Daybreak Game Company Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

First met the hiring manager and they explained the process. Then I was set up in a conference room and got to ask some general company questions to the hiring manager. The first part of the interview was a technical test on paper, which included short answer language questions, coding problems, and explanation questions. After that, I spent about an hour with the first group of interviewers discussing my test. We reviewed my answers, what I got right and wrong, and the reasoning behind them. It was helpful to get feedback on my performance and even a chance to correct mistakes if I misunderstood a question. This was followed by 2-3 more rounds of interviews, which included a mix of behavioral and technical questions. Finally, I had a meeting with a senior leader for a non-technical interview. This part consisted mostly of behavioral questions and some discussion about benefits and salary. About a week later, the recruiter contacted me with feedback and information about the next steps.

Applied online and then got an email from HR to schedule a phone interview with two team members. I was anxiously waiting for the call on the interview day, only to find out HR had scheduled it at the wrong time, so I had to email to confirm. Fortunately, I passed the phone interview and was flown out for an in-person, multiple 1:1 interview with the rest of the team. Some of the 1:1s were enjoyable, others were odd. One employee was brutally honest about the company's direction and its challenges, and it devolved into a rant where they advised me against working there. Another was arrogant and seemed like they had better things to do. After I finished the 4 interviews, the last person might have forgotten to tell HR that we were done and went to lunch instead. So I waited 20 minutes in a room before finally calling HR to let them know the interviews were complete. Overall, the company revealed itself. Very disorganized. Please treat future candidates with respect, just as they respect the interviewers.

The whole process dragged on for over two months. I had to go through several rounds with different people because the interviewers didn't even show up sometimes. And get this, after I finished all the final rounds, they totally ghosted me for like two weeks before sending a lame, generic rejection email. After all that, I definitely expected them to at least be professional when they talked to candidates.