Ginkgo BioWorks Interview Questions
& Process

I only got to the phone interview stage, but everyone I spoke with was pleasant. I didn't get a lot of specific details about the role itself though. The phone interview was with two technical team members. They asked good questions about my previous research, but they weren't super clear about the skills they needed, which made it a bit tricky to figure out what to emphasize.

It was a long, unfocused, and frankly frustrating interview process. There were a total of 6 interviews and 1 presentation, plus a work assignment. The assignment involved answering 4 long-form questions and 5 questions about a data analysis task using data they provided. They said it should take no more than an hour, but one of the long-form questions was to critique a 15-page paper's methodology, and another was to explain how to calculate the COVID reproduction number in Brazil. It felt unreasonable to provide thoughtful answers to those kinds of questions, plus a full data analysis, in just one hour. The data itself seemed to be generated from random noise, making the analysis pointless. I never got any feedback after any of the interviews, and they always waited over two weeks between each step. They then claimed their emails weren't being received and called me in a panic, trying to make it seem like it was my fault they had forgotten about me. The Concentric team, in particular, seemed like a closed group, reluctant to bring in new members. Overall, it was a frustrating experience with an unprofessional team, and the salary offered was quite low. I only did the interview to see their pay rates for my own team's reporting, and it ended up costing me three months of dealing with their issues.

First, I had an interview with HR. Then, there was a 30-minute talk with the hiring manager. After that, a 2-hour interview was scheduled where I had to solve a case. I passed the first two rounds and was scheduled for the final interview. However, the hiring manager was fired, and their supervisor took over my case. The supervisor didn't think I was a good fit and canceled my final round. They initially said they were just freezing the process until a new hiring manager was found, but they had already hired two people for the position. The whole hiring process was a mess.

I sent in my application online, and after about two months, I got an invitation for a 30-minute phone chat. This initial call included an overview of the company and the team, some discussion about my relevant past experience, and a couple of behavioral questions. About a week later, I had another similar interview with a different employee. Several weeks after that, I went for the onsite interviews. I kicked things off with a 20-minute presentation about my previous work to a group of interviewers, followed by the rest of the day filled with 45-minute 1-on-1 meetings. Everyone I interacted with seemed genuinely excited about their work and Ginkgo's mission, and they were all very pleasant and friendly. The projects they are working on sound really interesting.