BILL Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process started with an online assessment, then a recruiter screen, and finally an onsite interview which consisted of two technical interviews and one hiring manager interview. It took some time to get feedback on the OA, but once I passed the recruiter screen and finished the onsite, things moved quite fast.

The interviewer was nice but ended up confusing me significantly. The expected output seemed to be different from what he initially communicated, which threw off my thought process. When I pointed out the discrepancy, he acknowledged that he was also confused, which cost us about 20-25 minutes. I was interviewing for a frontend position, and I understand that some people might disagree with what I'm about to say. The problem given was a variation of the Knapsack problem. While data structures and algorithms (DSA) have become standard in interview processes, I don't see why the Knapsack problem is relevant for frontend interviews. In my experience, complex optimization or calculations are rarely part of frontend work. Before we started, the interviewer mentioned that the problem was small, but small code doesn't necessarily mean it's easy. With some hints, I realized it was a dynamic programming (DP) problem, but the interviewer was set on a specific solution he had in mind and didn't allow me to explore alternative approaches. After the interview, I checked and found that the solution was indeed a DP implementation. However, I still don't understand what he expected from me. I ended up implementing a brute-force solution using backtracking, but he said he couldn't follow my code. At that point, I wanted to tell him that there are often multiple ways to solve a problem and different ways to write code. Given the current tough job market, the experience left me feeling quite disheartened.

This interview process was pretty bad, disorganized and unprofessional. It took about a month and a half in total. I had multiple recruiter calls, then they scheduled me for a technical interview the very next day at 9 AM, giving me less than 24 hours to prep. When I joined the call, the interviewer didn't show up. I messaged the recruiter, and they didn't respond for 7 hours, saying the interviewer had no clue they were scheduled. I agreed to reschedule, and they set it up for a little over a week later. That interview was okay, the problem was interesting and I liked the interviewer. The recruiter said the feedback was positive and they wanted me for a final 2-hour interview. Two weeks later, I had that interview with two people. The first part was a practical coding assignment, which I think went well. The second interviewer was the director, and they had their camera off most of the time and forgot details I'd already shared. After the interview, I got an email saying I had positive feedback and would be a great fit. The recruiter then asked for a call, where I was told I was a great fit but they chose someone else. They wanted to see if they could find another role for me. I agreed, and after another day of waiting, they told me they had also filled that role. I just wish I had been treated with more respect, even though I know business is business. The engineering folks and some recruiters seemed nice, but the overall process felt poorly run, and I'd suggest others avoid interviewing with BILL.