Udacity Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interviews weren't tough, it was more about fitting in. From what I saw, most engineers are very senior men, so you can guess their preferences - usually other senior men or Asian women. You can check out the current employees to see for yourself. When I asked beforehand what they were looking for, they just said generalist engineers with technical backgrounds. Neither the recruiters nor the engineers would give me more details. It was only at the onsite interview, after they saw me, that they started throwing out random requirements for the job. This was unexpected. It felt like they had already made up their minds about the outcome before even asking any questions.

Since I was remote, after a chat with the recruiter, I had a remote coding interview with one of the engineers I might work with. That was actually a very good experience. I felt like I would enjoy working with the dev in the future. Then I was scheduled for an onsite interview. Udacity moved quickly, and within a week I was in their office. I assume there was some administrative error, since the interviewer I was supposed to have was double booked and they had to find a replacement who wasn't ready for me. Ultimately it may not have affected the outcome, but it was the only interview that didn't go well for me, seeing as the interviewer was a little caught off guard by the interview.

The interview process at this company was extremely protracted. Initially, I had a conversation with an engineer who assessed my basic Javascript skills. Following this, there was a substantial waiting period of a full month before the next interview, which was a lengthy three-hour video call. While I believe I performed well on the coding challenges during that interview, I'm unsure if there was anything more I could have done. Subsequently, I had to wait another four weeks to receive any feedback about the outcome. Ultimately, I received an automated email from HR stating that they had decided to move forward with other candidates. Although I was accepting of this decision, the overall experience of waiting two months for an interview process with a rather impersonal rejection felt like a significant waste of my time.