1. Development technical test (homework)
2. Phone interview (30 min) - CV based
3. F2F interview (2h 15 min) - pair programming, 2 competency based sessions
The homework task was fairly interesting and doable in a reasonable time.
Phone interview was a relaxed chat about my experience and technology in general.
Pair programming (first 45 min of F2F) was also conducted in a friendly atmosphere and reasonable in scope.
The two competency based sessions (45 min, different pair of people each) were 80% overlaping in scope thus a bit of waste of time.
I got an impression of an "echo chamber" culture at the company.
When describing my experience in past teams I was being pushed into admitting it was a bad experience as soon as it became clear that the ways of working were different to Zopa's.
Also although the spec mentioned "we use the right tool or language for the job" and listed a bunch of languages, the interviewers seemed to be cautious and even explicitely against anything apart from C#.
It was quite apparent during the competency sessions what the interviewers want to hear and what they are reluctant about.
Therefore it should not be a problem for a motivated candidate to strike a chord with them.
I do not think echo chamber environments are right for me so I was sticking to my view of things based on my experience.
Not surprisingly there was no offer and the feedback included "concerns around organisational fits and ways of working".
Questions:
Implement a rate calculation system.
Extend your system with implementation of a simple additional requirement.
What was the most challenging project in your last job?
What would be your ideal team?
