Health Catalyst Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I had to complete a take-home assignment that took hours to finish. I really don't like take-home tests because they can be a huge waste of time. You put in all this effort, and the company puts in none. I've heard of people who applied and their projects were never even reviewed. My advice for other programmers: DON'T DO FREE INTERVIEWS LIKE THIS! Your time is too valuable to just give to a company. You're taking all the risk, and the company is taking none. Ask for payment. If they won't pay for your time, think about why. My honest advice is to look for jobs elsewhere. Unless you're certain you'll get the job, you might end up spending a lot of time on an interview for a role that might go to someone else.

So I started with a phone screen where they asked me why I wanted to change careers, why Health Catalyst, and what I knew about the company. Then, that same day, I got a coding assessment. I spent basically the whole weekend and part of Monday on it, putting in maybe 20 hours to make it really good. It was tough! A few days later, they invited me for an on-site. The on-site had three separate interviews, each about an hour long. Each interview had two interviewers who asked me coding problems, asked about my background, and other technical questions. They also left time for me to ask them questions. I liked all the interviewers; they were nice and didn't ask tricky questions. They seemed genuinely interested in getting to know me and my skills. They also did a good job of selling the company and confirming the positive culture I'd read about. I thought the coding example in the interviews was a bit easy, but there were good, challenging questions too. The whole process felt pretty fair, maybe even a little easy. I got an offer for Software Engineer and accepted.

So I interviewed with Health Catalyst for a Software Developer role. While I think it's a great company to work for, the interview process itself was kind of a letdown, mainly due to poor communication. It involved three main steps: first, a 30-minute phone call; second, a take-home coding assignment; and third, a panel interview via video where they went over coding and behavioral stuff. I heard back about a week after the phone screen and was told I'd proceed to the coding project. The project was to build a web API in .NET with a basic JavaScript front-end, and I had a week to finish it, with the expectation it would take about 10-20 hours. I managed to complete it well before the deadline, but then it went radio silent for almost three weeks, even after I emailed to check on it. Once I finally got the green light, I had the panel interview. The interviewers were good and answered my questions well, and the coding problems were reasonable. What really bugged me was the lack of feedback on the take-home project, and it felt like they hadn't even really looked at it, which isn't fair considering the effort involved. For anyone looking at this internship, I'd say: don't apply if this is your first dev job because it seems geared towards experienced people. Definitely know .NET and Angular, as there's no mention of formal mentoring, so you're expected to jump right in. Also, don't over-invest time in the take-home; if you can't do it in 10-15 hours, it might not be the right fit. Health Catalyst seems like a solid company, but I'd consider applying again later once I have more experience. It's a super competitive internship with few spots, so be sure you're qualified.