Chartboost Interview Questions
& Process

I was contacted by a recruiter on LinkedIn for a Technical Solutions Engineer role. The initial recruiter call was pretty straightforward, mostly covering points from the job description. The recruiter seemed to think my previous company's work was very similar to theirs, which was a key factor in their interest, even though I felt there were significant differences. I then had an interview with someone from 'solutions engineering and business operations'. This conversation was generally easy to navigate, but the questions felt a bit off and intentionally unstructured, as if to catch me off guard. Immediately after I answered, the interviewer gave feedback, stating my responses didn't meet expectations. Personally, I'd prefer a technical challenge followed by a discussion on culture and best practices, rather than being evaluated on how well I fit a perceived expectation, especially when it felt a bit random and frustrating.

The interview process was quite long, spanning from early November to just before Christmas. It involved five stages. First, a recruiter call for basic English fluency check, then they switched to Spanish. This was followed by two challenging HackerRank coding tests, each with a 100-minute time limit for two difficult algorithmic problems. Next was a technical interview with the Engineering Manager, where I felt I performed very well. The fourth stage involved meeting potential teammates, which was surprisingly difficult; the advice is to appear less experienced than you are. This stage involved five consecutive interviews with different people, concluding with another meeting with the Engineering Manager. Finally, there was a waiting period for an offer, but I had to reach out after a week with no news. Ultimately, I was told I wouldn't receive an offer, possibly because my salary expectation of 90K euros was at the upper end of their 60-90K range, and another candidate might have accepted a lower offer. My advice is to apply to multiple roles and be cautious about disclosing involvement in other interview processes.

I had a really good time interviewing with Chartboost, I'd suggest interviewing with them if they reach out. Lefan Chi from their Global Talent team was super responsive and set up my interviews quickly. The team was great - nice, on time, and open. The questions and challenges were relevant to the job and felt purposeful. They were happy to answer my questions too. Keep in mind their team might be in a different timezone, but they were flexible and made time for me. Since I had another offer, they were super fast from the first interview to the end, which I appreciated because they respected my time. Just be upfront about your situation if you interview, and they'll work with you. I rated the difficulty as 'Difficult' because SRE roles usually don't require coding or deep networking, but this felt like the right level.

The interview process was pretty smooth and clear, and everyone I met was really nice! It had 5 rounds plus an assignment. I first chatted with HR from the Amsterdam office, Kristel, who was very friendly and told me about the company, then asked about my background. The next day, I met my hiring manager over Zoom. We had a nice, relaxed chat mainly about my understanding of the industry and my past experience and skills. Then, I got to do an analytical assignment, which was actually fun. After I submitted it, I talked with the head of the team for about 45 minutes. After that, I had online 'onsite' interviews with my potential future colleagues. They were all friendly, and these interviews made me want to work there even more. Global HR then contacted me to say things went well and invited me to speak with the VP. A final quick chat with global HR concluded the hiring process – a face-to-face congrats! I got the written offer a few hours later.