I look for.
A few standard behavioral questions were asked about conflict resolution, working under deadlines, and collaboration across teams.
Key Learnings
This round is about storytelling and alignment. Your experience, growth mindset, and team collaboration history are key areas of evaluation.
Final Thoughts
While the outcome didn’t go in my favor, the interview experience with LinkedIn was enriching. Here are some key takeaways:
Expect real-world, pragmatic frontend questions, not just theoretical or algorithm-heavy ones.
JavaScript deep-dive, system design for UI, and DOM-related problems are recurring themes.
Product sense and cross-functional thinking are valued at the senior level.
Prepare well for UI architecture discussions — including performance, reusability, and best practices.
Lastly, while receiving hints is okay, your ability to solve independently and show senior-level decision-making is critical.
Hope this experience helps others preparing for frontend roles at LinkedIn or similar companies.