Dover Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process at Dover was disappointing, feeling one-sided and lacking engagement. I spoke with someone without a recruiting background who asked pre-determined questions from the team lead, making it robotic. They used AI for notes, which can be biased and lacks a human touch. It was frustrating that the position was reposted after my interview without any communication on next steps, showing a lack of empathy and professionalism. If AI is part of the process, human interaction should still matter. Overall, I didn't feel valued as a candidate.

I only had 2 interviews. The first was with an interview specialist and had basic questions about past employment and why I want to work for the company. A week later I was contacted via email and told I moved on to the next round which was a set of 3 very tedious writing and research exercises. You have a second interview with an actual support rep to answer any questions you have about the exercise because it is a lot to do and you have to set hours aside to do it. That interview was ok, the support rep I met with hung up on me before I could finish so that wasn't a good sign. I finished the exercise and sent it to their support manager or lead and never heard anything back. I emailed the recruiter I had been in contact with through the entire process and he never got back to me. Three weeks have gone past and I see on Linkedin they hired someone a few days. So just beware.

The whole interview process took about 5 weeks. It started with a very impersonal screening interview that lasted only 10 minutes, with the interviewer not even showing their face. The questions felt like they belonged in an online application. Immediately after, I was invited to the next round, a live coding interview. There was a 15-day wait for this one. The coding interview itself was pretty straightforward and the best part of the process, lasting about 40 minutes. The day after that, I got invited to a 4-hour on-site interview. The prompt was clear and allowed for a lot of flexibility. I met with 3 developers for 'pair programming', but some were silent, making me unsure if they were even watching. It felt like this whole part could have been a take-home assignment followed by a presentation. After those 5 long weeks, I got an email today saying they're moving forward with someone else, with no feedback. I feel like all the time and effort I put in deserved more than that, like some feedback on my performance or why someone else was chosen.

I was contacted by Anvisha, the cofounder, and had a quick video call. Then, I moved to the first round, which was a take-home project. It involved a data exploration task with a sample dataset, and John, the lead engineer, explained it to me. I spent about 2-3 hours analyzing the data and training a model, then presented my results, which they liked. The onsite part was split into two 4-hour virtual sessions due to COVID. The first was tech-focused, covering ML system design and data engineering, using a large dataset. Although I'm most comfortable with Spark and it wasn't initially available, the interviewer set up a Databricks account for me, which was very helpful. The second virtual onsite, lasting 4.5 hours, was mainly for cultural fit. I met over 10 people, including cofounders and other engineers/designers. They were all smart and charming. The whole process felt positive, with nice and sharp people. The leaders showed great product vision and a deep understanding of revolutionizing the space. The only drawback was that the onsite sessions were a bit too long.