Cadre Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I applied in late April. First, I had a phone screen with HR, which went really well, and I was selected for the next round. Then, I did a code pair with a lead engineer where I had to complete his questions and ensure the program output was correct. Since that went well, I was called in for an onsite. The onsite started with a lead engineer asking a mix of technical and non-technical questions. Next, another lead engineer conducted a non-technical interview focused on my experience. After that, I had a systems design interview where I had to create a solid design and discuss optimizations. The final interview was a technical programming interview where I couldn't solve the main question completely and my code was inefficient, though we had a casual conversation afterwards. The company treats people really well and they even took me out for lunch!

The interview process began with a difficult but manageable hackerrank challenge. Next, a phone screen was conducted, primarily inquiring about my interest in Cadre and my software engineering background. This was followed by a video call where I worked through coding problems with an engineer. The final stage was an onsite interview, which included a behavioral assessment, a system design discussion, and another coding/algorithm problem. Additionally, there was a lunch interview with a group of engineers and another candidate.

The interview process started with the usual phone screen and then moved to an onsite interview. The phone screen was pretty straightforward, with a standard question about trees. The onsite was a bit more challenging. The coding questions seemed to focus on specific details rather than the overall approach, which I don't think is the best way to evaluate candidates, especially since it had to be done on an old Chromebook using their HackerRank platform. There was also a design question that I felt I could have handled better. Honestly, by that point, I was already leaning towards it not being a good fit because I couldn't get a clear, concise explanation of what Cadre actually does. I had done my research, so I had some idea, but I was hoping the interviewers could explain their mission clearly and simply. After about three interviews, I got a better grasp, but I expected each person to be able to sell me on their work instead of giving me fragments of the company's purpose. The office was nice, and the lunch was great though.