betterworks Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process included a 1st round with the Hiring Manager (VP) where I had to explain a system architecture diagram I worked on previously. Then there were two tech rounds: the 2nd was part 1 (coding) and the 3rd was part 2 (system design). The final round was a repeat of explaining the architecture diagram.

I went through 4 rounds of interviews for this role. The first phone interview was fine, and things moved pretty fast until the very end. The second and third interviews went well, the people I spoke with were engaged and great. However, my final interview was really unprofessional. They rescheduled last minute, and then on the day of, they were over 15 minutes late without even letting me know after the reschedule. I had to email them. During that last interview, I didn't feel like they took me seriously from the start. I followed up afterwards and heard back that they decided to move forward with someone else.

The interview process wasn't standard. After the Hiring Manager round, I had a couple of technical rounds. In the HM round, they mentioned they're moving a monolithic Python app to JS and need help scaling it. The first interview was with a younger interviewer who asked me to solve an expression, which I did using a stack. He questioned why I didn't use only pointers, opining my solution was less efficient (which it wasn't). In the next interview, I was supposed to debug Python code with complex nested logic and simplify it. While I was doing that, they asked other questions. Finally, they asked for the output, and I asked for the input to provide it. They didn't like that and switched the question to writing snake code in JavaScript. I don't work with JS, but I still managed to answer. Ultimately, I was told I wasn't a fit. It seems management wants someone to scale architecture, but the engineers are focused on writing JS code. Management needs to realize these are different skill sets and hire experts to help them hire a Principal Engineer.

Interviewing with BetterWorks was a great experience. I talked with several team members who asked insightful questions about my background. The best part was that they didn't require any extra work or tests. Lissy from recruiting was excellent – she kept me informed about any changes or ongoing discussions, and was very professional. Their interview process made it clear they're very selective about who they hire, which I respect. Although I didn't get an offer this time, I'd be open to working with BetterWorks in the future.