New Beginnings at Pinterest: Meet Chuan Yu, Sr. Software Engineer

Meet Chuan Yu, Senior Software Engineer! As a new member of the team, Chuan is giving insight into the interview process and his first two months at Pinterest.

Hi Chuan! Welcome to Pinterest. We’re excited that you’re here! Let’s start with a quick introduction.

My name is Chuan, and I joined Pinterest just two months ago. I’m a Senior Software Engineer on the Ads Infrastructure team. We work on improving Pinterest's Ads Infra to provide great experiences for our APAC advertisers.

What led you to the Pinterest team? 

Pinterest is dedicated to building a positive place on the internet that improves users’ wellbeing. As a place to work, I was intrigued by the complex engineering challenges and the potential to make a significant impact. 

Are there any tips you’d share with candidates going through our interview process? 

• Practice a lot of data structure and algorithm questions and come up with test cases to test your code. You will need to run and test your code in the interviews.
• Treat your interviewer as a coworker and proactively communicate your ideas to them. The interviewers are very friendly, and they often provide suggestions and guidance.
• Be familiar with your past projects and come prepared to answer questions about their impact and technical design details.
• There are many system design questions with solutions online, but memorizing solutions won’t get you very far. You will be asked design questions that are unique to Pinterest, so it’s important to understand the pros and cons of backend technologies. Be sure to draw upon your previous experiences as well.

How has your team set you up for success in your first two months at the company? 

The Singapore engineering team is new to Pinterest, and I am one of its first members. To facilitate our onboarding and connect with us in-person, our San Francisco-based Engineering Director visited Singapore for a week. My colleagues have been very collaborative, organizing numerous knowledge shares and regular meetings despite the time difference.

What are you most excited about? 

I’m looking forward to understanding the complex ads system, which contains many modules and machine learning models. There are many inspiring engineering challenges, which makes it fun and exciting.

What Pinterest board is currently inspiring you? 

My travel board is what’s currently inspiring me as I am planning a trip to Japan with my kids. I always get my travel ideas from Pinterest.