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

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

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

JustWatch

Berlin, Germany

Take-Home project, discussion on-site

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.

Sixt

Munich, Germany

4 stages: 1st HR, 2nd take-home project, 3rd follow-up discussion, 4th on-site interview with team plus HR

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.