Polly Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 6 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at Polly.
Polly
Senior Software Engineer
Senior Average Neutral experience No offer 5 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Phone screen Technical screen Onsite Background check
Interview formats
Behavioral Technical Coding
So, I got a message on LinkedIn from a recruiter about a job. We set up a time and had this initial phone screen. They asked me what I knew about the company and why I was interested, which was a bit weird since they were supposed to tell me. They laid out the whole process: phone screen, interview with the VP of Engineering, a technical test, another chat with the team, and a final call for any loose ends. I didn't even get to the second step, which is kinda wild. It feels like a startup trying to scale too fast. The people seemed nice enough, but I'm not sure there's much room to grow right now.
Confirmed questions3 questions
- What makes you want to join our company?
- How do you ensure stability when you're coding?
- Could you tell me about a project you're particularly proud of, and explain your reasoning?
Polly
Software Engineer
Entry Average Negative experience No offer 2 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Take home
Interview formats
Coding Technical
I saw a posting on the hackerjobs slack channel for a Software Engineer position. The recruiter was a bit elusive at first but after applying, I had a phone call with them. Then, they sent me a coding challenge that they wanted to keep private. The challenge was to build a mortgage calculator app within two hours, including documentation, tests, and dependencies. It felt like they were trying to see if I would fit into a rigid 'sweat shop' environment, which is typical for companies desperately seeking talent on slack.
Confirmed questions6 questions
- Imagine you're building a loan payment calculator to help people understand their monthly payments and how they split between principal and interest. You'll need inputs for interest rate, loan amount, downpayment, and term length. The program should read data from standard input like this: ``` amount: 100000 interest: 5.5% downpayment: 20000 term: 30 ``` Remember: a) there's a blank line after the last input. b) the term is in years. c) interest can be a percentage or a number. Handle common input errors (case, spacing) and output a JSON with the monthly payment and total interest paid. ``` { "monthly payment": 454.23, "total interest": 83523.23, "total payment": 163523.23 } ```
- Can you send us an archive (zip, tar) through a file-sharing service (like DropBox or Google Drive) containing your solution and instructions on how to run it on Mac or Windows?
- Please avoid using any paid or subscription tools (like Visual Studio Enterprise). We'll likely test it on a basic Mac, Linux, or Windows machine by running it from the command line.
Polly
Software Engineer
Mid Average Neutral experience No offer 4 rounds
Interview process
Recruiter call Take home Phone screen Onsite Background check Offer
Interview formats
Coding Behavioral Technical System Design
So I kicked things off with a quick recruiter chat, just the basics on my background. Then they shot over a coding challenge by email. It was pretty straightforward, and the instructions even let you check your own answers. After that, I had a phone chat with a couple of engineers who hit me with some standard questions about my past work. A week later, I went in for an on-site. Honestly, it was pretty standard, but surprisingly light on the actual technical stuff. One engineer asked some really odd questions, like my favorite Python feature, and seemed unhappy with my answer about appreciating its elegance, pushing me to list technical features instead. The only real technical part was a quick architecture question from the VP, which I fumbled a bit, but he was cool and helped me work through it. Everyone was super nice, made me feel like I could hang out with them all day. But then the CEO pulled some aggressive tactics, which I really didn't like and kind of soured the whole thing. I got the vibe that work-life balance isn't a thing there, expecting 50-hour weeks, which is maybe normal for the Bay Area but not what I'm after. I backed out before they made an offer because I had a better opportunity come up.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- What's your favorite aspect of the Python programming language?
- What makes you want to join this company?
Polly Software Engineer Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from Polly interview reports.
“Could you explain what the HEAD Http method is?”
Read reports →“What's your favorite aspect of the Python programming language?”
Read reports →“Can you send us an archive (zip, tar) through a file-sharing service (like DropBox or Google Drive) containing your solution and instructions on how to run it on Mac or Windows?”
Read reports →“How do you ensure stability when you're coding?”
Read reports →“Tell me about your worst mistake.”
Read report →“What makes you want to join this company?”
Read report →“What makes you want to join our company?”
Read report →“Could you tell me about a project you're particularly proud of, and explain your reasoning?”
Read report →“Can you elaborate on your resume and past experiences?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 6 Polly interview reports.