Patreon Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I started with a recruiter call, then had a technical interview focused on Javascript where I coded on a LeetCode-like platform with an interviewer watching. After that, there was a panel with three interviews: one was an architecture interview where I created a diagram while screen-sharing, another was a React technical interview like the first coding one, and the last was a behavioral interview with the hiring manager. The final stage was a culture fit interview with an engineering director from a different team, which was also behavioral and involved asking about a time when someone changed my mind. The recruiter called before each step to explain what to expect and how to prepare. The company was pretty open about the process and timeline, and they were respectful of my time.

The process was pretty standard. I only made it to the first technical round. I started with a recruiter chat, which was nice. They were pretty responsive and gave some prep materials, which helped a little. They said 'study everything,' which was good advice, mentioning coding basics and data structures. I guess Patreon focuses more on real-world problems. I was bummed because I solved both coding questions, but I couldn't run the code for the second one before time ran out, though it would have worked. I got rejected the next day, which confused me. The questions were tough for me, so I probably wasn't very clear in explaining my thought process.

Reviewers say the process seems biased. The company shares what they look for in interviews, like collaboration and idea bouncing. But during the interview, interviewers avoid answering questions or giving direction. You also get no feedback on whether your solution is what they're looking for. It was hard to get any collaboration going. I still solved all the problems and passed all test cases, even with the interviewer not answering questions, and got a standard rejection. It felt more like an interview on how to deal with hostile work environments than a technical challenge, which was easy. If solving technical problems isn't enough, maybe make them harder, or it seems like an excuse to pass people based on feelings. Technical interviews make it easy to avoid bias, but Patreon seemingly can't grasp this. They're likely looking for a specific type of person from specific companies but can't say it directly. Also, what the HR person said about goals and what you'll be working on didn't align with what the technical people said about the roadmap or their actual work.