Kraken Interview Questions
& Process

Applied via Indeed, the whole thing took about a month. First, I had a good chat with a recruiter who laid out the plan. We talked about the company, the team, pay, and why I wanted to join. Second was a take-home test: a Django command-line app to parse files. They wanted to see how I'd handle an unclear task and build something scalable, making sure to document my assumptions. Third, we dove deeper into the take-home task, discussing my methods, choices, and the trade-offs. They asked how the app could be expanded. The last stage was all about my technical skills and the broader Python/Django world, including how we work. Got the offer super fast after that, like 30 minutes! My recruiter, Brad, was awesome and really helpful.

I applied on Sept 10th and had my first interview a few days later. A bit after that, I received a take-home test that took a few hours to complete, based on a design. I finished and submitted the test a few days later. The recruiter's communication became very slow after that, and I was ghosted for weeks. The test was submitted as a public git repo, even though I was told to add it to git and wasn't specified it should be private. After submitting, I was asked to make it private but couldn't add a collaborator. It took weeks to get the collaborator details. After about a month and a half, I received feedback on the test. They said it wasn't senior-level because of certain aspects that would have taken longer to build and I felt were unnecessary for the test's requirements, as I aimed for simplicity and covering only what was asked.

It kicked off with a chat with the recruiter, then a SQL test that was kinda tricky. After that, we had a technical chat where I went over the SQL solution and answered some basic stuff about my resume and data. Then came a long behavioural interview with the tech lead and product manager, which honestly made me lose interest. They seemed inexperienced or maybe had already picked someone, constantly interrupting with random questions. The final step was with the head of analytics for competency and motivation questions. He seemed pleased with my answers, but then the recruiter went silent for weeks despite my follow-ups. Eventually, after about a month, I heard back that they’d hired someone else. It’s frustrating not to get feedback after going through all the rounds, even if it’s just a quick email.

The interview setup was very professional, and there were 4 rounds in total. These included a screening/first assessment, a technical interview, a case study, and a development round. I met with different interviewers, who were a mix of HR and people from the department, and they were at various seniority levels. It was great because the interviewers were all on the same page and knew what had been discussed in earlier rounds. The talent manager gave feedback really quickly and was friendly. The whole thing from applying to getting the offer took about a month, which felt pretty fast for 4 rounds.