Kitware Interview Questions
& Process

I had a 45 minute call with the recruiter, it was mostly a casual get to know you chat and they were really nice. The next step would have been a technical interview and then a final onsite presentation.

It was pretty easy, they asked some technical questions about my resume and then I had to share my screen for some coding practices. The coding was basic pseudo and stack questions, which weren't too bad.

I sent in my application online and got an email response about a week later. The first step was a 30-minute phone chat where they asked about my current role and past work. Then, a second, hour-long phone interview focused on C++ specifics and OOP. The final stage was an on-site interview in Albany, NY. They let me know beforehand that I'd need to give a 30-minute presentation about my skills and projects, followed by 30 minutes of Q&A. The day started around 8:45 AM and wrapped up by 3:30 PM. It included breakfast with an interviewer, my presentation to about a dozen employees (some remote), and then several 30-minute one-on-one interviews covering HR, C++ programming (like reversing a string on the whiteboard), a demo of some web tools (which wasn't really an interview), lunch with the CEO and Head of Scientific Visualization, and more one-on-ones. These later ones covered topics like meshing (figuring out adjacencies), programming design patterns and data structures (like quadtrees), and algorithms (the geometry of vector products). I felt I didn't do so well in the latter part of the day. I was surprised by the questions, expecting more on OpenMP/MPI/parallel computing and Qt based on the job description and phone interviews. I only got a couple of Qt questions, and no parallel computing questions, except for a brief mention of a thread pool. Most questions were about geometry and related algorithms, which I wasn't prepared for. I think this lack of preparation is why I wasn't selected. I also think showing open-source contributions in my presentation would have been good, but all my work was proprietary. The company offers resources to help prepare, but I can't share the links.

The interview process involved two phone interviews, followed by a free, 3-page written report, and then a full-day on-site interview. The HR team was very proud of their process, but it took a significant amount of time (three business days in total) without any compensation. The candidate felt that tasks taking up to a full business day should be paid. After maintaining contact for three months, an automated email stated the candidate was not selected, leading to the candidate's relief at not getting the position.