Policygenius Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process started with a recruiter phone screen, followed by a take-home coding challenge, and then onsite interviews. The onsite part included discussions on engineering values, two 'pair' programming sessions, and an engineering system design interview. A recruiter will contact me about the final decision. I had positive conversations about their engineering culture and learned about how product engineering operates; everyone seems to enjoy working there. I think I did well on the cultural and engineering values interviews, but not the technical ones. For the 'pair' programming, I thought I did okay since I finished the problem, but the feedback mentioned too many technical red flags. It felt more like a solo coding session than pair programming, with limited interaction. I wasn't sure what to expect or how to perform given the time constraints. I was focused on explaining my code, finding a solution, and coding it. The problem statement was also unclear, leading to incorrect outcomes despite a right solution. Only one of the four engineers helped clarify the ambiguity. I feel my coding ability was judged unfairly, and more clarity on expectations for 'pair' programming would have been helpful for preparation. After the onsite, I emailed about my status but got no response initially. I had to email again after a few days for the recruiter to schedule a 10-minute chat. They were slow to respond to my availability, which made me feel disrespected. A simple email rejection with feedback, or an option for a call, would have been better.

So after two phone screens, one with the CTO who gave me a good feel for the company and where it's going, and another technical call with a senior engineer, I was brought in for an in-person interview. For a senior engineering position, it's almost always a day-long experience, but PolicyGenius does it well by breaking the time up into a variety of sessions. Rather than repeatedly answering the same questions for different people, I got to meet the team I'd be working with in various scenarios. This included some group discussion, a pair programming coding challenge, lunch with some of the team, and some problem-solving on a whiteboard. At all stages, I was impressed with the people I met; there seemed to be a culture of learning from each other, and it was obviously important to them to find a good cultural fit as well as technical ability. All in all, this was one of the best interviewing experiences I've had. I felt challenged, but also respected and never bored.

First-round HR interview, then HR will schedule a 3-hour super-day-like interview section with you. It contains 5 small interviews: HR, company values, technical, pair coding, etc. Time is super flexible and the HRs are nice.