COTA Interview Questions
& Process

The interview was about an hour long and I met virtually with two managers. We covered a lot of ground, including scenario-based questions. Many of these questions were about developmental services, like 'What is DSO?' and 'What's the passport program for people with disabilities?'. They also asked about mental health conditions, such as 'Can you explain borderline personality disorder?'. The last part involved a written exercise, an advocacy scenario. Keep in mind, the exact questions might differ based on the specific Cota department you're applying to, since they tailor them to the case management type.

The interview process included an initial recruiter call, followed by two more in-person interviews with team members. On the plus side, COTA is a cool, fast-growing company with a unique tech focus. Everyone I met was friendly, genuine, and really believed in the company's mission. The culture seemed good. On the downside, it felt very unprofessional and disorganized, with poor communication, ignored emails, delayed responses, and confusion about my candidacy status for weeks. While startups are busy, a basic level of courtesy and respect is expected for the time candidates put in, and COTA fell short.

It was a multi-part, really practical process. I had to do a coding homework assignment, and then there was whiteboarding with some tricky algorithm and Big-O questions. After that, I got to the final stages where they flew me out to their office. I spent the day meeting different teams. A lot of that was just chatting, but some of it involved technical stuff.

The interview with Cota Healthcare was really professional and pretty thorough. I got to talk to people at all levels there, ask questions, and get their thoughts. Everyone I chatted with seemed invested and interested in hiring. The onsite interviews were done well, and they were flexible with scheduling ahead of time to work with my calendar. Overall, it was a great experience.