Podium Interview Questions
& Process

Applied two months ago, got contacted after a hiring pause. The process included a Zoom call with the hiring manager, a quick recruiter call, a coding challenge, two technical interviews, and a final interview with the VP of engineering. While I liked the hiring manager, the process had issues. The hiring pause seemed odd with so many open roles. The recruiter insisted the company was growing and financially stable. They only disclosed the salary range after I mentioned it was required by law, claiming they weren't hiring in my specific locality. The fact that only this role was remote suggested a weak remote culture and potential HR/legal issues. The recruiter's promise of no forced RTO felt empty as an at-will employer. The coding challenge was problematic. They provided an incomplete AWS environment for a task that could be solved with native load balancers. My credentials lacked permissions, and there was no autoscaling group. I treated it seriously, but the reviewers offered little feedback, mostly just having me explain my code. They seemed surprised by my license file to prevent free usage. I asked about their 'extreme ownership' principle and burnout management, but the SREs couldn't provide a clear answer, mentioning an emphasis on speed. The final disappointment was receiving no feedback after rejection due to company policy.

The interview process was a total of four rounds. It started with a CoderPad take-home assignment, then a review session for that assignment. After that, there were two more video interviews with engineers. This process took up a lot of my time. Even though I got good feedback all the way through, I was rejected without any reason, and the job was posted again within 24 hours. This was really annoying because they contacted me directly, I didn't even apply. It shows they don't respect candidates' time and their hiring process is questionable. In this job market, it's weird when a company keeps reposting the same job and makes people go through long interviews without seeming to want to hire anyone. Maybe it's for H1B stuff, internal goals, or bad management, but it feels like they're wasting people's time. I'd avoid them.

I went through three interviews and did a project they asked for. Right after the third interview, the recruiter emailed me saying the VP wanted a final interview on Tuesday. Then, 15 minutes after sending the link, I got a text saying they wanted to meet Monday instead for a fourth interview with the VP. I got on early and the Zoom link was invalid. I tried to contact the recruiter but heard nothing. I emailed them and still nothing. The whole process was a mess, and I'm mad I spent time on a project they 'loved' only to be ghosted. I even asked for feedback, and again, nothing. It's pretty bad, and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone with a small business or encourage anyone to apply. If this is how they treat applicants, imagine their customers.

I went through a seven-step interview process for a Software Engineer VOIP role. The stages included an initial screening, HR interview, coding and system design interviews, cross-functional, and a final interview. Each step was clearly explained beforehand, and everyone I spoke with was professional and welcoming. The coding interview involved a LeetCode-style problem, while the system design focused on a VOIP feature. Overall, the process was well-organized, and I appreciated the team’s transparency and support throughout.