Toptal Ux Designer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process is broken down into a few parts. First, there's a short 10-minute screening chat where they'll talk about Toptal for a couple of minutes, and then ask some basic questions about you, your background, your skills, and the software you use. After that, you'll submit a PDF of your portfolio, including links to your projects. This portfolio should detail six end-to-end projects, explaining the product, your role, goals, and any problems encountered. Next, there's a 1-hour, 1:1 portfolio interview. About half of this time will be dedicated to discussing two of your projects, with the remaining time for general Q&A. The final stage, which I haven't reached yet, is a take-home assignment.

It's a long process that took me a couple of months. They don't tell you ahead of time what's involved. Be prepared, it's A LOT of work. None of the steps were particularly difficult, but you have to put in the time and effort. First, a general interview, 30-60 min (process, skills, case study walkthrough). Second, a take-home assignment, minimum of 8 hours (design challenge, unpaid). Third, a second interview, 30-60 min (spend about 20 min presenting assignment, follow-up questions). Fourth, received offer. Then, portfolio preparation (must include a minimum of 6 projects, 6-9 slides per project). Then, portfolio review (I went through 2 review cycles before having it approved). Then, portfolio approval. Lastly, legal documents and payment setup. I spent about twice the suggested time on the take-home assignment. I passed all interviews quite easily. They were very happy with my portfolio, only had to make minor edits. But it's a lot of work and I have no idea if any of it will pay off. It hasn't been a transparent process and for that reason I'm not very impressed with Toptal yet.

So the Toptal interview process is pretty involved and they have it all set up. It kicks off with your application and a first look, then you do a language and personality test. After that, it's a technical screen with live coding, then a project assessment where you show what you can do, and finally, a wrap-up interview to go over your project and chat about your experience. It's tough and takes a lot of time, you really gotta commit, but it means you'll be working with some seriously good people. Could be better if they gave more detailed feedback at each step though.