Freenow by Lyft Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I had an interview with a team lead who seemed to be helping HR out. Then, I went into a live coding interview which went pretty well. I coded a small part of the application and talked about how I'd do it differently than the current code, based on SOLID principles. They kept asking me why I'd choose my method, even though it was correct. I also reviewed their code beforehand and found and fixed a bug. I answered most questions correctly, and when I didn't know something, I at least attempted an answer or explained my thought process. The senior developer interviewing me wasn't great at asking questions, giving me vague ones. The rejection email gave a generic reason about needing deeper knowledge and providing alternatives, even though I wasn't asked to elaborate or suggest other options. They also mentioned I should know more about generic architecture for version and event-driven systems, which I admitted I didn't have much experience with. This is something a senior should know, not necessarily a mid-senior, and shouldn't be a rejection reason as it's learnable. It seems they want someone to know their specific setup without training. Plus, they mentioned they don't have testers and the pay is low, suggesting they're looking for a senior role at a mid-senior salary.

This was a horrible interview experience. They initially suggested an SDE2 role instead of Senior Software Engineer, but then said they had other candidates in the pipeline. I strongly advise against interviewing with this company because they require a time-consuming take-home assignment. I spent four days optimizing a Golang concurrency fare calculation assignment using channels and goroutines. The next round was a code review with two engineers; one was rude and rushed me, while the other was silent and unhelpful. The only feedback on the code was to move constants to environment variables. Following that, there were two managerial rounds and a system design round. The system design questions were oddly specific to the take-home assignment, and they concluded I wasn't good with databases, despite not asking any database questions. Finally, there was a CTO meeting. The entire process was terrible, especially the take-home assignment. They tried to negotiate for an SD2 role, and after I discussed salary expectations, I received a rejection without any further discussion. It was quite illogical.

Got an email a few days after applying online about the interview steps. The whole process took around 45 days, with fast feedback. First, a quick HR chat about salary, the process, and company culture. Then, a take-home test: a spring project to complete in a week. After submitting, I had a review interview with two engineers discussing my project and tech concepts. Next, an interview with tribe and team leaders, covering behavioral and technical topics like my motivations and work style. Then, a 'Meet the team' chat about team dynamics and personal interests. Finally, a feedback session on the process and my performance, leading to an offer.