I applied online. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Instructure (Salt Lake City, UT)
Interview
Step 1) Hackerrank generic programming questions plus a programming challenge. Timed 75 minutes for all of it. Stressful but doable.
Step 2) Video Interview with Lead Software Engineer. Talk about resume and technical stuff. Potentially some programming / system design depending on the position you're applying to.
Step 3) Interview at their Salt Lake City campus. Lasts 6 hours including lunch with the team.
A) Multiple 1 hour 1-on-1 interviews about random technical topics
B) Random puzzle whiteboard questions. Do you like solving hacker rank puzzle problems in under 30 minutes with a stranger awkwardly observing you, on a whiteboard? Yes? This is the interview for you.
Step 4) Wait ~1.5-2 weeks for a response. This kind of turnaround should worry you. I went for another position, while waiting, due to not enjoying my experience with the manager (team was great though).
Overall, the in-person interview was great. Everyone was nice and it was a mostly pleasant experience.
Cons:
Senior interviews with puzzle whiteboarding.
No one seemed to care to take the effort to look at or talk about past open source contributions, which I personally believe are a more valuable tool than asking candidates to whiteboard hackerrank puzzle problems with a marker.
Long turn-around time on responses.
Google "instructure diversity" to see their own data from 2016. I prefer companies with more diverse cultures. It was apparent on campus.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Is this a valid HTTP response?
RANDOM BLOCK OF HTTP WITH HTML
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Instructure
Interview
There were four phases: screening from the internal recruiter, a meeting with the two managers of the group, and two technical interviews (one for each team of devs). The recruiter accused me of not reading the job spec when I asked a simple question and then doubled back when I asked him for more details about something else. There were two managers: both seemed fine. The technical interviews were just a series of coding challenges that I solved in front of them while they asked questions. At one point, I noticed a dev had a weird zoom background about bugs and system errors. So, I asked him about it. The QA team had created it for him. He didn't seem happy about it. I received a good offer, but the contract had an overly-broad property assignment clause. Basically, everything I do on or off the clock gets assigned to them. The clause acknowledges that this is illegal in some states and makes exceptions for states where it's illegal. You can see what I'm talking about by reading the CEO's employment agreement, which is publicly available. It's more or less the same one they gave me. I found a lawyer to suggest some minor changes, and the recruiter came back asking me who I thought I was and saying that nobody else had a problem with this. I'd heard enough and turned down the offer.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Instructure in Jul 2021
Interview
Applied on their website, was contacted by their recruiter within 1 week. Had a phone interview then was pushed to an OA.
I received an OA assessment. This assessment consisted of basic CSS, JavaScript, and basic engineering multiple choice questions. Afterwards, I was given Evaluate Reverse Polish Notation. Beware that Hackerrank maes you read from STDIN for this OA, because of this I went ahead and coded my solution with Python although I normally code in C++.
I passed the Online Assessment, and was contacted by the recruiter the very next day.
We then scheduled a Phone Screen. The Phone Screen was done with a team lead, that was a bit on the weaker side technically, i suppose I had high expectations from a basic web dev to understand C++.
The interview itself was a number of basic engineering questions, think Web 101. I was then given a Hackerrank console and told to solve. I solved the question without hints, but was somehow rejected without feedback. I posted the question and the solution below.
I have 2 oncoming FAANG onsite loops so it was unusual that this happened even though i solved everything they gave me, my solutions were optimal and done without any type of hints. Perhaps I did not pass some hidden requirements?
I have received no feedback which is unfortunate, but seems to be the norm in this industry.
This was just a training interview for me as I have FAANG onsite loops incoming, and never really considered them, i pushed them on for weeks before taking any of their interviews. This being said i would have liked to see their onsite and do those problems, love me some free mock interviews!
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Instructure (Budapest) in Mar 2022
Interview
1. HR check
2. first round technical - easy coding tasks, free conversations
3. second round technical - same as previous
4. Talk to director - soft skill check. Most directors are easy guys