Deque Systems Interview Questions
& Process

The interview began with a recruiter call where the recruiter seemed uninterested and interrupted me. They cut the call short and didn't allow time for my questions. Despite this, I was invited to an interview with the hiring manager the following week. The hiring manager seemed unprepared, reading from a script and not allowing for detailed answers. They also didn't seem to understand the SDLC or Agile processes. Following this, I was given a take-home assignment that took about 4 hours, which seemed to be a real company problem with specific jargon and a poorly written PRD. Ultimately, I received a generic rejection email, indicating my assignment solved their problem and they no longer needed me. The company's use of only GitHub and not JIRA or Confluence suggests they are not a modern organization.

Deque operates in the Digital Accessibility field with a strong commitment to equality. My interview experience with their team, from the recruiter to the CEO, was excellent. They were respectful of my time, and the entire process was smooth and transparent. I felt a genuine connection with the organization and its people, which made me realize this is where I want to build a long-term career.

The interview process had a few stages. I first had a 15-20 minute screening chat with someone from recruiting. After that, there was a 90 minute technical interview. Then, a 60 minute group interview focused on culture fit. They also gave me an individual accessibility auditing assignment that should take about 1-2 hours. I enjoyed talking with the accessibility team, but my recruiter wasn't super communicative. They didn't give me much info on how to get ready for the technical or group interviews. I ended up taking another job because the Deque recruiter kind of disappeared and never got back to me after I reached out a few times.

It started with a phone screen by an internal recruiter who only cared about quotas and how long I'd been at each job, which was on my resume anyway. He wasn't interested in sales methodologies, cycles, or anything that would show I was a good fit. He actually said that multiple 2-year tenures mean you're a bad salesperson. He ended by saying he liked my tenure and would pass my info on for the next step, an interview with the hiring manager. I never heard back and he didn't even reply to my email asking for an update. No common courtesy at Deque Systems.