Spiceworks Ziff Davis Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I got an initial recruiter call and phone screen with HR which was fine. Then, I had to complete a take-home assignment. It was really complicated, confusing, and took a lot of time and effort - I actually stopped about two-thirds of the way through because it felt like more work than I usually put into paid projects. I let the recruiter know I wasn't going to finish it and that I was out. A couple of weeks later, they reached out and admitted that the test was causing issues for many candidates. So, they decided to replace it with a technical phone screen and asked if I was still interested. I said yes and set up a 45-minute chat with a developer. The screen itself was pretty messy, with a mix of high-level computer science questions and some really basic questions about my specific area, which the person interviewing me didn't know much about. The interviewer was nice, but it quickly became clear that the role they were interviewing me for wasn't the same as the one I applied for. When I asked about it, they said they didn't have specialists and everyone just worked on whatever came up. The interviewer wasn't even from the department with the opening and had no clue about it. So, I decided not to pursue working at Spiceworks after that call. To their credit, they sent a decline email about a week later, saying they felt 'my skills were not right for them at this juncture.' I guess that makes sense for whatever random job they had in mind.

I initially connected with a recruiter at the campus job fair. They liked my resume, so I ended up having an on-campus interview later that week. I recall there being two technical interviews, each lasting about 30 minutes. One involved string manipulation, and the other was about Maps. Both interviewers were quite friendly and helpful. I received an offer about three weeks after the interview.

The interview process started with a phone screen by HR, followed by a phone screen with a Software Engineer. Then there was an on-site interview. After the on-site, they never got back to me despite several emails. I experienced ghosting, which was very disappointing.