NETGEAR Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview was an offline pen-and-paper test. The assessment was mostly about C programming, Python basics, and aptitude questions. I was okay with the aptitude part, but since I mostly do Java and JavaScript, I didn't know Python well enough. This is why I didn't get the offer.

This company has lots of red flags, I should have seen them. They are known for great hardware and awful software, and bad software management. I ignored recruiters pitching them because of this, but after the 4th recruiter, I decided to interview. I never saw the job posted anywhere, not even on their site. The coding test was a take-home that involved building a bad app that talks to a badly designed REST API, and was supposed to take 4-8 hours. Then there was a live coding test where you had to modify the app to search Wikipedia and go to the first result. You only had 40 minutes to research the wiki api and figure out how to integrate it. The first test was a big red flag, especially since the backend was running on the manager's free Heroku server. The second test was another red flag. The manager leaving halfway through the second test was also a red flag. No job posting was a major red flag. They asked multiple times what I thought of the process, and I always said positive things. They admitted it was a new process and I was the first one to go through it. I was not offered the job. With the lack of job postings and the strange interview process, I'm not sure there was ever a job. I think I was an unpaid guinea pig.

The interview process is really long. It kicked off with a 30-minute phone interview. After 10 days, a headhunter called me back for an on-site interview. I met with 4 people that afternoon, including the hiring manager, all from the engineering org. Some asked really detailed technical questions, which I think I handled well. I didn't hear back for another 10 days. Then, they scheduled a second on-site interview. I met with 4 different people this time, who seemed to be on another team. It felt like they passed my resume around internally. The interview format was the same as the previous visit.