Culture Trip Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process had three stages: a short interview with an Engineering Manager, a take-home technical exercise, and a longer interview with a Tech Lead and Senior Developer. The first interview was mainly focused on who I was, what I was looking for, and what Culture Trip was like to work for. It was booked for 45 minutes but ran to almost twice that length, and the Engineering Manager was very open and easy to talk to and answered all of my questions honestly. The technical exercise was easy to understand but had a lot of room to make your own design decisions. In the brief they suggested the standard '2 to 3 hours', and I took closer to 9, though by this point I ignore any time suggestions for take home tests. The test was well made for the domain and used all of the core technologies of the position I was interviewing for and there were no 'gotcha' elements. The final interview was mostly going over my submission for the technical exercise, covering my design decisions, what I thought could be improved upon and what they thought could be improved upon. The interviewers were always supportive and never condescending, lending a real code review feel to the interview. At every stage the feedback and resolution was reasonably prompt, but could have been quicker. Despite not receiving an offer I had a very positive experience with Culture Trip and will be at the top of my list next time I'm looking for a job.

I applied by emailing my CV and a cover letter. I heard back in a day and was asked to come in the next day at 17:30. I got there a bit early and was greeted by a messy desk area and someone ignoring me. Another person came over, she was friendly and made me feel more comfortable. I waited at the desk next to a bin. The team arrived after 17:30 and one person stared at me so I moved. The interviewer came and we went to the meeting room. She didn't ask any pleasantries and didn't take notes or seem interested, constantly looking away and staring blankly at me. The questions were about experience, opinion, and behaviour, some felt like free consultation. The interview was only about 25 minutes. I was surprised to be invited for a second interview the next evening. I suggested a video call as I couldn't travel back. They were over 20 minutes late, but the interviewer was friendly. The questions were mostly the same as the first interview, but with more detail. I asked about the next stage and was told I'd hear by the end of the week, but if not, I should email to remind her. I didn't hear anything and emailed, getting a weak response two weeks later. Totally unprofessional.

I applied because I loved Culture Trip's online content, but the interview was a letdown. The office felt small and cramped, like a school common room. The interviewers seemed too young for their senior roles. The interview focused on skills and background, and I was asked for creative ideas on the spot. I was then asked to do a take-home assignment for a second round, which felt pretty basic. After I submitted it, I never heard back. They didn't ask for salary expectations early on, and I suspect the role's level wouldn't match my goals. Given this and negative Glassdoor reviews, I decided not to follow up for feedback.

The interview process started with a phone screen, followed by a take-home test. The take-home involved deploying a k8s cluster and app using Terraform/IaC on a public cloud, which might cost money (I spent £7.21 on AWS). The face-to-face part had four segments: system design (whiteboard), DevOps questions (chat), abstract thinking (research abstract algorithm problems, it's a surprise!), and culture/agile (standard questions about job expectations). I turned down any offer before getting one, as I wasn't sold on the business or their cramped office.