Smartcar Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

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 whole interview process was really well put together. It was clear from the start and they did a great job. A few things that stood out: Phone screen - I got invited for a phone screen pretty much the next day after applying on Glassdoor. The invite email was super helpful, including an article that detailed the entire process. Take-home challenge and video discussion - The challenge itself was fun and had great documentation, which helped me understand the role better. They were clear about what they were looking for. I got good feedback and they really looked at my code. I even got to chat with the CTO about my solution and got more advice. Onsite - This was a 5-hour session with a mix of tough stuff: front-end, algorithms, project details, and behavioral questions. The schedule was well-planned, and the people were really friendly, making it an enjoyable experience. The office was nice and spacious too, and they even gave us snacks and a souvenir. Overall, it was the best interview experience I've had. Every part felt like a two-way conversation. I felt respected and like my skills were fairly assessed. I enjoyed talking with everyone, and I learned a lot from the team during the interviews.

So first, I had a call with the recruiter, which was chill. Then a 1-hour call with the hiring manager. After that, a take-home project. If that went well, I had a project review, and then a final interview with some people that was about 3 hours long. A heads up on the take-home: I did a lot, like over 1500 lines of code and 2 pages of docs in 3 days, and still got rejected. Honestly, their expectations were crazy - they wanted production-ready code with no errors, full tests (unit and integration), error handling, and full docs, all in 3 days. I had all that, and they were super picky. I mean, most of us have lives, and I'd never ask an engineer to do that much in 3 days and expect it to be perfect. They didn't even let me explain my choices or why I focused on certain things.