Benchling Interview Questions
& Process

I interviewed with Benchling. The first step was a recruiter call, then a 1-hour LeetCode-style coding problem. I didn't get the job, but I thought the interviewer and recruiting team were great. The interviewer was really engaged. I asked about my weaknesses, and they gave me some good advice. I was able to work through the solution, but I ran out of time to optimize it further or discuss the time/space complexities. Overall, I had a really good experience with them. The problem was about cache eviction, which involved hash maps and queues and had some tricky parts and edge cases.

The HR rep was really nice and professional. Had an interview with the HR manager that was pretty standard. I was then given a prompt to create a presentation. I followed the prompt precisely, including AI/ML aspects of their product. I felt it was a well-put-together and thorough presentation. Sadly, I didn't get the job and just received a generic reason. It was pretty disappointing considering how much effort I put into preparing. I think they could improve their process, and I don't agree with the reason they gave in the email.

The interview process started off fine, but ended poorly. Recruiter call had the basic screening questions, overall a good conversation and they were clear on expectations. Next was the hiring manager screen, where the hiring manager was 5+ minutes late to the 30 minute call, proceeded to explain why they were late for another 5 minutes, gave an introduction into their experience and what they're looking for, only asked me two questions, and then didn't give me a chance to ask any questions at the end. They acknowledged not giving me any time to ask them questions about the role and committed to answering the questions I had through email once I sent the questions to the recruiter. Did just that and did not receive any answers or updates for 3 weeks - only to receive the generic rejection email from the recruiter. The experience was rather disappointing, moreso for the fact that the hiring team did not respect the candidate's time nor ability to get their questions answered.

It was a really intense interview process. It started with a recruiter phone call, then a hiring manager interview. After that, there was a presentation panel interview, and then a virtual onsite that included another presentation and four more interviews. It was a lot. Throughout the process, I got good feedback and they even offered prep calls for the presentations. The only downside was going through the whole month-long process, putting in a lot of prep time and meeting people, only to have them choose someone else. I didn't get much constructive feedback after the decision, which was disappointing. I really thought I had a good shot at the role. My advice for others interviewing for this position is to proactively ask for feedback or address any hesitations they might have during the process so you don't end up investing so much effort without getting the job. The role and company seem great, but the interview process could be shorter with better communication and feedback.