MariaDB Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process included one screening call and three interview rounds. It was pretty standard, and the recruiters and employees were great. I had nice conversations with them. They made me feel comfortable throughout the whole thing, and they were informative, fair, and friendly.

The interview process started with a recruiter call where they asked about my background, but it wasn't a knowledge test. They spent most of the time explaining the job and how things worked. It's a part-time, contract role with flexible availability. I was told there would be a 10-hour introductory project that included shadowing and a demo project, with pay at $44/hr. We did the demo project first. That was as far as I got before a brief rejection interview. I did get paid for the 10 hours, which I appreciated. The whole process, from the first interview to the rejection, took about two months. I found the demo project results frustrating. It was a very detail-oriented assignment where I focused on meeting the hard requirements. The other part was really open to interpretation, and we weren't allowed to ask for clarification. In the exit interview, they suggested my rejection was because my interpretation differed from theirs. At the time, I had a software engineering background and was new to technical writing. I soon after got a technical writing job with better pay and benefits. Even now, I'm not sure I could have done better with the information provided. Overall, I thought it was a positive experience. Just be aware that you might get lucky, or you could spend 2-3 months interviewing and still be rejected (but paid). Keep looking for other opportunities!

The hiring process was supposed to be 3 steps online but ended up being 6 steps, including a project and a trip to London. After all that, I never heard back. I followed up with HR and the hiring manager. One person said they needed to see more candidates, while another told me the role was already filled. The requirements kept changing, and more people were added to the process. They asked for free consultancy work via the project. During the interviews, I was never asked my opinion about the role, company, or people I met. It was always about what I could do for them. The final in-person interview had one hostile team member.

I applied though recruiter. First round was a call on the phone, it was interesting with a lot of statistical tech questions from a smart interviewer. Second round was disappointing... I even did not see everyone who I talked to, they don't care how big experience you have, just watching you write the code with screen share. It is an "old fashioned" interview style and in nowadays is nonsense, only not confident interviewers will ask you to code during the interview. No respect to your expertise at all.