Relativity Space Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process had a recruiter call, then two technical rounds, and finally a long onsite interview. The onsite included a 1-hour presentation of my past work with questions, followed by four interviews: one with a leetcode technical problem, one system design, one personal/light technical with the team lead, and a final one with a principal engineer for questions and a freeflowing conversation. It felt like time was very short, making it impossible to go deep on any topic.

The recruiter call went well, with a good intro to the company, role, and expectations. However, the technical interview was disappointing. The Coderpad question seemed too complex for the 45-minute time limit. One interviewer seemed disengaged, only looking up at the end to point out a pseudo-code error I had already noticed and would have fixed with more time. There was no chance to introduce myself at the beginning or ask questions at the end. Given this experience, I wouldn't have accepted an offer.

The interview process began with a recruiter phone call that included some basic technical questions. This was followed by two technical phone screens; the first one focused on hash map questions. Then, there was a virtual onsite interview which consisted of a presentation on a technical challenge I encountered, two sessions on data structures and algorithms, a system design session, and a behavioral session. After completing all the rounds, I was initially informed verbally that an offer would be extended. However, the formal offer letter was delayed because a senior executive was on vacation and needed to approve the details. A few days later, I received an email stating that an offer would not be made. The reason provided was that while the hiring manager supported extending an offer, senior management was not fully convinced by my interview performance. I requested feedback on my interview, considering I had spent about a month in the process, but received no response. The situation was confusing: first an offer was implied, then rescinded, with no constructive feedback. The hiring manager had mentioned that hiring talent was a major challenge due to high workload, making the management's veto concerning and suggesting a potential lack of support for engineers. Based on past experiences, this might indicate a less than ideal work environment, so it's likely best to avoid such situations.