BRAIN CORP Interview Questions
& Process

The whole interview thing was a mess. It started with an external recruiter who said the company was starting a new AI project and I'd work with the CTO and maybe lead a team. This sounded okay even though it was a startup. I had a call with the CTO, who asked open-ended questions and seemed impressed. He said I'd get a prompt 24 hours before an interview to present on. The recruiter then said I'd fly in for an in-person interview, and the EA would set it up. But until two days before my flight, nobody contacted me, not even the recruiter. The night before my flight, the EA emailed and booked everything through a travel agent really quickly. No one gave me any real details about the interview except the presentation. When I got there, I checked my email for the prompt, but it wasn't there. I had to email the EA to get it, which I burned the midnight oil working on. The next day, I got to the venue, and the presentation was at the end of the day, after five one-hour technical interviews. The first interviewer just gave me a whiteboard and asked me to derive boundary conditions for a hyperparameter in AI optimization. I wasn't prepped for that! Some questions were about stuff from 10 years ago. The presentation went really well, I think, because I covered angles they hadn't considered and answered all questions. They recorded it. Three weeks later, still no word. The recruiter sent a vague email from the CTO saying I was 'great but didn't meet the threshold.' Then the recruiter mentioned they were rethinking the project's ROI because they had no customers. Apparently, they thought hiring one person was enough, but my presentation showed the real complexity. Eventually, the recruiter confirmed the role was suspended indefinitely. My theory is they used the interview to assess the project's viability for free, like a cheap consultant, and then canceled the role. It's unethical and puts a lot of pressure on job seekers, especially those on visas.

The interview process started with a coding assignment that took over 4 hours, which could be done in C++ or Python. If the coding assignment was good, I proceeded to five one-on-one interviews: the hiring manager, three future direct reports, and the recruiter/HR. There was no initial phone screen. The order of interviews and locations were a bit disorganized, but it didn't bother me. The facility and staff were nice. It was quite technical, focusing on coding and algorithms, even for a management role. I'm not sure if my youthful appearance affected the role or salary I was aiming for. The hiring manager seemed busy, distracted by his phone, and disengaged, quickly asking if I had questions, which I usually find to be a bad sign. My resume wasn't discussed in detail. The focus was on technical skills, especially Python, and specific problems they face.

So, I sent in my resume and heard back like 3 months later for an online coding test. Then, 3 days after that, I got a Skype interview. They asked me some general C++ and Python questions. After that, I had another Skype call with the team lead, but it wasn't technical, just about standard tools. The final step was an onsite interview where I talked with people from different departments like platform, navigation R&D, and HR. So, in total, there were 5 rounds: a first intro round, a coding round, another technical chat, a discussion with someone from R&D, and then a final chat with my potential team leader.

Had a quick chat about the job, my background, and the role's responsibilities. Then, I was given a take-home coding assignment with a week to complete it. About a week after I submitted it, they let me know my solution wasn't a good fit, without giving any specifics. Frankly, it feels a bit disrespectful to ask candidates to put in unpaid work on a project only to give zero feedback on why it didn't work out. If it wasn't such an incredibly inefficient way of doing things, I might think they were just trying to collect code samples instead of actually hiring.