Sourcegraph Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I applied online and the whole thing took about 5 weeks. I interviewed at Sourcegraph in Oct 2021. The process included: a recruiter screen where they gave me the basics about the company and role, an interview with an Engineering Manager where we talked about my experience, a Coding Skills interview with 2 Software Engineers where I got the assignment 2 hours before and it felt more like real work than Leetcode, a Cross-Team Collaboration interview with a Product Manager and Product Designer about my cross-functional team experience, a System Design interview with 2 engineers where I had to design a system from scratch with growing complexity, a Values interview, and two Leadership interviews with a Director of Engineering and a VP Engineering, both focusing on behavioral questions. On top of that, the recruiter kept me updated and I also had a call with another team I was considering, which was helpful for my decision. The whole process felt very organized and open, and feedback was quick. I always knew the agenda for each interview and had time for my questions.

This was the best interview experience ever! Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. I had a smooth first interview with the hiring manager where I could ask all my questions about the company. The coding exercise was good too, and the interviewer gave me feedback and recommendations to improve my skills. My code walkthrough interview was also smooth, and I learned a lot from the interviewers about building a project for many users. This company values its people and always surprises me with how they support their success. They even send a Spotify playlist with the interview confirmation to help you relax beforehand! The experience was awesome!

This interview process was pretty bad, it had 8 steps plus a take-home. A lot of the steps felt like they were asking the same things over again, like 'Who are you?', 'What are you working on?', and 'Tell us something challenging you did.' It seemed like the interviewers weren't coordinated and each interview just repeated the last one, which made the whole thing really tiring. It took 2 months to finish all the steps, and then I just got an email saying they weren't moving forward. While the decision is fine, some feedback (which I asked for and never got) or a way to end the process sooner than after ten hours of interviews would have been nice and shown some respect for my time. The people I spoke with during the interviews were nice and chill, but the leadership meeting was weird. The interviewer was late, looked like they were grooming themselves on camera, and wasn't really paying attention. A positive thing was that the steps were clear and available online beforehand, so you knew what to expect. But honestly, the whole process needs a lot of work.