Praetorian Security Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process spanned nearly two months. It began with an initial recruiter call where we had a good conversation. Following that was a personality assessment and a culture video. The personality test asked questions to gauge one's 'personality make-up' and 'thinking style', which I found unnecessary. The CEO's culture video detailed his journey and leadership philosophy; it was informative but raised concerns given the intense workload described. After submitting my responses to the video's questions, there was a long silence, prompting me to follow up. The recruiter then requested my availability for a 4-hour interview loop, scheduled over a month later. The assessments within this loop were conducted using their CYMPIRE system. During the logic puzzle section, technical issues required the interviewer to read the questions aloud. I managed the puzzles as best I could, though they aren't my strong suit. The code review and web application challenges went well, and I was able to solve the reverse engineering problem despite being a bit rusty. A week later, I received an email stating they wouldn't be proceeding, but it included helpful feedback. Reflecting on conversations with colleagues about the company's culture, I feel I may have avoided a difficult situation and will look for opportunities elsewhere.

This company's interview process was pretty long, especially for a smaller place. I had 7 calls in total: a discovery call, then four skills testing interviews, and finally a CEO interview. None of the rounds were super hard, and actually, some were pretty fun, but the number of them was a bit intimidating. It was cool chatting with everyone, they were all super helpful. The skills interviews were surprisingly collaborative, which was a nice change. Talking to the CEO was really interesting; mostly I was asking him stuff. Overall, I liked the interview, even though the length was a bit much to handle.

Praetorian's interview process has many rounds, but I had a great impression of everyone I met. The team seems very intelligent and they get to work on interesting projects. A heads-up for the 4 technical interviews: don't take the advice to "talk to the interviewers like they're your coworkers, and work with them." I was rejected because I spoke too much to the interviewers; they want you to solve the challenges completely on your own. Also, they expect you to perform at a 10/10 level in all 4 technical rounds. One interviewer failed me for a single question I was uncertain about. While that's their decision, be mindful of this when preparing and don't invest time if you don't think you can meet this high standard. It requires a significant time commitment. The technical interviews themselves are not difficult; they are simple CTF-style challenges. The real challenge is maintaining peak performance across all 4 rounds without any errors that would normally be acceptable in a professional setting.