R3 Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process would have been 4 rounds. The first was an HR round. The second was a coding assignment where the task was to recognise bad practices. Not much actual coding, rather commenting, which was the most sensible part. The third was a technical whiteboard interview via Zoom, using 'share your screen' which qualified as a whiteboard. It was extremely stressful and the interviewer was helpful, but the inherent stress of a whiteboard interview is very high. I didn't make it to the fourth round. It was an extremely bad and excruciating experience, after which I had a minor mental breakdown and visited a shrink. I heard the company itself started freefalling since then, so karma seems to be working.

So I was contacted on LinkedIn by the recruiter, who gave me the lowdown on the company and the job. We then set up the first interview, which was a code review I had to send back. After that, there was a 1:1 online video call where I had to tackle some algorithm questions and talk through a system design. Then, I had a chat with a senior engineer about my background and what I was looking for, and we also went deeper into the company's engineering vibe and general stuff about the company. The last step was the team-fit chat with the manager. Oh, and they actually found a UI role for me since I'm more into that than backend, which is what I initially applied for. The whole recruitment process was pretty sweet, the person I was talking to was always available and super open to chatting about anything regarding the job or my situation. Since I was moving to London, there was a bunch to sort out, and they were really clear and honest about where we were in the process and what was coming next. They were also a big help with the contract details and getting me the paperwork I needed for the move. It did take them a while to get to the offer, mainly because of COVID-19 and Brexit, they had to figure out employment stuff, like if I could start from home and move later. Turns out that wasn't an option, so we ended up with a flexible contract where the start date could be adjusted based on things. Overall, I was happy with how it all went down, a really positive experience.

Started with an HR screening, then a quick code review test, followed by a longer coding test. After that, there was an interview with the Manager. The code review test was super easy, just a small class with errors to fix and comment on. The coding test felt a bit pointless; they want you to talk a lot, but really, they're just judging if you're fast enough for them. The manager interview was mostly them trying to get you to join R3.