Cerebri AI Interview Questions
& Process

Submitted an online application and a couple weeks later got a notification that an interview was set up via Zoom. No recruiter call, but straight to a hour-long interview. I was interviewing in DC and my interviewer was in Austin. The first thing that was strange was that I felt like I couldn't finish a sentence without getting interrupted. Could have been in part due to a lag on the audio/video. Then, as I was going through my resume, my interviewer kept asking me why I didn't make different career choices, like "so why don't you try to work for the EPA?"...to which I could only respond, "because I'm not interested in going that route." Overall, I felt like I never got the chance to tell the story of my career trajectory and what led me to apply for the Cerebri job because I kept getting side tracked by very strange questions. The second half was a coding challenge. Not very difficult, but the interviewer insisted that I couldn't test my code, since he was mainly interested in seeing how I thought through the problem. I talked through framing the solution, and after some iteration, got to a result I was happy with, but I could tell the interviewer had some issues with it and didn't think it was correct. After the interview was over, I ran the code and it produced results exactly as expected. A week or so later I was notified that they would not be moving forward with my application.

The interview process started with a Skype call that included HR questions. Next, I had a session with a company engineer, which covered coding, technical topics, and HR aspects to assess my fit. This was followed by a technical talk that went very well, and I was told to expect offer details in 4 days. However, after waiting many days without a response, I contacted them. A week later, I received another call from someone at Cerebri. Their process seemed disorganized, as the lead wanted to interview me again, unaware of my previous interview. I explained the situation and was promised a response within a week. After more than a week passed with no reply, I sent 4 emails over 4 weeks without a response. I then contacted the person from the third-round interview, only to find out they had left the company. As a last resort, I reached out to the new person who had initially called me for a second interview. Despite my efforts and two weeks of emails with this person, I eventually received an email stating my application was rejected. I really wish their process had been more responsive.

All interviews were conducted via Skype. The first was a general HR interview to gauge your fit with the company. The second was with the department head, involving more in-depth questions. A positive aspect was the good pay and the company's ambitious nature with existing clients, even as a startup. However, the communication and organization were quite poor, raising some concerns. After the initial interview, there was some contact, but I had to follow up to get a response. The second interview was very unprofessional; the interviewer was drinking a beer during the Skype call and seemed disorganized with his questions. I inquired about the hiring timeline and the need for prompt communication due to other offers. I was assured of a response within the day or the next. He failed to follow up or reply to my emails, requiring me to contact the initial point person to get a rejection notice. While the rejection itself wasn't an issue, the lack of follow-up after a specific promise was a significant red flag.

I had a long, informal chat with the head of HR. It was mostly a get-to-know-you session with a few behavioral questions. Then I spoke with the VP of Data Science about my experience and some critical thinking stuff. After that, I went back to interview with the head of research. It was another informal chat about my work, not super technical. They seemed really focused on seeing if I'd be a good fit overall. Got a verbal offer the evening after the third interview.