Process was as follows:
1. Recruiter screening call:
The recruiter was friendly and helpful and stayed involved throughout the process. Their communication was very proactive and responsive. But note that they were siloed from some details of the tests and interviews. This is probably by design, but it meant they weren't too clear on how to best prepare for the interviews.
2. CoderByte take-home test:
The test included multiple choice questions and a free-text question testing my knowledge of Java and Spring Boot. Several questions and multiple choice answers were ambiguous/incorrect, so I had to guess the author's intent here.
The test also included two coding challenges using the web-based CoderByte development environment. The CoderByte platform is the worst coding test platform on the market and is extremely painful and frustrating to use. Its problems include a broken integrated web browser, broken auto-complete for imported library code, showing out-of-date log output, and network request timeouts.
The first coding test covered using Java, an HTTP client and JSON deserialisation. Because CoderByte is half-broken, I recommend memorising the interfaces of common HTTP clients and JSON libraries for this part so you can focus on the code instead of trying to find the exact APIs to use. I got feedback later on that I missed error handling here, so make sure to write robust code for this part, beyond just getting the solution to work.
The other coding challenge was LeetCode style, easy difficulty, in language of my choice. I got feedback for this part my solution didn't have optimal performance, so I suggest practising LeetCode (easy) beforehand and making sure to optimise the solution during the test.
3. Hiring manager technical interview:
This one was a very fast-paced 30m call with the hiring manager (who was also tech lead). They asked me to discuss a couple of my experiences mentioned in my resume. Then they drilled me on Java and Spring Boot to assess my proficiency in these technologies.
4. Panel interview:
This was a 1h interview with the hiring manager / tech lead, senior engineer, and platform manager. They asked many standard behavioural questions. Then they opened up my code solutions from my CoderByte take-home test and critiqued the code and solutions.
In the end I was rejected because my CoderByte code solutions were working but not polished (with robustness and optimal performance), and I was overqualified. They thought I was overqualified because I asked at the end about opportunities for growth and shared that I had a goal to grow into a senior role.
For future applicants, I recommend:
1. Do practise tests using CoderByte before starting the actual take-home test, to get familiar with its many limitations and how to work around them
2. Practise LeetCode (easy difficulty) to brush up on basic problem solving and optimising for time complexity
3. Pay attention with the multiple choice questions as the answers available to select from are poorly defined
4. Be careful to frame and position yourself in line with the job level you're going for, and don't bring up your ambitions, so they don't reject you as overqualified
