Encora Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I had an hour-long coding round where I was asked to solve an ad-hoc problem. I only managed to solve about half of it. The interviewer was really focused on time, saying things like “I’ll give you 2 more minutes—can you finish it?”, making it feel like a time-pressure test instead of an assessment of problem-solving. Because of that rushed environment, I couldn’t answer some conceptual questions well either. The interviewer kept asking “Do you know this?” and “Do you know that?” without letting me think or explain my approach. I understand I didn’t perform well, but a few things stood out. There was no rejection email, which is a big red flag. The interview felt cramped and poorly structured, with no real attempt to understand my thought process. It was just a checklist of knowledge. Communication was also tough because the interviewer’s English wasn’t clear. The coding problem was rushed. 15 minutes for an unspecific ad-hoc problem, with constant time reminders, didn’t allow for demonstrating analytical or structured thinking. It’s actually good I didn’t do well, because I improved a lot within a month and got another job. But this interview left a bad impression because the process itself didn’t feel fair or well-designed.

The selection process has three stages: 1. Online test: It's an online test split into two parts. The first part has logic questions to check how you reason. Some relate to basic programming ideas like AND, OR, negation, greater than, less than, equals, etc. The second part is a small technical challenge you can solve in any programming language. 2. Video presentation: Here you need to record yourself speaking in English. They assess your communication skills, how you develop your thoughts, and how natural you sound. If your English isn't intermediate-high level, it might be tough. I made it to this stage. 3. Technical interview: I didn't reach this stage, but some friends did. This stage is also in two parts: First part: It's a personal interview with general questions about you. The goal is to confirm you spoke naturally in the video, without scripts or help. Second part: If you pass the first, days later they tell you if you advance. I don't have full details yet, but it seems they ask programming questions and possibly a live technical exercise.

I had a call with HR about SOLID, Java wrapper classes, and design patterns. Then, a technical interview with three engineers focusing on Java, and a project review where I had to suggest improvements or explain its implementation. After that, a second technical interview with one engineer. I was also scheduled for a MANDATORY call to prep for a client tech interview, but after two weeks of silence, the recruiter emailed saying the client wasn't interested. Total waste of time, maybe use it for mock interviews.