Smartcar Interview Questions
& Process

The interview started with a recruiter call, which then led to a call with the manager. The manager seemed a bit unusual, immediately outlining the call structure and then diving into basic interview questions. The focus was heavily on instances where I'd made significant mistakes or errors in my work. It felt like she was probing for catastrophic mistakes, something most people might not have experienced. The interview was quite superficial, and she ended by asking what I hadn't been asked, which was underwhelming.

This was a really long interview process with 5 main steps: first a recruiter call, then a technical screen with the manager, followed by a take-home project. After that, there was a review of the take-home project, and finally, a 5-round interview loop. I liked the people I met, they were nice and skilled. Smartcar does a good job telling you about the process and what to expect, and they are quick to give feedback. The technical interviews were practical and related to the job. However, the process took too long, especially the take-home project and the 9 total interview rounds. It's a big time commitment, especially when working full-time and having a family. Even big tech companies don't have this long of a process. Overall, it was a good experience and Smartcar seems like a good place to work, but they need to shorten the interview process.

The main HR contact was very responsive and transparent. Everyone emphasized that they wanted to make sure it was a good fit for both parties. I made it to the final round, but they went with another candidate. There was an initial screen. Then I met with an HR rep and the hiring manager to answer mostly behavioral questions. Finally, I met two members of the team for a more technical interview. It took a couple weeks to hear back, but they did mention that the hiring manager was on PTO.

The interview process was super quick and well organized. The recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn, letting me know about the opportunity and inviting me to jump on a quick introductory phone call. She was super flexible around my schedule, and we jumped on a call the next day. During which, she told me about the company, the role, and answered any questions I had. After this was a call with the hiring manager where I learned about the role in a little more detail - this was more of a formal interview. Following this call was a take home challenge, where I had a couple days to work on a task that would be relevant to the role. This is pretty standard across companies in Silicon Valley, but something that really stuck out to me was how encouraging the team was with answering any question I had about the challenge. I could tell that they really want candidates to succeed. After the challenge, I was brought onsite for an interview. Every person I met was super welcoming and I felt like I got to know the team a little better. The onsite interview lasted about 3.5 hours and I left with some cool Smartcar swag. The interview process at Smartcar is designed to be as transparent as possible - I was never left wondering when I was going to hear back from the recruiter and never felt like I had no idea what was coming next. The whole process took only about 2 weeks - from start to offer!