Brainlabs Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

First, I sent in my CV. Then there were some general aptitude tests where I definitely needed pen and paper. After that, a short phone call, about 15 minutes, for a culture fit. More aptitude tests followed, these were much harder, like A Level Maths, more theory. I also had to record a 2-minute presentation on a topic I chose. The assessment centre was the last part, and the earliest I could get was two months away. It was about three hours long and included a quick personal interview about my ambition, a personality interview, and two technical tests (one on theory and a basic Python test). The interviewers seemed pretty disorganized and unsure. I never heard anything back after that, not even a rejection, which was super frustrating after such a long process. A complete waste of time.

So I just had my first interview round today, and it was a really good and chill experience. They even invited me and two other candidates for lunch with the staff beforehand, which apparently happens daily. After lunch, the interview started with some general questions, then a coding exercise, followed by reasoning and math problems. The first two parts were with different interviewers in different spots, and the last two were on the computer. Overall, the difficulty was pretty manageable, maybe even easy, and they didn't put any pressure on us. There are a couple of things to note for future interviewees. For the coding part, you have to walk to another BrainLabs office, just a couple of minutes away. Once there, I just found the person I was supposed to and did the exercise. Heads up, the keyboard is UK style. I'm used to US keyboards, so finding symbols like '#' and '"' felt a bit odd and made me a little nervous at first. If you're like me, maybe practice with a UK keyboard for an hour or two beforehand. Also, the reasoning questions might be a bit tough due to time limits, especially for non-native English speakers. I found myself spending too much time just trying to read and fully grasp the questions. They weren't hard once I understood them, but it felt more like an English test than a reasoning one. I even encountered some words I'd forgotten or didn't know, so I don't think I did great on that section. It might just be me, but be prepared for this if English isn't your first language. Other than those two small things, the interview was great, and I really liked the environment. I heard back two days later, and unfortunately, I didn't make it to the second round because there were so many strong candidates. It was a bit disappointing since I thought I nailed the coding and math parts.

So after I applied, a few weeks later I got sent an IQ-like test. After I did that, I had a short video call with someone from the company where I basically just had to read through the manual. Then, there was a quick maths test, so I'd recommend studying basic trig and circles. After that, I had to do a one-minute presentation on whatever topic I wanted. The last step was to come into the office for a three-hour interview, which was split into three one-hour tasks. These tasks were: first, a bunch of questions to see if I'd fit in at Brainlabs, second, a simple Python programming task, and third, a harder algorithm question that involved sorting and searching data.