Later Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The hiring process kicked off with a friendly chat with an internal recruiter, followed by a take-home assignment that was a reasonable size. After that, there were two more technical interviews. Some of the interviewers, however, seemed to lack a solid grasp of the technical subjects they were interviewing about. While it's normal to dig into a candidate's answers to check their knowledge, it's problematic when the interviewers themselves don't understand the material. This raises a concern when senior developers and potential future colleagues appear to be unfamiliar with the very topics relevant to the role.

I've interviewed at a lot of companies over the past 7 years, and my experience with Later was excellent. At every point in the interview process, the expectations were clear and explicit. Communication was prompt and they always followed through. At no point did I feel like I was dropping my resume into a black hole, and I spoke with human beings at every point in the process. I had to make the difficult decision to stop the interview process early because I got a job offer that was more in line with my career goals (in the pharmaceutical industry, which is what I was looking for), but it was a very difficult decision. It seems like the team is really paying a lot of attention to their hiring process, and it shows.

I had an initial call with a recruiter, then a second interview with a hiring manager. After that, I was sent a technical take-home assignment via email. I submitted the technical evaluation, which included detailed documentation and significantly surpassed the performance constraints mentioned in the problem. Despite dedicating two hours of my time, I didn't even receive a basic explanation for why my submission was not up to par with the hiring team's expectations. They initially emphasized transparency in their hiring process, but my technical submission seemed to vanish into a void. I didn't get a chance to discuss my architectural or design choices, only silence. This left me with a very unfavorable impression.