Metaswitch General Intern Interview Questions
& Process

You get to the office, check in at the front desk, and they give you back your travel money. Then, you head into a room with other candidates, about 5 or 6 of us. An engineer gives a quick talk about what Metaswitch is all about. After that, there are three tests. The first one is about 40 minutes and is like an IQ test. If English isn't your first language, there's a different version without the wordy parts. I felt a bit rushed and didn't finish it. Then, another 40-minute test with two questions. They're network-related problems but in everyday situations, and they're pretty open-ended, so there are many ways to tackle them. Don't stress if your answers aren't perfect. The last test is 25 minutes long and involves a twist on blackjack where red cards are negative points and black cards are positive. This was quite tricky; figuring out the best computer strategy against a human isn't straightforward. We then had a short lunch break with sandwiches. Afterwards, I had an interview with an engineer to go over my answers for the last two tests. The interviewer will really push you to make your solutions better and think of alternative approaches. There were also some general questions, like why you want to intern here, and questions based on your application. You also get to ask the interviewer questions. This was followed by a second interview with some brain-teaser questions and another chance to ask your questions (they really want you to ask a lot!). Everyone, from reception to the interviewers, was super friendly.

First I had to do a 40 minute aptitude test with 72 questions, which was pretty much the same as the 15 minute online test I did before. After that, there were two problem solving tasks. The first involved figuring out how to deliver messages using transport like Ravens, considering time and cost. The second task was to program a game of Flapjack. Honestly, I felt this was really unfair because I have absolutely no programming background. I'm sure if I did, it would have been easy. It felt contradictory given their website emphasizes no experience is needed, but the interviewer did mention that interns usually have at least some experience.

I applied for a pre-university internship. The interview process was in January, when I was in Year 13. The office location was decent and the space itself was quite nice. We started with a presentation, followed by some IQ and puzzle-solving tests. The IQ test was easy for me, but the puzzle test about finding efficient paths was quite hard. It's worth noting they don't tailor the interviews to specific roles; everyone, from pre-university applicants to grad job seekers, gets the same presentations and tests. I think this is a flaw because it's not fair to pre-university students who can't compete with those in their 3rd or 4th year of university. The one-on-one interviews after the tests were a mixed experience. My first interview, with a senior software engineer, was pretty bad; he just stared at me while I tried to figure out a better solution. Other university interviews I'd had recently (where I got offers) were much better, they'd help guide you to find solutions, but here there was none of that, which was disappointing. It really seems like luck of the draw who you get. I did get selected for a second interview, which was much better. The interviewer seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say and helped me with some problems. I didn't get an offer, but I'll probably try again. The interview process is okay overall, and it seems like a really nice place to work.