Solace Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

Got a direct message to interview, and was asked what drew me to Solace. The HR person kept calling me by my last name, and I corrected her once, but didn't want to seem too sensitive. She said the screening is really tough and I'm lucky to be this far. I guess that's just their style. I passed the tech round and then talked to the VP of Eng. Decided against it after that conversation. The tech stack is okay, but the culture feels like they really push people to their limits. I don't really care if people work 60+ hours a week unless they have founder-level equity or it's their first job. This place isn't a rocket ship.

I applied to Solace and got an auto-rejection, but then a recruiter reached out saying they wanted to interview me, which was weird. We had a chat with the recruiter about the company for an initial screening, and then I was invited to a two-hour technical assessment. The assessment was well-designed and open-ended, giving me a good chance to show how I work and what I'd focus on for the challenge. I put in the effort, submitted it, and then got another auto-rejection the next day. I asked the recruiter for feedback, but they said it's just pass or fail and they don't provide it. This felt like a waste of time. I wouldn't recommend interviewing here; the process is a bit backward. They also mention flying on-site for a two-hour interview at the end, which, based on other reviews on Glassdoor, could also be a waste of time.

There were two interview rounds. The first was with the manager, covering past work experience, general knowledge, and some technical aspects since the manager was technical. The second was a panel interview lasting two hours with three to five interviewers. The first hour focused on databases, multithreading, APIs, Java basics, Kubernetes, and Docker. The second hour involved a live coding session that wasn't data structure-related.