CTI Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

So I applied and they got back to me super fast to schedule a phone screen with two software engineers. They were really nice, but honestly seemed a bit out of the loop about the company. Like, I asked them why they had so many offices but not many people in them, and they were like, "Huh. I'm not sure." They talked about the company like it was a general contractor with a kinda unclear focus on defense. Then they sent over a take-home assignment that was supposed to take about 4 hours, but they gave me the whole weekend (48 hours) to do it. It was a weird mix of an abstract system design question, a coding part, a testing part, and something about showing I know version control. Never seen anything like it. The prompt was super vague and told me to "ask questions!" but since it was the weekend and take-home, that wasn't an option. Usually, abstract system design involves a back-and-forth where you ask clarifying questions and build a design. Here, I was basically asking and answering my own questions. I figured out the problem parameters, use cases, made a design, coded a bit (they suggested an hour for this), wrote tests (another hour), and put together a detailed design doc with diagrams. After a week, I got a canned response saying they weren't moving forward. I asked for feedback, and they said they couldn't get my code to run and that I should have used something "more generic" than Python. I'm guessing they're a Java shop, so maybe avoid Python even though they said it was okay. Overall, not a great experience.

I applied online. The first step was a phone screening with two engineers. They seemed nice but a bit awkward. The next part was a take-home assignment, which they said should take 4-8 hours but gave a week to complete. They said to ask questions, but they didn't reply much, which was annoying. The last stage was a panel interview with several engineers. They asked technical and behavioral questions, and questions about my take-home assignment, and then I did a live coding session. The engineers were friendly again. The phone screen and interview had friendly engineers, but their slow responses made the whole thing less enjoyable. It's a remote company, so you'd expect better communication. HR was also slow to respond, taking ages to get back to me about scheduling, general questions, and more. Because of all this, it was not a good experience.

It started with a typical phone interview. Then I was given a small project to complete within a week, which was manageable. After that, the in-person interview lasted about 3 hours. It began with some behavioral and technical questions, and then I talked with other team members. Even though I didn't get an offer, they were very professional, communicative, and easy to reach throughout all stages, which is quite different from many companies that just ignore you.