Actalent Software Engineer interviews, decoded.

The recruiter asked about my .NET and Angular experience. He also asked for character references and scheduled appointments with them before I took an exam. The exam was in ASP.NET web forms, which I hadn't worked with in a decade and had forgotten most of it. I failed the exam. Later that day, one of my references, my former boss, mentioned that an email had been sent to cancel the appointment and offer their IT sourcing service. He called me because this seemed like suspicious recruiter behavior. The interview process was a recruiter call, a take-home exam, and a background check, which eventually led to an offer.

I applied for a software engineering role, and after providing my availability for a call, I heard nothing back. About a week later, I was contacted about a different position with a lower salary. Despite my initial interest, I never received the promised job description via email, and subsequent communication ceased.

It was three interviews in total. First, a recruiter call, then an interview with a project engineer, and finally with a team engineer. The recruiter asked behavioral questions. The engineers asked technical and critical thinking questions, including coding, foundational knowledge, and how I would approach a problem.