Elemy Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

It started with an unsolicited email and a recruiter call, where I learned about their $98M series A funding, a CAD$120k salary, and a remote-only culture. The first real test was a 1h 50m Codility take-home with three coding questions: CSS grid layout, React username/password input, and a string manipulation function. Eight days later, I had a 25-minute "cultural" interview with an engineer who spent most of the time making coffee. He asked about my "technology story" and Elemy's challenges, which he said was mainly hiring. He shared details about a major backend overhaul for their three apps, moving from individual Rust backends to a shared monolith. After a two-week pause where I seemed lost in their CRM, I had a system design interview with a frontend staff engineer. We discussed designing Twitter components and state management, with him showing screen captures. He also mentioned being busy with hiring. The next round was a proctored Codility test on JS promises and API responses, which I felt I bombed. This was immediately followed by a "product" interview. This interviewer asked HR-style questions and probed about my knowledge of business intelligence software and customer acquisition analytics, seeming to misunderstand my business model question. He compared Elemy to Uber for Autism therapy. Finally, I had the "Final Boss" interview. He focused on accountability for code, comparing Elemy's model to Uber again, and discussed backend challenges. He emphasized their focus on hiring in Canada and South America due to US developer costs and mentioned they had many open positions across different seniorities. He promised feedback within two days, but I ended up waiting 11 business days before emailing the recruiter, receiving a junior-level rejection. The whole process took seven weeks. My impression is a chaotic hiring process with candidates getting lost, a non-previewable product, and a constantly changing backend. They seem to prioritize LinkedIn profiles over resumes.

The interview process was pretty standard. I talked to different people from the engineering team. First, I had a chat with the hiring manager. Then, there were several rounds focusing on design, coding, and behavioral stuff. Everyone I met was super smart and cool to talk to, felt more like a peer than an interviewee. Since it's an early stage startup, I had tons of questions about their business and future. They patiently answered everything and even had follow-up meetings. I was really impressed by how much time they put into candidates. Unfortunately, I couldn't join them due to personal reasons. It was a good experience overall, and I'd totally recommend them.

The whole process was alright, although I do think that this many stages is a bit of an overkill. I had to talk about the same things multiple times with different people, so parts of the process were redundant. I've got an impression that the company is hiring a lot of new people and is a bit chaotic. I was interviewed by people who were often hired a few days before the interview, which I think is a red flag. Almost as if they were afraid to let me talk to anyone that has spent more time at the company.