Permutive Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

We kicked things off with a chat with the internal recruiter, which was pretty chill. I got to learn about the company and share my situation. Then, we moved on to a coding exercise, which was a cool Scala project with a real-world problem. It was tough but fair and I had enough time to show what I could do. After that, I had a face-to-face interview where we talked about my background, tech skills, and how I solve problems. There was also a quick algorithmic part. They really dug into my project submission, which was impressive. I also met someone from the business side, which gave me a broader view of the company. The last interview was with the CTO, who was super knowledgeable but also really down-to-earth. He seemed genuinely interested in my career goals and answered all my questions honestly. The process wrapped up with an offer, where we discussed the details further. It was a really great interview experience, and they kept me updated with feedback throughout. Everyone I met was smart, engaging, and asked thoughtful questions. The company clearly put a lot of effort into making this a positive experience.

The process was disorganised and disrespectful. It started with a recruiter call, then I got a Github link for a take-home coding challenge that took me hours. I submitted my PR and waited for feedback, but they ghosted me after I asked several times and I eventually gave up after two weeks. They could have at least sent a quick message given how much time the test took. They might be smart but their lack of respect and organisation was disgraceful.

First, I had a chat with a recruiter about whether I was a good fit for the job and the company vibe. Then, I got a take-home assignment where I had to build a stream processing app using Scala. After that, there were several one-hour interviews: one where they reviewed my code, another where we had a technical discussion about software development, the benefits of functional programming, and stuff like that. There was also an interview focused on culture and soft skills, and finally, a meeting with the CTO. During that last one, he not only answered my questions about the company but also seemed really interested in my background and what drives me. The take-home project ended up taking me way longer than expected, like a couple of days instead of the 4 hours mentioned, but honestly, I preferred doing a real-world problem over those typical coding challenge sites. The whole process felt really put-together, and each part gave me a consistent, good feeling about the company's culture. It was tough, sure, but I think that shows they really care about hiring the right people, not just making things difficult for no reason.