Ask Lemmy

The interviews will be about a half day.

Fuck, man, I hate the state of this industry.

Out of curiosity, how many interviews have they put you through already?

At many companies you talk to more than one person in a single visit, so when that person writes about interviews, the plural, it's likely that they're planning to have you speak with multiple people.

Everything depends on the company, but if you're going in for a multi-hour session, you're probably on the short list of candidates. So you should feel good about where you are, but you don't have the job yet.

You don’t have the job, you’ve just made it past the offsite screening. I expect you’ll be in 3-4 interviews each lasting about an hour with a different person, then they might take you to lunch with a group of people. Lunch is still an interview, it’s just informal. Be a reasonable human that they want to have as a coworker.

Expect some of the interviews to involve whiteboard coding or technical problem solving, all of them to ask you social dynamics questions (e.g. “tell me about a time you had difficulty working with a teammate”), and hopefully all of them will also give you time to ask them questions. Be ready for that last part - presumably you don’t know very much about the company, and this is your time to find out more. You might be so desperate that you’ll take any job, but that’s a turn off for them. They want to see that you are as eager to find a good team fit as they are.

Each interviewer will likely do a written summary with a hire/no hire recommendation, and there will likely be a hiring meeting with all of the interviewers, either one such meeting for each onsite candidate or one meeting at the end of a series of candidates so they can make overall decisions. You probably won’t hear a decision before 8/8, a week after the onsites finish.

No, it does not mean you have the job, there are still many others in the race.

This will be the main interview. Welcome to software development interviews, where you can have 6 interviews and a take home exam and they still aren't sure if you're worth hiring.

This is what we call the "Loop". I have done too many of these. I did one just yesterday actually! Probably... 15-20 under my belt now throughout my career.

There will be 4 1-hour interviews you will go through. Usually there will be some combination of the following. This is how most of mine go (my mid-tier ones and now my senior ones). They may mix and match them, you may get 2 technicals instead of a system design, maybe they don't do the last one, who knows, but this is to help you prep a bit.

Technical - 1 hour with a sample problem. Chill companies will give you something like "Solve a wordsearch". Maybe they have something premade like "Add some functionality to this". Companies like Amazon will do a more intense leet-code style question. The number one advice I have to you is never stop talking. Be talking the entire time. Every thought you have, verbalize it. The interviewer is not a mind reader, they will be trying to figure out what you're doing, and if you tell them they honestly will probably help you. Just describe everything you're doing. "I'll make a method here because I think it'll be easier to reuse - well.. maybe I won't. Actually I'll keep it and we can use it later, so yeah that'll be what we use to do X functionality". Even if you think you sound silly, it'll really help your chances. Do this for the System Design below too. Worst thing a candidate can do is clam up and not talk in their interview, leaving the interviewer at the end trying to guess if they understood the problem or not.

Culture Fit - Talk about projects you did, since you're coming out of entry level, focus on results. Outcomes. A lot of people ramble in these. Prepare for this interview. Look at your history, find projects, and learn the STAR Method for behavioral. It honestly is a clean way to tell your own history.

System Design - This will heavily change based on your level, and that's okay. Usually it's a question like "Design WhatsApp" or some vague thing like this. They won't expect you to have a perfect answer. Instead, they're looking for you to ask questions and how you think. I strongly recommend watching This video - again they lay out how to organize the interview. Most interviewees just start throwing stuff on a whiteboard - watch the video and learn how to lay out things in an ordered way. Even if you don't know the answer, it shows how you think, which is much more valuable in the interview.

VP/Executive Chat - This will be a fairly informal chat with someone higher up at the company. They are mostly going to lean on the others to decide if you should be hired - but they want to know if you're "excited" to work there. Show an interest in the company. Ask questions about something you heard they were working on. Are they smaller? Are they pushing towards IPO or something else? Show an interest in the business side. Talk about how you want to uplevel your skills and you think X company is the right place.

Bonus - The "Bar Raiser" - This is more of a "style" of interviewing that can happen in any of the mentioned ones above. I was caught off guard the first time I encountered one of these. The Bar Raiser is essentially they're going to push you to see if you "raise the bar" for them, if you go above what a normal employee will do. You'll notice this if you find they are asking a lot of questions, maybe even to the point of offending your or annoying you. This is essentially what they want, how do you do under pressure? How do you do when people are second guessing you? Don't let it get to you, and don't start bullshitting. Admit when you don't know things. Stick to your guns on things you believe in, but admit when you don't know things. Software engineers need to know when they don't know something. When I was younger I insisted that a SQL database would be the best database for a system design. They asked why - and I didn't have an answer. It's just what I had used. What I should have said was "It's what I'm most familiar with, but there are some others I would want to look at first to really make a decision". Since I insisted that it was best, they asked how I would scale it? How would I make sure it wouldn't go down. I quickly realized it wasn't the best choice, and I worked myself into a corner.

Important Notes

• Ask for a break - you deserve a break between these. If you need to go to the bathroom, make sure there is time for it. You're looking at 4 hours of interviews, most will offer between "Do you need anything" - don't think it's impolite. Just go to the bathroom if you need it.
• Accept the drink - They'll offer you coffee or water. Just accept it. Again, 4 hours of interviews. You'll need some water. You'll get dry mouth, just trust me.
• Think about food - Most good ones will provide a lunch... but I'm seeing this less and less. Eat right before going in, nothing heavy or you'll be sleepy, but have a good solid breakfast and eat before you go into the meeting. (Even if they provide lunch then you don't look like a pig on their dime). Pack a snack with you if you can, after one loop I was shaking with hunger and went to the mcdonalds immediately after right next door because I was so hungry.
• Get a good night's sleep before hand. You'll have to be on the whole time, it's just going to be tiring, physically and mentally.

Alright padawan, that's my advice for you. I wish you all the luck in the world, take what I've learned about these and may my knowledge help you. We're all rooting for you!

This is an interview loop. They do that with the top few candidates - so it is unlikely you are the only one. You will speak to many people, like the hiring manager and key team members. If you are flying in for the interview, it may be for a couple of days, but the interviews are likely to be in one day. Treat this seriously and act professionally with everyone you interact with from front desk to hiring manager. They can all influence the decision. Best of luck!

If you received that at my workplace, they are bringing you in to get a feel for how you are in person. And if you don't have any problems your in. If there are a couple people in this 3rd interview, you will be the decider. Just how you are in person. It sucks to have to chose that way but at the end when you have to decide, its a good way to do it.

In general, that 3rd interview in my space, means you are the only choice and they want one more check to make sure people can feel you out before they invest in you

This is both positive and negative, but it's overall a success in the interview process, but not a job quite yet.

You're in what is generally the final stage, you'll likely have a call or meeting after this in a week or two to discuss results.

You're currently up against everyone else who has survived the interview process. They're looking for one or more things on this list:

• "Culture Fit" (they want to work with you because they like who you are)

• Technical Expertise (they want your skills to augment the team and are comfortable with who you are and the idea of working with you)

• Extraordinary Technical Expertise (in the right setting sometimes all that matters is you're really good at one or more desperately needed skills)

• Internal Business Needs (your skillset fulfills some internal need, you can ask if this is the case, actually)

Ultimately what rings true is generally the best thing you can do is see if your personality is a fit for the team's culture. They want to see you try, you'll need to evaluate them as well. Don't go overboard, be sincere. Clearly they are entertaining the idea of working with you.

Odds are you'll be asked a selection of technical questions. It is not an exam, the right answer is not the goal, and honestly every correct solution will be rewarded with more bullshit to get you thinking and adapting. They'll be evaluating you, not your solution nor your perfect ability to spit out code. They might be wondering "can I pair program with this person" or perhaps something else, be that person they want, ideally by being yourself.

Why is it negative? This is the part where you get your hopes up, and ultimately you are still against the best part of the interview pool. Mentally prepare to walk away proud you got here, hope for the offer and acceptance!

If you are in the United States: You will not have a job until you show up on your first day. Job offers, employment contracts, don't bother entertaining the illusion these are bulletproof documents that grant you any protection if they back out. Ideally don't worry about it, I've seen some people get screwed over lol.

If you are not in the United States: Getting to this point in the interviews is even more impressive and lucrative, further congratulations are in order: Congrats, get that contract!

I can only tell you about my experiences in the past, but I don't think you have the job yet, you might have passed some initial round of interviews and be heading for the next one. From my experience there are usually 3 rounds of interviews:

The first round is HR, this serves to filter people who should not have applied for the job, although sometimes it filters good candidates and let's bad ones get through in general it's necessary in large companies that get hundreds of applicants. Sometimes in this round you'll get multiple choice test or some technical questions that should be answerable by anyone applying for the job, things like difference between list and set, or what's a pointer.

The second round is technical, you might get a take home and an interview asking you about it, or a meeting where you talk through the architecture for a system, or even just sitting in a room talking brain teasers or similar. This round is to check your technical knowledge, sometimes people are very good with the basic questions that HR asks, but fall apart the moment you ask them something that's not in a "questions asked in interviews" list.

The third round is a culture fit, essentially you go to the office and talk to people about random stuff, have lunch with them, etc. Sometimes there might be some coding or some technical discussion but it's more chill. Essentially they're trying to see how it's like working with you, if you get to this interview it means you're essentially hired baring you being a complete asshole or similar. This interview is to prevent from hiring people who are very good technically but are a pain in the ass to work with and would drive the productivity down because no one would like being around them.

Now, that's my experience with interviews, it doesn't mean wherever you're applying follows these, but I've seen lots of companies have similar stances, although some put at least 2 of those in a single day. The company I'm currently with had a 4th round, but that was a special case, it essentially was a "we want to make you an offer, but have several positions available, so talk to the managers of each of the teams you would be working and see which work interests you the most and we'll make you an offer for that position".

Brace yourself for repeated, senseless array manipulation. Don’t let it get to you. Being personable and seeking understanding when you are confused are the two most important things.

Had 2 interviews for a dev role with company 1... Still couln't decide whether to hire me.

Got 1 interview with a different smaller company... They offered me a position immediately. I accepted. Working there for years now.

Germany...

Wish you good luck!