mParticle Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process was really smooth, and everyone I interacted with was very polite. It was a bit lengthy because there were several stages, which is to be expected for a senior role like this. The stages included things like checking for cultural fit, an architecture discussion, meeting with a PM, a technical test and review for a specific technology, and finally, an interview with the Director of Engineering.

I think there was a coding challenge that was a small project (took a few hours), and 4 interviews: (1) With the Hiring Manager - 1 hour; (2) Coding - 1 hour; (3) Software Architecture - 1 hour; (4) With the Team Leads - 1 hour. During the process, I realized that at mParticle you don't get hired, you work independently. Considering the impact this has on salary expectations, I wanted to negotiate the job offer I eventually received. The company offered me a salary that was about half of what a US-based employee earns. I proposed a figure about 15% higher. After 2 weeks, mParticle informed me via a standard email that they had chosen another (obviously cheaper) applicant. Apparently, mParticle is trying to replace recently laid-off employees with cheaper software engineers outside the US.

So, after the recruiter chat, I had to do a coding challenge on my own. Then, a live coding session, followed by an interview with a manager, then a VP who asked about design, and finally a culture fit interview with another manager. That's 5 interviews, plus a couple of recruiter calls in between. Overall, it felt pretty good, interviewers were mostly friendly. Some even helped me out when I got stuck during the live coding. The second coding interview was a bit of a curveball, they asked me to change some code last minute, and I thought it was just going to be a review. I couldn't finish the changes in time. The design interview, which was about architecting an e-commerce site, was tough too, but thankfully I'd studied for it and think I did okay.