SmartBear Interview Questions
& Process

I had a good experience interviewing at SmartBear, especially with HR. The recruiter was great, kept me in the loop, and prepared me well. I then talked to two senior execs, and those chats felt really good to me. They were interesting, focused on the important stuff, and seemed to match my background and how I see partnerships and growth. What was surprising, though, was how fast they made a decision. I heard back quickly that they were going with other people, which didn't make much sense after those talks. Still, I liked that the team was professional and spent their time with me.

Applied online. Heard back after about 20 days, which felt slow. The phone screen was pretty standard. The recruiter explained the whole process and said they'd give feedback either way, but that didn't happen. 18 days later, I talked to the hiring manager (so it took 37 days from applying to this point). After that call, I never heard from the recruiter again. I followed up a few times via email, and then I withdrew myself from the process, 48 days after I first applied. I did interview with the hiring manager.

The interview process was pretty standard, but I had some issues during a talk with one of the interviewers. When it was my turn to ask questions, one interviewer was really unhelpful and kept throwing my questions back at me without really answering them. It felt like they were being defensive and made me wonder about how open the team is and if they can give good answers. For sales people who are driven and like to learn and grow, this job might not be the best fit. It seemed more like a place for people who are okay with being told what to do and sticking to a strict plan. The company seemed to value playing it safe over taking risks or being proactive. Also, the pay they offered was way lower than other offers I have. The base salary they proposed was $100,000 less than what I’ve been offered for similar jobs. I did an in-person interview mostly out of curiosity, but the whole thing felt a bit slow. One of the main people took up most of the interview time, so I barely got to talk to their boss. This meant I couldn't ask all the questions I had ready, and some of my questions were dodged in a way that felt shady. All in all, the experience made me doubt if the company's vibe matches what a top-performing, self-starter salesperson would value.

It was a 2-round interview process. The first round was with the Engineering Manager. The second round was a technical interview with two interviewers, focusing on basic JS and React questions. One interviewer asked about frontend and the other about backend, even though it was a frontend role. I answered all questions correctly based on my experience. The questions were quite easy, but unfortunately, I received an email stating I wasn't proceeding further. No feedback was provided regarding areas for improvement or where things went wrong.