The Zebra Interview Questions
& Process

I had four interviews and a take-home assignment. The assignment was all SQL and took about 20 hours, it had over 30 slides. The last interview had 8 people, split into 4 meetings of 2 people each. I presented for 30 minutes, then we did interviews. One interviewer asked about my hobbies and what I do for fun, nothing about my background or the assignment. The others asked simple questions related to my background. It took two weeks to hear back. The recruiter said I got good feedback but I was still rejected for reasons unknown. I felt my time was wasted and I would not recommend this process.

This whole process took about a month. I was contacted for an initial phone screen, then I had a phone screen with the hiring manager. I was supposed to go into the office for a panel interview, but because of COVID-19, it was moved to Zoom. The panel interview was 2.5 hours long and I spoke to 5 people in total, including the hiring manager again. It was pretty distracting that some of the interviewers had weird green-screened backgrounds, making it feel like I was talking to just a floating head. Given the situation, I felt the interviews went okay, but I didn't get the job. I do appreciate that they let me know pretty quickly.

First, there was a phone screen, and then an onsite interview. The onsite had a few parts: a one-on-one with the hiring manager and then panel interviews with people from Business and IT. It was a pretty good experience overall. The HR person coordinating was professional and thorough. The office space was cool, with a coffee bar acting as the reception and music playing everywhere. The interviewers seemed friendly and happy to answer my questions, clearly liking their jobs and the company vibe. They asked questions that were a mix of behavioral and specific to the field.

I had a phone screen with a recruiter at The Zebra several weeks ago. I did some research beforehand and felt prepared and enthusiastic to talk about the role. I'd recently interviewed with a few companies, and my experience with The Zebra was notably unprofessional. It was evident from the start of our call that the interview was already decided. The recruiter didn't seem to be actively listening to her own questions or my answers. The questions themselves were nonsensical, and when I asked for clarification, she fumbled because she didn't understand what she had just asked. The whole interaction felt like she was losing her place and reading from a script, although she didn't speak much if she could avoid it. I suspected within the first few minutes that they likely already had another candidate in mind. Like most people, after an interview, I tend to think about the questions asked and what I could have said differently. However, with this call, I was preoccupied with trying to decipher the poorly phrased and confusing questions to understand what the recruiter was actually trying to ask. There was no genuine connection with the recruiter. When I inquired about her experience at the company, she provided a canned response to a question I hadn't asked.