Zynga Interview Experience for Backend Engineer(Experienced)
Interview Experience
Round 1 In the screening round of the interview process, candidates are required to complete an online test consisting of two coding problems. The first problem was "K Clo...
Full Details
Round 1 In the screening round of the interview process, candidates are required to complete an online test consisting of two coding problems. The first problem was "K Closest Points to Origin," which involves finding the K points closest to the origin in a given set of points. The second problem was "Edit Distance," where candidates are expected to calculate the minimum number of operations required to transform one string into another. Round 2 For the second round, candidates who successfully pass the screening round will move on to a face-to-face interview. This round focuses on coding skills and problem-solving abilities. The interviewee is given one hour to write the optimal working code for three problems. The problems I was asked were "Largest Plus Sign in a Binary Matrix" of size n * m, "Design a Least Frequently Used Cache" requiring an optimal cache design solution, and an unspecified third problem. In this round, candidates are expected to demonstrate their coding proficiency and problem-solving approach. The choice of programming language is left to the interviewee. I was not shortlisted for further rounds
About This Question
This is a candidate experience report from a zynga interview for a backend role during the oa round reported in 2023.
About Zynga Interview Reports
This question was reported by a candidate who interviewed at Zynga. LeakCode aggregates interview reports from 10+ sources, including 1Point3Acres, Glassdoor, LeetCode Discuss, Blind, Reddit, Indeed, and Nowcoder. Each report is translated where necessary, deduplicated against existing entries, and tagged by company, role, round type, and reporting date.
Use this question as one calibration data point, not a memorization target. Companies typically rotate their question pools every 2-4 months; the exact wording of a 2024 question may differ from what you encounter today. The underlying pattern, difficulty level, and follow-up depth at Zynga are the higher-signal extractions to take from this report.
For broader preparation context, the Zynga interview process typically includes a recruiter screen, one or two technical phone screens, and a 4-5 round on-site loop covering coding, system design (at L4+ levels), and behavioral. Reports tagged on LeakCode show the round-by-round distribution and typical difficulty calibration. To browse questions filtered by round type and seniority, use the company hub linked above.
How To Practice This Type of Question
Solve similar problems on LeetCode under timed conditions (25-35 minutes per medium difficulty). The goal is pattern recognition: recognize the underlying technique (sliding window, two-pointer, BFS, memoized recursion, etc.) within 60-90 seconds of reading. Strong candidates verbalize their hypothesis out loud before coding, then iterate based on feedback. Weak candidates dive into implementation immediately, lose time on the wrong approach, and run out of time for follow-ups.
Companies update their question pools every 2-4 months. The exact wording of any given question may have been retired by the time you interview. Focus your prep on the pattern, not the specific problem. The patterns that appear in Zynga reports consistently are the ones worth investing in; one-off niche problems are not.
During Your Zynga Round
Apply the standard interview round template: clarify requirements (2-3 minutes), state your approach out loud and confirm direction with the interviewer (3-5 minutes), code with narration (15-25 minutes), test with concrete examples including edge cases (5 minutes), discuss optimization or trade-offs if time permits (5 minutes). This template is universally accepted across FAANG and adjacent companies; deviating from it produces weaker interviewer feedback signal.
The single most predictive failure mode in Zynga reports tagged "no hire": not asking clarifying questions. Interviewers are explicitly trained to weight this. Strong candidates ask 3-5 clarifying questions even on problems that look obvious; weak candidates dive into code immediately. The clarifying-question check is often the first signal recorded in the interviewer's written notes.