SoftBank Interview Questions
& Process

First, I filled out a general application form with my academic and work history. Then I had an online interview via Zoom, followed by a second interview also via Zoom. The third and final interview will likely be in-person.

The interview included basic financial questions and assessed skills in Excel, VBA, and Power Query. It consisted of two rounds: the first was high-pressure but positive, while the second was relaxed but ultimately unsuccessful.

This experience might not be for you if you're not looking for a very traditional Japanese company. Beyond just confirming resume details, they mainly asked two questions: one from HR about why I wanted to join Softbank, and another from the ML department manager about the most challenging project I'd handled. Unfortunately, I was rejected due to not answering the 'Why Softbank?' question satisfactorily. While this kind of interaction can happen in traditional Japanese companies, there were aspects I hadn't encountered before: the interviewers acted like robots, giving minimal feedback like 'OK' or 'I see' without any follow-up, and one interviewer was distracted, fiddling with headphones while I was answering his question.

It was a pretty standard interview process up until the onsite. Typical recruiter call, then a phone screen where we talked about backgrounds and the job. Things got weird during the onsite, though. The vibe was a bit pretentious, and it felt like there are major issues with their recruiting and talent operations. There seemed to be a lot of internal disconnects. The onsite panel felt like it was put together last minute, with lots of cancellations and rescheduling. The interview itself lacked structure, with no clear kit or consistent questions. I was told I'd need to work 80 hours/week due to hiring needs and system builds, but then one interviewer mentioned they weren't actually scaling the internal team much, so I'm not sure what their real hiring goals are. After the interview, SoftBank completely ghosted me despite my attempts to follow up, which was really unprofessional. I ended up taking a job at a competitor. Others have had similar experiences. My advice to them is to manage candidate expectations and not disappear.