BoomTown (South Carolina) Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

So, I had this interview with a startup that's growing super fast. It was broken down into three parts: first, a quick chat over the phone, then a coding test, and finally, some interviews with the actual team. The recruiter kicked things off, just asking about my past work, what I've done, and why I want to join them. It was pretty chill, and I got to talk about my career path. After that, came the technical part where I had to do a coding challenge within a time limit. It was about using algorithms and data structures to solve a problem, and I had to show how I think and code. I used Python since that's my go-to. It was hard, but I got a working solution. The last bit was meeting different people from the team, including engineers and the hiring manager. They threw in some technical stuff like system design and debugging problems, and also behavioral questions to see how I work with others and tackle issues. I liked being able to chat about my old projects and my problem-solving methods. All in all, it was a solid process, not too crazy, and it gave me a real feel for the company and what they're looking for.

You can submit your resume online or through an internal referral. Referrals get extra attention. Usually, you'll have an initial phone interview, then several in-person interviews. First, you'll meet with talent, then the hiring manager. After that, there's a deep technical interview with several engineers where they ask about what you've built, how you did it, and what you're passionate about. You might also have to design things and/or write code to solve a problem in a language you know. The last step is checking if you're a culture fit, interviewing with people from different departments. After all interviews, everyone discusses if you're a good fit.

I went through three rounds for this Associate Software Engineer role. It started with an email to schedule an initial phone call with the recruiter. This recruiter asked about my experience and skills, and I did most of the talking. It felt a bit awkward because they weren't very responsive, just taking notes. It was like repeating my resume. Then, I had a second phone interview with someone in charge of the position. The questions were similar, general stuff about my experience and job skills. Both phone interviews felt like they weren't trying to make me want to work there, just taking notes. Communication after that was poor; I was told someone else would email me about the next steps. The final interview was a video call with three people from the department, including the person from the second phone call. I was told beforehand it would involve discussing a project from my GitHub, but the video call started with the same repetitive questions for the first 10-15 minutes. The rest of the hour was skill-based: a pseudo-code problem, SQL, OOP, general CS concepts, a logic puzzle, and questions about my favorite app/software and how I'd improve it. I felt the process was dragged out and lacked feedback. My main issues were the repetitive questions, the lack of personal interest, and no feedback on my candidacy.