GitLab Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process felt pretty disorganized; I was scheduled and then had my interview cancelled three times before I could finally talk to the hiring manager. While the hiring manager was pleasant, the overall experience was a bit unusual. I felt the interview went well and even ran over the allotted time. However, the very next day, I received an email stating the position had already been filled. The timing of this seems a little off, and I'm left wondering how seriously my application was truly considered. If you're considering this role, I'd advise proceeding with caution.

The interviews for the frontend and backend roles were well-executed. The interviewers were composed and allowed me to demonstrate my technical abilities. However, the hiring manager interviews were less satisfactory. Each hiring manager has a unique interview style, making it difficult to know what they are looking for. I believe GitLab should implement a more consistent process and provide better training for their interviewers. In one interview, the example I provided was clearly not what they sought. They could have either pointed this out and changed the topic, or initially clarified their expectations. In another interview, I was criticized for not mentioning information that the interviewer hadn't even inquired about. It's concerning to receive excellent feedback on technical stages from recruiters and hiring managers, yet barely pass the hiring manager rounds. This indicates a significant discrepancy. Interviewing is generally challenging in software engineering, and it's an area that both individual contributors and engineering managers need to continuously improve.

it was pretty straightforward: first a recruiter screen for about 30 mins, then an interview with the hiring manager for about 45 mins, followed by team interviews with 3 team members, each lasting 30 mins. Sometimes we have to do a case study where you gotta show your data analysis skills on an anonymized data set.

The recruiter reached out to set up a call to chat about culture fit and career goals, and said I could ask her anything and she'd get back to me fast. That same day, she set up a meeting with the hiring manager, who really dug into my resume and asked some smart scenario-based questions. I passed that part and got a take-home assignment with scenario questions, SQL, and Tableau. After sending it back, I tried contacting the recruiter a few times to see what was next. But I got zero response. Even a quick 'yes' or 'no' would've been useful, but hearing nothing back after trying so many times was a real downer.