Equal Experts Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

First up is an initial screening with HR, where they'll chat with you about your background and see if you're a good fit for Equal Experts. They'll also give you the lowdown on how EE works, what kind of projects you might be on, and what they expect. It's a chill chat to make sure you're on the same page before you move on. Next, there's a take-home assignment. This is a coding task designed to see how you tackle real engineering problems. EE likes things simple and clear, so they want to see a solution that's straightforward, well-organized, and easy to follow. They're looking for clean, maintainable code, good structure, solid tests, clear docs, and sensible commit messages. It's less about fancy tech and more about how you engineer and communicate your solution. Then, you'll have a technical round. This has two bits: first, you'll discuss your take-home assignment, talking through your design choices, tests, trade-offs, and how you might improve it or scale it up. They'll also dig into your testing strategy and code quality. The second part of this round is a deep dive into your past projects. You might need to talk about system architecture, your responsibilities, design patterns, decisions you've made, challenges you've faced, and how you deal with complex stuff in real projects. This is to check your experience and technical depth. Finally, there's a consulting and fitment round. This one's all about your consulting skills, how you communicate, and if you'll fit in with the team culture. EE wants engineers who are good collaborators, practical, and can work well with clients. You'll likely discuss how you handle uncertainty, work with stakeholders, solve problems, and help the team deliver. It's to make sure you're aligned with EE's values like simplicity, autonomy, responsibility, and always learning.

It started with an offline coding challenge where I had to build some business logic and include unit tests. Then there was a second round, a virtual interview with a panel of two people, and they asked questions about the coding assignment. Overall it was a good experience, though there was a bit of a contradiction in what they were looking for. One person seemed to question why I included controller and database features that weren't strictly necessary, while another was pushing for unnecessary abstractions. This made me wonder, if the goal isn't to consider the system as a whole, why would I need to think about abstracting third-party API calls?

Possibly the best interview process I've had, especially the tech test format. It had 1) a quick chat with HR, 2) a take-home tech test you can do in your own IDE and language of choice (great format, well done EE!). These tests are good because candidates can choose their own tools, invest as much or little time as they want, and work how they choose, setting them up for success. The test seems doable in 1-3 hours. 3) A tech interview where you review your code, tweak it a bit, answer some tech questions, and then talk about general system design (another great format!). Iterating on a take-home solution is a solid idea; it lets the in-person interview cover more ground in the same time while still going deep. 4) A consultant interview focusing on your experience and soft skills, particularly with past projects and client/stakeholder interactions. The interviewers were very friendly and gave me more feedback than I've gotten from other applications combined. Really appreciated, thank you. Feedback after each stage was provided the same or next day and was very thorough. Overall, a near-perfect application process, thanks EE.