Color Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 33 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at Color.
Color
Software Engineer
Entry Average Positive experience No offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Phone screen
Interview formats
Technical Coding
So, a recruiter hit me up on LinkedIn and I had this initial chat with HR, which I felt went pretty well. After that, they set up a phone interview with an engineer. During that call, I got asked about this MS Paint clone thingy that I've seen others mention. Honestly, I don't think I nailed it. I'd been prepping hard for a FAANG interview right before this, so my head was full of algorithms and data structures, but my brain just wasn't firing on all cylinders that day. Because of that, I figured I wouldn't make it to the next stage. But, given how the first HR call went, it sounded like they really needed engineers, so I was kinda hoping they might overlook it. It's been over a month since that interview and crickets. They totally ghosted me. I tried reaching out to the recruiter and the person who set up my interview, but no response. It's super annoying, especially since they reached out to me. I just wish they'd had the guts to just say no – I would've understood based on my performance. Leaving me hanging like this is way worse and just makes them look unprofessional and like they don't respect my time.
Confirmed questions1 question
- I don't recall everything perfectly since it's been a while, but it was the MS Paint clone problem that others have described. You don't need a user interface, just functions like 'paint' and 'undo,' with the ability to undo multiple times. The input is an array of strings representing pixel colors, and the output should be the updated array after a paint or undo action.
Color
Software Engineer
Mid Average Positive experience Accept offer 3 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Phone screen Technical screen Onsite
Interview formats
Behavioral Technical System Design
The process involved a recruiter phone screen, an initial interview, and then a 4-hour onsite. I was really happy with how fast the whole process went, and the quick responses from the recruiting team for updates. It took about a month in total (including a two-week holiday break), and I got an offer a few days after the final round. I really enjoyed interviewing at Color; all my interviewers were professional, friendly, great listeners, and excited about the company. The questions weren't super hard algorithmically, but I did feel some time pressure because I realized they were two-part, like an initial step and then a final one. I felt they were pretty representative of a typical workday, especially collaborating with the interviewer on the process. Everyone seemed passionate about their work and helping the community. It was also refreshing to see a pretty even gender split as a woman in engineering coming from a company with retention issues for women.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- Can you tell me about a recent project where you learned something new?
- Describe how you would design a user-facing interface.
Color
Software Engineer
Senior Easy Negative experience No offer 4 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Phone screen Technical screen Onsite
Interview formats
Behavioral Technical
Started with a recruiter screen, then had a call with the hiring manager. That HM call was a really bad experience. I had to really push to find out about the team, and they finally admitted the other four members were remote across the country, but this job requires being in the office in Burlingame. The HM even tried to spin it as a positive, talking about collaboration with other teams and leadership. Then, despite seeing my experience, they tried to push me into a more junior role. They got offended when I hinted that maybe being in the office with the main company could lead to more opportunities for me after a year. After that, they ghosted me. According to the recruiter, the rest of the process involved a technical screen and then a full onsite round.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- Tell me about some of your previous projects.
- Do you see yourself growing beyond a senior engineer role?
Color Software Engineer Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from Color interview reports.
“Given a list of meetings with start and end time, return overlapping intervals”
Read reports →“Write code to scrape data using an API request.”
Read reports →“Implement a Painter class, as others have posted.”
Read reports →“Could you implement a virtual paint object class that includes paint(x,y, color), undo(), and redo() functions?”
Read reports →“What are some reasons someone might choose the desktop web app instead of the mobile app?”
Read report →“Could you program a light switch to control bulbs of varying wattage using Codepen?”
Read report →“Could you design a class for controlling a dimmer, with a minimum value of 5 (off) and a maximum value of 15 (fully on)?”
Read report →“How would you implement a "MS Paint"-like interface with "draw_pixel", "undo", and "redo" capabilities?”
Read report →“Can you implement a lightbulb class and a dimmer class that controls the lightbulbs based on wattage and output?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 33 Color interview reports.