StyleSeat Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

I got an email from a recruiter on stack overflow. We had a phone call about the company and what they were looking for. The recruiter talked a lot about how great styleseat is. The main things I got from it were that the pay was low but there was equity, which they seem to really value. Then I did a technical screen on coderpad. The question was worded strangely and made more confusing than it needed to be. It took me longer than it should have, which is my fault. I didn't get to ask about the workplace. Two days later, I was asked to schedule another technical interview. I thought this was a mistake so I ignored it. But after more than a week I still hadn't heard back, so I asked why I was being given a second technical assessment. I then got an email saying that was a mistake and they were going with other candidates, but I'd be kept in mind for other roles. Overall it was very unprofessional and seemed like they hadn't done this before, even with 70 employees.

The interview process kicked off with a recruiter chat to get acquainted with StyleSeat. I was initially not super passionate about salon stuff, but the team's synergy, impressive growth, and current user base made StyleSeat an easy decision. Next, a typical Skype coding interview involving an algorithms problem, thankfully not overly academic. They moved fast to set up the onsite after I passed. The onsite was about 5 hours long and included discussions on web knowledge, a front-end interview, another algorithms test, and a web feature architecture discussion. The recruiters were quite approachable and helpful. The final part of the onsite was a conversation with the VP of Engineering, April, who gave great insight into the business's potential and discussed my career aspirations.

It took a long time to get to the actual job offer, much longer and much more stressful than needed. It took several emails, two different phone interviews, a 2-hour +/- long skype live coding interview challenge, an in-person interview to meet the team, all before a week long testing / newbie period before getting accepted and offered the job officially.