Imagine Learning Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

After my application was picked, I had a first interview. It was pretty basic, covering my work history and asking some hypothetical questions like 'how would you deal with X situation?' or 'how would you approach Y project?'. They recorded this part for other managers to watch later. I was told I was a good fit and would hear back the next week about next steps from one of the two engineering managers I'd be meeting. I waited until Thursday of the next week to follow up via email, and then got an automated rejection email the next day with a survey.

It was 3 rounds, all technical. The first one was at a career fair, the second was a virtual live-coding, and the final was live-coding and a behavioral question. They got harder each round. Just know basic data structures and you'll be fine.

I was worried from the get-go because of what I'd read about other interviews. I spoke with a Sr Director, two other Directors, and a Manager who wasn't even hiring for the role. I pointed out that the job had been open for over a year. They said that although the company doesn't usually fire people, they had to let some go a year ago. This didn't explain why the position was still vacant. They seemed to want fast answers and weren't really looking to hire. The manager gave me a live coding challenge, and one of the directors assigned an architectural task. Another director then requested yet another live coding challenge, and after I mentioned I'd already done one, they lost interest. Answering architectural questions for a Staff Dev role and string manipulation for any Sr Dev doesn't show how you'll actually do the job. It's weird that Directors are so involved in technical interviews; usually, the hiring manager and other developers handle those. I'd recommend avoiding this place. They don't seem serious about hiring for this role or they have a high turnover issue they're hiding.