CLARA analytics Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

It was a three-part process. First, a 30-minute chat with the CTO, which was pretty chill and mostly about my background and their tech. Then, an online assessment to do on my own time; it was pretty easy with two Java questions, some multiple-choice stuff, and SQL problems. One Java question involved using GSON to interact with an API and filter JSON, which was tricky to figure out without a vanilla Java solution. The other Java question was to write an LRU cache. Finally, there was a panel with engineers and a manager that felt more like trivia, like asking about 'final' and String immutability. They also wanted a basic system design for their document/data processing app, which I don't know much about. There was some live coding, including a variation of 'two sum' and SQL questions, but I couldn't run the code. The third part really soured the whole thing, especially since two engineers just left the meeting without a word.

The interview process has two main stages. First, there's a phone call where they do live coding in a shared link. The coding question is pretty basic, meant to test your programming logic, likely involving Java's HashMap and Lists. After that, there are four technical rounds during an onsite interview.

The interview process had 3 main stages: 2 phone interviews and then an onsite Interview. The phone interviews were pretty straightforward if you knew your CS fundamentals. They mostly asked questions based on the skills listed on my resume. I passed those and moved on to the onsite, which was about 3 hours long and had 4 parts. One part was all about system design. The second part focused on Java EE (hibernate) and general fundamentals. The third was purely Javascript, and the fourth covered testing and basic OOPS concepts. Honestly, the questions weren't that hard. I noticed the interviewers were more focused on their laptops than on me, which made it a bit awkward. It felt like the interviews were just going through the motions. Two interviewers incorrectly pointed out my misunderstandings on some basic principles, which was weird because I was sure I was right. The other two interviewers seemed knowledgeable. It makes you wonder what happens when the interviewers themselves aren't solid on the fundamentals. I've decided I probably wouldn't join even if they offered me the job.