Inkling Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process was disorganized. The recruiter didn't mention the pair programming format until the onsite interview, which felt like a surprise. Management seems to prefer hiring interns for full-time roles, perhaps to maintain tight control, which might lead to inexperienced engineers and bad habits. There seems to be a lack of understanding of CS fundamentals among the engineers and leaders, despite aiming to build large-scale systems. I question the scalability of their backend architecture due to immature and inexperienced leadership. Scheduling was also an issue, with interviewers sometimes being late.

The interview process with Inkling is pretty standard. I had an initial phone call with a technical recruiter which led to an hour technical code screening with the hiring manager and eventually on-site to meet with the team. The Inkling office is in a convenient location within the financial district (just several blocks away from the Montgomery Bart/Muni station). My on-site interview was scheduled for about 6 hours beginning from 9am - 3pm. I had 6 one-on-one interviews and had the opportunity to eat lunch with a couple people at the office. My first interview was a product demo, followed by 2 technical interviews where I peer-programmed on a computer, 2 behavioral/fitment interviews, and a systems design interview. Throughout this whole process, everyone that I spoke/interviewed with were extremely kind and easy-going. I appreciated that a lot because it takes away the pressure and nervousness that I would otherwise feel. I did not feel rushed by the interviewers to spit out answers and everything felt very collaborative (especially with the coding interviews). The only portion of the interview that felt off for me was during the Systems Design portion, because I felt like I couldn't understand the interviewers question too clearly. Aside from the interviews itself, I really enjoyed learning about the product over at Inkling. It seems like they are working with really exciting technologies and actually making things happen quickly to improve Inkling's future. Although this was by far the longest interview I've had, it was also one of the best interviews I've experienced so far.

I saw the job on LinkedIn and applied. They sent me a coding challenge first. After I finished that, we emailed back and forth to set up a technical phone interview. That interview had questions about JavaScript, libraries I know, algorithms, and some personal stuff. The next week, we emailed again to schedule another interview. This one was more about my personality, my past work experience, and salary expectations. Then, they arranged a call with one of my references.