Coding Interviews

The list of companies is non exhaustive and only lists the companies with jobs in Arbeitnow. For a longer list, please check the awesome hiring without whiteboard interviews guide for Software Developers

A list of companies (or teams) that don't do technical "whiteboard" interviews. "Whiteboards" is used as a metaphor, and is a symbol for the kinds of CS trivia questions that are associated with bad interview practices. Whiteboards are not bad – CS trivia questions are. Using sites like HackerRank or LeetCode probably fall into a similar category. The companies and teams listed here use interview techniques and questions that resemble day-to-day work. For example, pairing on a real world problem or a paid/unpaid take home exercise.

Coding Interviews: Do's and Don'ts

Do's:

  • Evaluate using Pair Programming on a small issue. This can display how the person communicates, comes up with solutions and is able to resolve conflicts.
  • Provide an actual work problem that the person might solve on the job. Most coding interviews have no relation to the job and are pointless.
    • Take home exercises make sense if the software engineer candidate has the bandwidth and time to do it. In this case,
    • Keep it small (couple of hours maximum)
    • Don't expect a fully functional application
    • Allow use of framework / programming language that the candidates is comfortable with, as long as it's related to the job
    • Compensate them for the time (yes, that means money)
  • Come up with a technical problem and have a conversation on how the candidate would solve it
  • Do a code review instead

Don'ts:

  • Live coding is anxious and only evaluates interviewing skills.
  • Solving trivia / algorithmic questions encourages memorization of solutions
    • Everyone knows about Cracking the Coding Interview
    • Tests only knowledge of data structures and algorithms that they might not use on their job
  • Whiteboard interviews are stressful and anxiety-inducing
  • Whiteboard technical interviews appear to favor men over women
  • Leetcode interview questions encourage smart programming solutions, not readable code

Algolia

Paris, France / San Francisco, CA

Takehome project & Onsite discussions and presentation

Artsy

New York, NY / London, UK / Berlin, Germany / Los Angeles, CA / Hong Kong, Hong Kong / Remote

Our process: 1) Informal chat 2) Application 3) Phone screen 4) In-person interview with 1 lead, 2 individual contributors and 1 non-engineer (30-45 mins each), focusing on your work habits and expertise as demonstrated in your previous work 5) ~4 in-depth professional reference calls (30-45 mins each).

AutoScout24

Munich, Germany

Skype interview followed by home assignment from our day-to-day business and then on-site interview including lunch with a team

Backbone

Boulder, CO

Initial phone screening to determine general fit, take-home project, finally an on-site where we discuss your take-home project and you meet the team.

CJ Affiliate

Los Angeles, CA & Westlake Village, CA

Phone coding design exercise (no algorithms), followed by an on-site final interview that includes pair programming on a realistic object-oriented design problem

Engel & Völkers Technology

Hamburg, Germany

Remote technical interview with an Engineering Manager, followed by a practical coding challenge implemented in 5 hours, ending with a technical discussion with the team on the produced code either remotely or on-site based on geographical practicality.

FRIDAY

Berlin, Germany

Take-home real-world challenge, interview on-site or remote

Funda

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Take Home test + Discussion On-Site/Remote

GoCardless

London, UK

Project to work at home, general technical questions, pair programming with engineers

HeavenHR

Berlin, Germany

Take home project based on the candidate's experience and future responsibilities. Then discussion about the solution

Incloud

Darmstadt, Germany

Technical interview with developers, followed by a full day on site with a practical project

JustWatch

Berlin, Germany

Take-Home project, discussion on-site

K Health

Tel Aviv, Israel

Phone screening to discuss technical background and past experience. Take-home assignment followed by on-site code review and interview. Cultural fit assessment

Kata.ai

Malang, Indonesia / Jakarta, Indonesia

Take-home assignment, then invited to discuss the assignment and interview.

KINEXON

Germany

Take home project/challenge to work on in a certain time – afterwards the project as well as further skills/questions are discussed with the responsible Hiring Manager and another team member of the related role, within this second step all questions from the applicant will be answered as well. Afterwards a final decision is made, and feedback is provided to the applicant.

Landing.jobs

Lisbon, Portugal

Interviews (in-person or remote), Take home coding project

Monzo

London, UK & Remote

Phone interview with another engineer. Take-home assignment. Call to debrief on take-home assignment. Half-day interview (on-site or Hangouts) with three conversational sessions: (1) building on take-home test & real-world system design (verbal and collaborative); (2) digging into knowledge & understanding in 1-2 other relevant technical areas; (3) general background, teams and ways of working.

Nimble

Bangkok, Thailand; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Da Nang, Vietnam

Takehome exercise and specific role discussion

numberly

Paris, France

Series of interviews, that go over technical background, past experiences and cultural knowledge

Oncue

San Francisco, CA; Remote

Online coding test on real-world problems (2 hours). Technical discussion with developer team.

PayByPhone

Vancouver, Canada

Remote programming interview, on-site "meet the team"

Pilot

Remote

Two calls. Introduction one (30m) + verification of communication skills and remote work experience (15m)

Rever

Guadalajara, Mexico

Take-home project, on-site discussion or via Hangouts.

Square

San Francisco, CA

Pair programming in a work environment

Tes

Remote; London, UK

Remote pair programming session on React/Node kata with small takehome exercise as prep. Remote interview with senior engineers about previous experience, technical knowledge and interests.

Xplor

Melborne, Australia; London, UK

Phone Cultural Fit interview, Take home-code challenge, pair-programming session and discussion about past experience

YouGov

Remote; San Francisco, CA; London, UK; Warsaw, Poland; Mumbai, India; Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Coding exercise sometimes over github repository, at least 1 interview with a developer and a lead, no live coding.