Lendio Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process at Lendio was very smooth. They seemed to care about culture as much as technical ability. I felt like I could relate with their "Humble & Hungry" mantra, and the interview process gave me a full transparency view into the company. I came away from my first interview knowing my standing, what to expect, the values of the company, and pretty much anything else I would have cared to know. The rest of the interviews solidified my first impressions about the culture of the company, and made me genuinely believe that Lendio was committed to professional development.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to write about this interview experience, and honestly, I really liked most of it. The people I talked to were super friendly and made things feel pretty relaxed. What really made me want to share, though, was how things ended – it felt kinda confusing and didn't really match up with what you'd expect from a company that calls itself a 'top workplace'. Right after I applied, I got an email to hop on a Zoom call with someone from Lendio. It was pretty chill, mostly just getting to know each other stuff. Then, they set up a call for the next week with the head of the Technical department. That call was cool too; I liked the vibe and how he let me talk about myself and what I've done. We got into their tech stack, and he mentioned Laravel. I knew of it but hadn't coded with it directly, which was fine since the job description said direct experience wasn't a must. I did mention I'd used Symfony a lot, which is pretty similar and would make picking up Laravel easier. After we finished, he said I'd hear back in a few days. But then, I got another email from him asking me to do a coding assignment by Friday at 1 PM. It was Tuesday afternoon, and since I have a full-time job, I'd only be able to work on it in the evenings. He said the point was to see if I could learn the framework, which seemed fair given I hadn't used it before. I was actually kinda excited to try out their stack. The assignment was to build a full CRUD app on the front-end and back-end using Vue and Laravel. They didn't give many instructions, just to build something I'd enjoy and that would show my skills. I managed to finish it by Thursday night and put the code on Github Friday morning before work. I didn't hear anything until the next Wednesday when I got a super generic email saying they were going with other candidates. Of course, I was bummed, but I wanted to be graceful and maybe learn something, so I replied asking if they could give me any pointers for future job searches. I never got a response. I get that they can't always give personal feedback, but it felt like, this late in the game and after asking me to use my personal time, a little bit of explanation would have been nice. It's totally fine that I didn't get the job – that happens – but it felt really cold and impersonal for a company that talks so much about having a great culture for customers and employees.

Started with a recruiter screen. Then I met two engineering managers in the Lehi office for an hour-long chat. It was more of a discussion about my past projects and how I collaborated with others and tackled challenges, with no whiteboarding. The final round was with Brian Hosie, the head of Engineering. We had a good conversation about Lendio, the importance of culture, and my potential role. No whiteboarding here either, as they prioritize cultural fit and ensuring good team dynamics over technical skills, even if you haven't used their specific tech stack.