Fractal Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process was super organized, big thanks to Jesvin Varghese, my recruiting manager. He was upfront about the job, the culture, and even gave prep tips. He managed to schedule everything really fast, even with my short notice period. The interviews had 3 parts. First was a breadth assessment covering Data Science, including ML, DL, and GenAI, with some coding. It was pretty easy to moderate. Then, a deep dive technical round focusing on NLP and AI, covering things like sentence transformers, RAG, and transformers. This was tougher. Finally, a culture fit round to see if I'd fit in, which was a relaxed chat about my work style and values. It felt more like a conversation than an interview.

It was an on-campus drive, and around 10 people got shortlisted from the online assessment. The interview process had three rounds: Tech, Apex, and HR. All rounds were about 15-20 minutes and generally easy. The main drawback was the low salary, which made many uninterested. Round 1 involved basic tech questions and simple puzzles. Round 2 mostly consisted of standard GFG puzzles and some team scenario questions, although one panel intensely questioned the resume. Round 3 was basic HR questions. I didn't proceed to HR after Round 2, and ultimately, only one person received an offer. It's a good company and fairly manageable if you're prepared, so do your best.

Got referred by a friend so my hiring process might have been different. HR called first to check how I found out about Fractal, why I wanted to join, and my salary expectations. Then I got an email for an interview with the business. On the day, I joined the Teams meeting but no one else showed up. I waited 30 mins and emailed HR but got no response, so I left. I told my friend, and after a week, I got an apology email and a new appointment. This time, a regional manager joined. He immediately started asking questions for 30 minutes without any intro about himself, the company, or what they're looking for. As he was about to end, I asked about the next steps. He said he'd share feedback internally and they'd get back to me. I never heard back, but I know from my contact they made a decision within two days.

The whole thing took like 2 months with 5 stages. It started with an internal recruiter call, which was 30 mins. They said I'd hear back in a week, but after two weeks of me chasing, they said they were going with other candidates. Then, surprisingly, a few days later they changed their minds and wanted to move me forward. The next interview was with someone who didn't even introduce himself and it was a really weird 30 mins. Again, feedback took ages, I had to chase, and then I got moved to the next stage. This time I interviewed with who I thought was my direct manager (even though I was told it would be with the client next). They asked pretty much the same stuff as before and then asked to see presentation examples I'd made. The deadline for feedback passed again, I chased, and was told I'd finally meet the client. I met with them for 30 mins. Then, three weeks went by with me chasing, and I was eventually told they picked someone whose experience was a better fit, which was the exact same reason they gave me 2 months ago. The last stage, which I never got to, would've been with HR. Also, every time I chased them for an update, they expected me to reply super fast (like within 20 mins) and be ready for an interview the next day. It felt like they totally didn't value my time, especially getting rejected for the same reason after all that. Honestly, if I wasn't desperate, I would've told them where to go. 5 rounds is way too much, especially for a role that pays below market rate. Why not do longer interviews with more people instead of 5 short ones? Plus, interviewers were often late and used up the full 30 mins, so I barely got to ask any questions.