Kraken Backend Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I interviewed with Kraken for a Backend Python/Django Engineer role in Tokyo back in 2023. It started with an HR chat about my motivations and basic Japanese skills, which they said was a plus but not mandatory. Then, two engineers interviewed me. It was more of a vibe check and discussion about my tech background, no actual coding then. After that, I got this 'Octopus Energy technical challenge' to build a Python script using Django to parse CSV data. I spent about 2-3 hours on it and got through to the next round. The third interview had two more engineers and was all about diving deep into my coding assignment – what I did and why, which caught me off guard. I was supposed to talk to the manager next, but that didn't happen. While waiting for the results of interview three, I got an 'interviewee questionnaire.' HR later told me I didn't make it. Everyone was professional, but honestly, I'm not sure if the job was even real. The posting has been up forever on LinkedIn with no changes, and the coding task used old Python/Django versions with broken links. The interviewers even said they hadn't updated it in a while. It felt like they weren't in a hurry to hire anyone or fix their interview stuff. The whole thing felt like a box-ticking exercise. So, if you're thinking about this backend job, really think if it's worth your time.

They give you a take home challenge which is relevant to their actual work. It's not some random Leetcode problems, it's very related to the every day software engineering problems and it requires thinking and planning.

The interview process had 4 steps. First, there was a quick chat with a Kraken talent partner, which was really nice and interesting. Then, I had to do a take-home assignment that took about 4 hours and involved solving a real company problem. After that, I had an interview with two technical people from different teams where we talked about my assignment and other technical stuff, which gave me a feel for the company culture. Finally, I interviewed with two managers who asked some technical questions to gauge my ability to explain things to both technical and non-technical audiences. After finishing the last step, I got an offer pretty fast.