Toptal Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process involved an initial HR screening, followed by two LeetCode coding challenges, a project discussion, and finally a project defense. Failing either of the LeetCode assessments meant a year-long re-application period. While it wasn't too bad, the process seems to be declining. Back in 2022, there were over 300 job openings for my position, but now that number has dropped to fewer than 60.

So I interviewed with Toptal and it was a really disappointing experience. They asked me to do a business case on vertical marketing strategy, which involved optimizing budget across different marketing channels like AdWords, Display, LinkedIn, and Organic. I actually built an algorithm to forecast performance and allocate spend. After I presented my work, they asked for the actual algorithm code, which felt like a major red flag and an attempt to get my intellectual property for free. I refused to share the code but explained the strategy behind it. Then they just stopped communicating. It felt like they used my analysis and then disappeared. This felt like a bait-and-switch, using recruitment as a way to get free consulting work. I'd warn others in strategy, analytics, or data science to be careful.

So first there's a screening call, but the interviewer was super cagey, wouldn't tell me how many people work there, how many devs they have, how many projects are going on, or what I'd even be doing. Then I got a take-home assessment. After that, there was a live assessment where the 'technical interviewer' hit me with the 'everything is confidential' line and told me not to explain my work while they screen-share and record. They didn't really ask any technical questions about my background or the assessment though. Then they dropped another take-home project, a big one, like 20-25 HOURS of work, and wanted the next interview scheduled within a week. The task was to build and deploy something, and then I'd have to 'interview' with someone playing 'the client', and they might want changes to the take-home assignment. I bailed at this point. Honestly, the whole thing felt sketchy, like a scam. Just weird vibes all around.

The Toptal interview was quick, about 20-30 minutes. First, I talked about myself, my job history, and my digital marketing skills. They asked me stuff to see how I communicate, my past work, and how I solve problems. They also wanted to know about tools and methods I've used, especially for SEO, paid ads, and data analysis. It was a professional chat to see if I could do good work for Toptal clients. It felt relaxed, like a normal talk, which made it easy to open up.