Better Data Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

A colleague referred me to an open position. Initial phone call with recruiter went fabulously. Set me up with some time for a technical interview with a senior data engineer. Technical interview was a bit awkward. I didn't entirely understand one of the Q's and had trouble working through it as a consequence. Once the interviewer explained to me what the Q was, I was able to solve quickly. On that note, the Q exhibited poor code design – I thought it was a bug and was trying to figure out why the code was writing that way. I did not make it past that technical round. Recruiter emailed me with the news, which is nice. They even referred me to a free 30 min apt with a career coach. That was nice of them.

There were a total of 6 interviews. First, a Recruiter Interview for basic intro and to check qualifications, culture, and comp. Then, an interview with the Director of Engineering about skillset and job fit. Next, an interview with an analytics engineer focusing on BI and general analytics. After that, an Engineering Manager interview to check management experience. Then, a Senior Data Engineer interview for coding skills, including Python code reading and exercises. Finally, an interview with the Director of Data Engineering to assess strategy and architecture knowledge, along with some personality questions. The coding exercises were rough; I solved a SQL question quickly, but the interviewer couldn't confirm if it was correct, focusing too much on hypothetical edge cases instead of moving on. They even questioned my chosen solution method at the end, dismissing my offer to use their less efficient approach due to time constraints. This felt strange, especially given their diversity claims. I wasn't chosen, with them citing 'more experience' despite me meeting qualifications and doing well. It felt like a waste of 7 hours. They should have been upfront about experience preferences or stated my inadequacy earlier instead of stringing me along.

I applied online and then had a 30-minute call with a recruiter. After that, I had a technical round with the team. They asked me for a brief background and details about my current projects and timelines. There were two assignments: one for SQL skills and another for Python. For the SQL part, they gave requirements and asked how I would construct the query. The Codility link didn't work during the interview, so having pen and paper ready is a good idea. For Python, I had to review code, explain its functionality, and suggest corrections for any edge cases. The interviewer was really helpful and made me feel at ease. The recruiter contacted me via email about their hiring decision three days after the interview.