M*Modal Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I had two technical interviews. The first one was with my potential manager, and the second one was with a lead engineer and another senior engineer. Both interviews involved solving algorithm problems. During the manager interview, we also discussed code quality, focusing on readability and maintainability. The interview with the lead engineer was a bit more challenging and concentrated on finding efficient solutions.

I started with a brief 30-minute phone chat with my manager. Then, she gave me a coding challenge to complete in an hour. It involved a directed graph with certainty values and how to get rid of nodes below a threshold without messing up memory. The code needed to be C++ using pointers and classes, plus some internal libraries. She was available by email for questions while I worked on it. Based on my submission, I was invited for an on-site interview. They gave me a tour and coffee. I met with three engineers I'd be working with and my manager. There were some communication style differences due to accents and brevity, but it was a good overview of the team. We discussed tech stacks, memory, data structures, inheritance, and the company's work. I might have briefly met HR, but no higher management.

Got referred to MModal by a recruiter who told me a lot about the company and their culture, which sounded great. The job was described as an entry-level Software Engineer role with opportunities to advance, and they were looking for "good engineers" in general. The first interview was a phone call, pretty typical for a technical role, covering both fundamental and more specific computer science topics. It felt like the interviewer was trying to find fault, even making a mistake on a CS question himself. However, the recruiter said I did well and wanted to schedule an in-person interview. The next interview was quite confusing. First, the interviewer wasn't ready and wasn't even in the office when I arrived, so I had to wait. Second, the manager who was supposed to interview me had another meeting and missed it, so I never got to speak with him. Third, the interview was essentially a Java quiz. They didn't ask about my past projects, preferences, or anything from my resume. The interviewer asked about specific technologies I didn't have experience with, even though he knew this from my resume and the phone interview. He seemed irritated to be interviewing me, suggesting the recruiting agency pushed for this interview against the team's preference. I didn't get an offer, with the reason given being that they were "looking for someone with more experience."