RoadRunner Interview Questions
& Process

The phone screening was straightforward and conducted professionally. Following that, I was given a timed online assessment via a platform called Woven Teams. This made me wonder if engineers are too busy for direct candidate coding skill reviews. Unfortunately, the Woven platform experience was not good. It was buggy on Firefox, making TDD difficult due to inconsistent test saving. A different browser might work better, but generally, the UX was frustrating. One part involved a PR review with a 35-minute limit. Most of this time was spent understanding the requirements, leaving little time for substantial comments. Online, I've seen many candidates report similar issues with Woven. It seems more like a filtering tool than a genuine skill evaluation. If you find it tough, it’s likely the tool itself.

So the process itself wasn't particularly noteworthy, but what really stood out to me was how homogenous everyone was and a really alarming red flag I caught in the last interview. All the C-suite execs are white, cis, het, and male, all coming from similar backgrounds. This definitely stood out, especially in 2021, but I was willing to at least give them a chance because they claimed they wanted to address their diversity issues. However, during the final presentation/interview, something really set off my alarm bells, and I want to share this so other women/femmes/POC considering a role at RoadRunner are aware. The CEO specifically told me: "you clearly have the technical acumen and operational expertise to do what we need to get done, but I have concerns about your ability to lead our CSMs, many of whom have been with the company for 5+ years." In a roundabout way, he made it very clear that their CS department/company has a toxic culture that would actively be hostile to new (specifically, female) leadership. This is a huge, glaring red flag that can't be ignored. At that point, I knew I would never accept an offer from them, and I'd advise any women or people of color to steer clear.

The interview process was really thorough and took some serious studying. I went through 2 interviews and also had an online assessment. My first interviewer was awesome and really set me up for success! But, during my second interview with Leah, I could tell right away she wasn't into me. She rushed through the questions, didn't seem excited at all, and didn't give good feedback on the mock call. Plus, she asked a lot of the same questions from before, which made it hard to come up with fresh answers. I don't know if she was having a rough day or makes up her mind early, but her expressions and lack of interest made it clear she didn't like me. My interview skills aren't perfect, but she definitely didn't help make the process any easier.

I talked to the CTO about general culture and went over my resume. Then I had to sudo code an algo. Next, I spoke with a Senior Engineer who asked me questions on frontend, backend, and browser knowledge. We also discussed system design and security best practices. Finally, I had a take-home HackerRank with two medium algo questions, one SQL query, and a whiteboard system design.