BenevolentAI Interview Questions
& Process

It was a three-stage process, with the last stage being a three-part interview. First, there was a screening call where I learned about the company. Then, I had a technical challenge, which was pretty straightforward in concept but tricky in presentation, mainly testing problem-decomposition skills. The final interview was a long, three-hour, three-part session: a frontend challenge that was general but quite lengthy, an engineering practices/fit discussion with three team members covering topics like best practices, testing, and designer collaboration, and a final algorithm-type question that was fairly standard and relevant to the company's work. The whole thing was smooth and professional, with quick responses from Brady, the recruiter. A feedback call happened the day after the final interview, and I got an offer.

I applied through a third-party recruiter and then BenevolentAI's talent acquisition team got in touch. They told me I was being considered and asked for my availability for a 30-minute call the next week. I replied the next day but had to follow up a week later as I didn't hear back. We finally scheduled a call for the following week. However, less than an hour before our scheduled time, the talent acquisition person emailed to say the job ad had mistakenly listed London as the location when it's actually in Cambridge. Since I couldn't relocate, I had to cancel the interview. It feels like this whole situation could have been avoided if the correct location was provided initially. Weeks later, I checked the job ad on the agency site and it's still wrongly advertised as being in London.

The process started first with a Talent Acquisition Specialist video interview, going through my past and present work experience, motivation and a detail description of the company and their mission. Second stage was a video call with Office Manager and Receptionist talking about the role in more detail, discussing skills, responsibilities, values and goals. Third round was a face to face with Head of Office Operation and the rest of the reception team, explaining what I could add to the role and had the chance to ask all the questions I needed to understand the role requirements.

So first up was this 20-30 min chat online with a recruiter, pretty chill, talking about the job, perks, my background, and why I was into it. That same day, they set up a 45 min interview with the Head of the Group and the Lead Cheminformatics Data Scientist I'd be working with. That second chat happened online about a week later. We went over my experience and skills again, and they gave me more deets on what this specific role needs. It was super friendly, we even went over by 15 min! Then, same day, the recruiter hit me up, wanting to move to the next stage: a big 3 hour online session with a bunch of teams and collaborators. This was like 10 weeks later, still online coz of Covid. It had a few bits: I had to give a 30 min presentation, then met with different teams in smaller groups for mini tech interviews on stuff like cheminformatics, medicinal chemistry, and drug design. Honestly, meeting so many people back-to-back and answering questions was a bit much, but everyone was nice, so it was way better than I expected. The third interview was in the morning, and that afternoon, the recruiter called to set up a fourth online meeting for the next day, just 20 min, to give me feedback. And surprise, that's when I got the offer! Overall, super fast, efficient, professional, and respectful.