Lattice Engines Interview Questions
& Process

Started with a recruiter call, then a phone screen with the hiring manager. After that, the CTO did another phone screen. Even though I don't have SaaS experience, they said it wasn't a requirement, but the questions suggested otherwise. I was then invited for an onsite where I had to give an hour-long presentation about a past project and its learnings to 6 interviewers. They added a 7th interviewer last minute, which was a bit of a shock, but I managed by having some buffer. Some interviewers joined late for my presentation. The hiring manager helped set the tone. After the presentation, he gave a quick product demo. The first interviewer, an engineering architect, asked about building a feature in the product I just saw, asking for a BRD without letting me see the product again. His questions were unclear, and he was late to my presentation. The other interviews were better, especially with Brian, an engineering manager, who was easy to talk to and understood my challenges. The latecomer kept asking about UX and ran over time, forcing me to cut him short to make it to the last interviewer. The hiring manager came last, discussing the org and system architecture. He was surprised no one asked follow-up questions on my presentation, which he had requested. After 2 phone screens, a group presentation, and 7 onsite interviews, I never heard back, no courtesy email from anyone. It feels like the feeling was mutual.

I applied in late October and didn't hear back for a few weeks, and even then it was hard to connect. I had to chase them on the phone a couple times, with weeks in between. It's a growing company and I get they have a lot going on with HR, so it was a bit annoying but understandable. The first call was pretty standard stuff, asking about my skills and what I want to do. Then I got a SQL test. It was pretty tough, but if you're good at querying, you should be fine. It took me about 5-6 hours. I sent it off and went on vacation. After that, I had to follow up again a couple weeks later, but again, it was around Thanksgiving, so I get it. They flew me out to SF and I met with 4 people. Everyone was really nice. Three of the interviews were just casual chats, and one was a bit more technical, covering stuff like client management, my general approach to work, stats, SQL, and building reports. It wasn't super intense. I thought I did well, but didn't get the job. Everyone was friendly though, and I left with a good feeling.

The onsite interview was pretty bad. I had two one-hour meetings scheduled between 8 and 10 AM. Then there was a one-hour break because none of the interviewers were available between 11 AM and 12 Noon. The last interview was with the hiring manager, who I had already talked to on the phone. The first interviewer said our meeting was scheduled for 9 AM, not 8 AM. I waited almost an hour for the second interviewer, but they showed up a bit early. That interview went fine and lasted a good amount of time. After that, I met with the interviewer who was supposed to see me at 8 AM. Things were going well until they started asking questions that didn't really relate to the role we had agreed on. When I mentioned I wasn't interviewing for that specific type of role, they asked if I was interviewing for the "Director" role, which wasn't the job I applied for! They ended the interview abruptly and tried to find someone else to interview me, but no one was available, not even the hiring manager who was supposed to be my last interviewer. However, they checked with their boss, and I was able to have a quick chat with the hiring manager. I left feeling like I just showed up unannounced and they were doing me a favor by interviewing me.

Applied online via a friend's referral and got a call the same day to schedule an interview. Since I don't live in the US, I scheduled the interview for when I'd be visiting so we could be in the same time zone. I think the interviewer was an engineering manager, and they were friendly. The interview covered general CS concepts, like inverting a linked list efficiently, and how to build a real-time recommender that processes data in a single pass. We also discussed designing a system capable of serving many prediction models simultaneously.