HBO Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

We led with a phone screen that went fine. When I got to the office, I was immediately put in a conference room, and the door was closed. No one greeted me. After waiting for five minutes, six people came in for a group interview where they asked me questions rapidly. It was stressful but a valid style. After 20 minutes, they left, and an engineer came in to ask me to design a complex system. I started, but maybe didn't explain well or he wasn't open to solutions other than his. I ran out of time, and he seemed in a bad mood. After he left, I finished the problem on the whiteboard. The next interviewer, who was much nicer, glanced at the board and it looked okay. The question was fun, and we were finishing up when the head of engineering came in and insisted I use only one variable for the design. I tried to change it, but it was impossible to rewrite before time ran out. They left, and I waited. It turned out they couldn't find the third interviewer, so they decided to vote no. The head of engineering told me it was a no-go and that I was too slow. Horrible experience.

I applied through their website and honestly forgot about it since I didn't hear back. About a month and a half later, I got an email out of the blue asking about my availability for the next week. After I responded, I got another email saying I'd have a call for an interview the next day. The interview itself was a bit unusual; I had to be on the phone while simultaneously using a third-party site to code. Luckily, I had a Bluetooth headset. Generally, it was pretty standard - we chatted a bit about my background, then I was asked a technical question, and we finished by me asking a couple of my own questions.

It was one of the worst interview experiences ever. Initially, a recruiter contacted me about a tech screen. I quickly provided my availability, but it took over a week for a response. After passing the tech screening and setting a date with the recruiter (which also involved significant delays), I heard nothing back regarding interview details or the schedule. Just a few days before the onsite, I started reaching out to the recruiter and cc'd the whole team, but no one responded. So, the day before the interview, I had to contact the hiring manager directly. He mentioned he'd follow up with the recruiter, and later said the recruiter would update me on the schedule. Again, nothing happened, so the interview was silently skipped, which has never happened to me before with such an irresponsible and unprofessional hiring team. Eventually, a makeup interview was arranged. I answered all questions well (evidenced by multiple offers from other top tech companies). Following this interview, there was no communication about the status. At that point, I knew I didn't want to work for such a disorganized company, so I didn't pursue it further. Based on this interview experience, HBO seems like a terrible company to work for, treating candidates poorly.