Squarespace Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process is involved and with many steps, but it's not too long. They can set things up in consecutive days, if you're able to attend. It's even possible to do many interviews in the same day. The whole process took 1 month, but could have been faster if I had the time. The steps: - Phone screen with a recruiter - Leetcode-style (easy) DSA interview with an engineer. If successful, the real fun begins. There's 4 more interviews that, as stated, can happen in the same day or consecutive days. - Code analysis interview. They simulate a code review scenario with a very poorly written piece of code, and it's your job to point out the errors and suggest corrections/improvements. - Leetcode-style DSA Interview. Similar to the previous one, but harder. If the previous one was Leecode easy, this one is a medium. Brush up on your basic data structures, and be ready to talk about run-time complexity and so on. - System Design interview. Design a large scale application with its APIs, backend components, the database schema, etc. You should know about how to scale it to many users, etc. - Behavioral interview. The standard kind where they ask questions in the form of "Tell me about a time when..." and you should answer with the STAR format. Usually it's a hiring manager who conducts this one. The process was overall very good. People are respectful and nice, and after each interview feedback comes fast.

They started with a vanilla Javascript take-home test. After that, there were 4 rounds of virtual onsite interviews. These included functional programming, building a dashboard using system design principles, creating a slideshow functionality with vanilla JS, and standard behavioral questions. A heads-up: even if you pass all the interviews, there's a 'team matching phase' which often doesn't actually result in a team match. It's pretty unlikely you'll find a team, especially since their hiring bar seems lower than other big tech companies and they only have a few openings for front-end developers. Honestly, if you're a front-end engineer, this might not be worth your time. They really, really focus on vanilla JS skills, which is odd. If you're used to React/Angular, you'll be at a significant disadvantage. I'd recommend looking elsewhere for companies that don't test vanilla JS and are more likely to extend an offer if you pass the technical bar.

So, even though I didn't get an offer, it was seriously the coolest interview I've ever done for a dev job. It kicked off with a chat with HR about my resume. Then there was a take-home coding challenge on HackerRank using plain JavaScript. After that, it was an onsite interview that had four parts, also on HackerRank. These covered things like communication, teamwork, impact, and leadership. Then, a live coding session on HackerRank focusing on JavaScript specifics (vanilla JS). Next up was a discussion about systems design, specifically with React. The final part was another live coding session, again in vanilla JS, covering data structures and algorithms.