payever Devops Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I was given an unpaid technical assessment on Kubernetes (second NGINX controller) on Jul 18. On Jul 22, they told me I passed and asked for my passport/ID scans and a selfie video via a public Google Form before sending a contract. On Jul 24, I asked for the contract and a GDPR Article 13 notice first, but they insisted I complete the form, saying I could blur sensitive parts. On Jul 25, they made an offer of $30–40/hour, but with a "Tracker off / Project-based" policy: "If ETA is 8h and you need 200h, you still get paid 8h." There was no escrow or payment guarantee, yet they wanted fixed 8–17 CET working hours for a "contractor." I declined and requested my data be erased under GDPR, which they confirmed, though with some processor inconsistencies and no clear Article 9(2) basis for the selfie video.

The test was challenging but appropriate for the role, which includes a 3-6 month training period, indicating it's for developers with potential rather than experienced professionals. I had issues with the recruitment process: 1. Requiring a paid software that needs a Company Account for download, making it unusable without one (unless on Linux), which is a significant disadvantage. 2. Refusal to assist with technical difficulties, even for issues caused by their setup, stating it would be 'unfair'. Any technical problem seems to lead to automatic failure. 3. Despite the test's complexity, failure results in a simple rejection without detailed feedback on performance, which is disappointing given the effort involved.

I’m still in the middle of the interview process, but I’ve already completed two interviews and things have been going well. The first interview was just a quick 20-minute video call. Then, I had a second interview which was actually an assessment, a general problem-solving and reasoning task. The test wasn’t too difficult, it was pretty logic-based.