Buildium Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

First interview went ok. The technical interview did not go well. It involved two exercises: a simple OOP one and another logical algorithm. There was limited time to complete both exercises. I think filtering candidates this way is really dumb and a waste of time.

The interview process was pretty fast, taking about two weeks. Initially, I applied expressing interest in frontend development alongside backend. I received a video call invitation. The first interview was with the person in charge of the Portugal office in Porto. They presented the company's business, and I shared my career background and professional expectations. It was unusual not to be contacted by HR first. The manager then sent an assessment with two parts: an algorithm logic problem about an ATM dispensing specific bill denominations (requiring modulus operations), and an object-oriented programming question involving encapsulation, polymorphism, and inheritance, with a task to add more tests to existing unit tests. Each assessment part was allocated about 30 minutes. This was followed by another video call to discuss the assessment, understand my thought process, and hear my reasoning. Then, there was an interview in English to gauge my language proficiency. This English interview was more challenging, asking about architectural solutions for scalable systems, how to track metrics if the error tracking system failed, how to avoid constant database hits, and how to improve the performance of a URL shortener. Subsequently, the engineering manager inquired about my availability to start, mentioning a potential interview with a VP at Buildium. However, this interview never happened. Instead, I received a job offer with a contract draft. Confusingly, the contract listed Upperhand Software, a Portuguese consulting firm, instead of Buildium. Research confirmed Buildium in Portugal had rebranded to Upperhand Software, with Portuguese ownership rather than US. The offered salary for the senior role was below my expectations, and due to the unclear situation with the company in Portugal, I declined the offer. Overall, the interview experience was good, despite the lack of clarity regarding the company's status in Portugal, possibly due to COVID. The company currently has no physical presence in Portugal.

I applied online and then had a phone chat with HR a few days later. That talk was all about Buildium's values and my fit with them. After that, I got sent two tech assessment projects, which I spent about a week on. Then came two more interviews: first with a senior dev, then the dev manager. Both were focused on tech questions and how Buildium functions from a dev standpoint. My last interview was with some team members I'd be working with, where I learned about the team and went over my tech assessment with another dev. The whole thing took a while to schedule due to vacations and stuff, but they were super responsive and kept me in the loop.