Kickstarter Interview Questions
& Process

The whole thing took about 2 weeks, with some waiting at the end, and had 4 main parts. First, a 30-minute chat with the recruiter. Then, a 30-minute talk with the hiring manager. After that, a 1-hour technical interview where I had to code endpoints for a game. Finally, three back-to-back interviews: two 45-minute behavioral ones and a 1-hour technical interview focused on modifying code in a language I didn't know. The recruiter was super responsive and sent detailed info beforehand, which was great. They really seemed to want to see how I'd actually do the job. The first three rounds were pretty smooth and encouraging. However, even with a week to prep for the last round, I really missed the mark, got flustered, and totally messed it up. Disappointing, but maybe understandable since it's been a while. The recruiter said they'd be in touch the next week, but it took about 3 weeks to hear back that they went with someone else. I figured they were just waiting on their top pick, so the rejection wasn't a shock. I was actually happy to get an email at all, though. Seems like they're much better about closing the loop now.

So, before we even get to the interview part, just be aware that they will ghost you. Completely. I thought I did great in the interview and was really looking forward to hearing back. The manager told me, "I'll let you know our decision next week." I waited until the following Friday and tried to reach out, but heard nothing. Then I tried again on Wednesday, and still nothing. They clearly don't value your time. They don't care that you might take time off work to interview with them. They don't care that you spend time studying and thinking about how to answer potential questions. Once you're done with the interviews, it's unlikely you'll hear back. You won't get any feedback, and you won't even know why they decided not to move forward with you. It's just complete silence from their end. The process involved a Zoom call with the team manager, a pair programming session where we fixed bugs and worked on a couple of features, and then about 6 hours of interviews with different people, including a director. There was also an architecture design session.

I applied online and heard back about a week later to schedule a phone interview. The first interview was about 30 minutes and went well. Then I got a written assignment and was told they'd be in touch in a couple days to schedule a second phone interview, with the process expected to move quickly. A week went by with no word, so I followed up via email. I was informed that the hiring department at KS was having issues, so the process would take longer than anticipated. After a month, I received a final reply stating that my application would not be advanced. The whole process from application to rejection took Kickstarter 7 weeks.

I applied on their website and they reached out a few days later. First, there was a phone call with the recruiter, which was standard and had no technical questions. Then, I had a code challenge to build a single view app that searches GIFs using the GIPHY API, with no deadline. I used a framework they use internally and included features like async image loading, caching, and unit tests. It was generally easy, just needed to organize the code well. The on-site interview was straightforward, with only one technical interview where I had to add a feature to the code challenge, which took about 20 minutes. The other three interviews were all behavioral. It was interesting that all interviewers were new hires or junior developers. The office was the only impressive part. After the on-site, I never heard back from the recruiter, even after following up. No official feedback was provided, which felt like a waste of time.