phData Solutions Architect Interview Questions
& Process

I applied to PhData through LinkedIn and a recruiter reached out pretty fast. We had an initial video screening. Then I had my first real interview with the CTO and a Senior Director. The recruiter said I'd hear back in two business days. After a week with no word, I emailed them. When I didn't get a reply, I followed up again a few days later, but they totally ghosted me. It was frustrating and unprofessional to be ignored after putting in time to prepare and do the calls, especially so early on. A good hiring process shows the company culture, but PhData's silence makes me question their internal communication and how they treat candidates. If you're thinking about PhData, be warned and be careful.

The process felt big and scary at first but it actually went really well. The recruiter laid everything out on the first call, so there weren't any surprises. I heard back from the recruiter the day after applying and had the first interview a few days later. The first interview was an intro to the company, a look at the job description, and some basic questions to see if I was a good fit. Since I was going for a Solutions Architect role with a Data Engineering focus, I then had a coding exercise with a couple of questions. I got it done over the weekend, about 4 days after the interview. It was self-paced and online, but timed. The first question was SQL-based and pretty easy, but they expected me to use a window function. The second question was in Apache Spark and was pretty simple for doing some aggregation, aliasing, and data movement. Then I had to create a design diagram for moving JSON data into Snowflake. After submitting the coding assessment and diagram, I had a technical interview at the end of the week, about 3 days after I submitted the diagram, where we reviewed the coding exam results. They cared more about my thought process than if I passed all the unit tests. Then I had to present my diagram like I was talking to a client. They asked a few more questions to check my understanding and reasoning. I finished the technical interview on Friday and heard back Monday morning to schedule the next interview, which was the very next day. For the last interview, I met with the VP of Data Engineering to make sure I was a good fit for the company and the role. It was a quick 30-minute chat with no unexpected questions. I got an offer the day after the last interview.

It was a 3 round interview process. The first round was a 30 min technical interview covering Python, SQL, and some architecture topics. The second round was longer, 1.30 hours, and involved 3 questions related to SQL, Python, and general data engineering concepts. The final round was an HR interview.