Ashby Interview Questions
& Process

I thought the interview process was pretty good overall. They gave me a lot of info so I knew what to expect. Everyone was nice and I enjoyed it. I got rejected at the technical assessment stage. They act like a pair programmer and code based on your instructions. My biggest tip is: DON'T try to understand the codebase, they want you to implement; focus on execution, not understanding. Go bottom-up and don't go too deep into the component chain. I tried to understand the code holistically, but that wasn't what they were looking for.

Heads up for future candidates, check the negative feedback on their software interviews first to save time. If you're still going for it, here's what happened. The first interview was supposed to be 30 mins with the Hiring Manager, but he was late and it ended up being 15 mins. It was mainly to see if you're a "Product" engineer, with usual background questions and some "tell me about a time you did X" questions focused on product. It wasn't too bad given the time. Next was the Technical Screening with an Engineer. They share their screen and ask you to add another filter to a section that queries interviews. The idea is okay, but directing someone through a Zoom screen share on an unfamiliar codebase adds complexity. The codebase itself was a mess, a monorepo thrown together, unnecessarily over-engineered and convoluted, which I think is a prime example of the Dunning Kruger effect. It's like playing mental juggle with nested Russian dolls, just to make everything reusable. If you can navigate that, good for you. They were polite and gave decent, though ultimately fluffy, information about the process.

The interview started with a 30-minute chat with a recruiter, who was really nice and helpful. Then, there was a 25-minute meeting with the Engineering Manager. It felt a bit rushed, and honestly, making it so short didn't seem to make sense given how much needed to be discussed. The next part was a pair coding session, focusing on both backend and frontend. They wanted us to modify their existing repository, which involved React, GraphQL, TypeScript, and Node.js, plus SQS, so definitely for seniors in these areas. A cool thing was that at each stage, we got an email with a lot of reading material and the exact questions we'd be asked. They really stuck to those questions, just adding a few follow-ups, which I found super helpful and good for neurodivergent folks. On the downside, the interviewers seemed pressed for time, skipping intros to get straight to the questions. The coding part was a lot for someone neurodivergent, juggling multiple tabs and having to verbalize every thought. It didn't feel like a real-world scenario; usually, incident response is longer, not full-stack, and not pair programming with unfamiliar tech. To top it off, the interviewer cut the coding session short after 38 minutes, saying there wasn't enough time to finish. While I understand not everyone meets the bar, as an interviewer myself, we typically let it play out and end professionally, leaving room for future opportunities. This experience gave a negative impression, like their time was too valuable for a proper closing. It’s a red flag, especially for a remote-first, single IC company, to use pair programming as a filter. In today's AI age, struggling with unfamiliar syntax without help is inefficient.

After applying, a recruiter reached out and scheduled an interview. Then I met with the hiring manager, but they didn't proceed with me. Both interviews started with me asking my questions first, which felt off and made it hard to sell myself and discuss my experience, leading to generic answers. I prefer to save my questions for the end. The interviewers' questions were vague, and they said my answers were vague too. The interview style and questions lack a personal, conversational feel, especially starting with candidate questions. It felt like they wanted to rush through it. They keep reposting the job because they can't find anyone, which is their fault for the poor structure and questions. I found a better company that chose me as much as I chose them. Ashby didn't really want me.