Recursion Pharmaceuticals Interview Questions
& Process

I applied for the job through an employee referral and went through 3 interviews, though I was expecting 4. Everything was virtual. First, there was a quick 20-minute screening with an HR recruiter from the US, mostly behavioral stuff and why I wanted the role. Then, I had a 30-minute chat with the hiring manager, who's also the team lead. It was more behavioral questions plus a deep dive into my specific technical skills, like instrumentation and lab techniques. I had to sign an NDA before the next stage. The third interview was a big panel session. It started with me giving a 30-minute presentation on cell-based assays I'd developed, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A. After that, there was a 45-minute technical interview with two senior team members, then a 45-minute behavioral interview and casual chat with two other folks, and finally, a 30-minute wrap-up with the hiring manager. The first two interviews were easy to schedule on a portal, but for the third, I just gave my availability and they picked the date. I always got to ask questions, and their answers were really thoughtful. Everyone seemed genuinely nice and happy to be there. I was asked some interesting questions about my presentation and technical skills. The hiring manager said it would be about a week to hear back as they had more panels that week. They mentioned a final interview with the department head if I was successful. A few days later, the US HR person emailed saying there'd be a slight delay due to Thanksgiving but to expect an update early the next week. That didn't happen, so I followed up and was told they hoped to have an update soon. Just over a week later, I got an invite for a video call update. Unfortunately, they'd chosen another candidate, but they said the team's feedback was 'positive'. I asked for specifics but was told there were none. They encouraged me to apply again in the future. The whole process took a little under a month.

I had three interviews: first a hiring manager screening, then two technical interviews (one for biology and one for stats/coding). The hiring manager interview was mostly about my background, my research experience, and why I'm interested in this internship. The technical interviews were about the core foundations of biology and also coding statistics that are relevant for the role. The biology questions were generally more open-ended.

The interview process was long but very thorough. The interviewers were very kind and made the meetings very conversational. They had a lot of interviews; some coding and technical. The majority of the interview questions were behavioral. They did wait a long time to tell me their final decision and had me interview multiple times to extend the process after the initial group of interviews at the beginning. I had to wait about 10 days per step of the process. The whole process was just shy of 3-months.

Had a 15 min recruiter phone screen, then a 30 min hiring manager round on Zoom. After that, a 45 min technical interview on Zoom using Hacker Rank. It was followed by a 2-hour panel interview on Zoom, split into 4 sessions of 30 mins each. Finally, there was a 15 min hiring manager follow-up on Zoom. My experience was pretty good until the panel interview where two panelists were giggling, eating, and looking down the whole time, which was distracting and unprofessional. They asked me to sign an NDA before the panel interview. Most of my questions during the panel interview were met with "I can't tell you that."