I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Bridgewater Associates (Cambridge, MA) in Oct 2013
Interview
I was initially contacted via a cold email by one of their recruiters, who encouraged me to apply for their summer position in their Technology Associates (TA) program. I submitted my resume, applied online, and then had an in-person interview when they came to my campus. I made it to the final round (top 6-10, I think) but ultimately didn't get an offer.
They asked about tech details (typical algorithmic questions, nothing overly intense, all pretty interesting), cultural fit, and personality/discussion assessment. For personality/discussion assessment you just debate/discuss a topic with the interviewers (tip: I thought it was a debate, it turns out they just wanted it to be a discussion, so I was far too debate-like and argumentative). Cultural fit was a bit odd, definitely have some familiarity with Ray Dalio's "Principles" guide, they asked some very probing questions about my self development. This was the main place where BS does not fly AT ALL - when they ask you about your biggest flaw, they'll keep probing until they get to the issue you're most afraid of, and then analyze what you're doing to fix it.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The tech side was relatively straightforward, but the cultural fit questions on "What's your biggest flaw?" followed up with "Do you think what you're doing is really fixing that flaw, or just addressing the surface level?"
I applied online. I interviewed at Bridgewater Associates (Westport, CT)
Interview
Applied online, and received a coding challenge soon after. It was unique in that there was no time limit to finish the challenge. Was selected for a ~30 min technical phone interview a week later, which did not involve writing any code. Was then flown onsite, which consisted of 2 rounds - one technical whiteboard interview and one HR interview, as well as lunch at the office cafeteria. Everyone from the receptionist to the recruiters and interviewers were all extremely professional and polite.
Accepted the offer and compensation was slightly higher than FAANG, but they converted the internship to a 2-week training program due to the pandemic on extremely short notice and cut pay by half, instead of continuing with an online internship like most other firms. Makes me hesitant to recommend the company to anyone else for this reason.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Signed an NDA. Just study your Data Structures & Algos, and brush up on fundamental CS concepts.
I applied through college or university. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Bridgewater Associates
Interview
Got an interview through campus recruiting
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The questions were not very difficult. They asked you to build a game called Guess Who. Then, they asked me to talk about myself and asked my things like why I like computer science?
I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Bridgewater Associates in Mar 2014
Interview
Took about a week.
Filled out a coding challenge for the company and passed most of the tests (did the harder portion better than the easier one). A recruiter contacted me a few days later to schedule an interview.
Half was personality/fit, the other half was "technical" in the abstract sense; development procedure too.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How would you make an elevator better? Asked me to essentially start from scratch and develop an algorithm/program to do this. They helped me through this in places, but I guess I didn't run with the decision-making as thoroughly as they wanted me to.