Vanguard Field / Application Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

First, they sent me an email with an online technical assessment that had some multiple-choice questions and a few LeetCode coding problems. After a few days of waiting, they called to set up the final interview. The final interview had two rounds, each an hour long. One round was technical, covering system design and another LeetCode problem, and the second round was behavioral.

The interview process started with a 20-minute phone screen with a recruiter to discuss the role, confirm background details like US work authorization and relocation to Malvern for a hybrid work model. This didn't require specific preparation. Next was a case study interview. About 30 minutes before, a case study prompt was given for a high-level product/feature design. The interview included background and interests discussion, behavioral questions (using STAR method), and conceptual questions on OOP/data structures, followed by presenting the case study design with some Q&A. Then, a purely behavioral interview with a senior person took place. Although I was initially told they chose a more competitive candidate, the recruiter later reached out about another similar role on a different team due to good interview feedback. The final stage was a team matching/informational overview with 4 team members, focusing on my interests and their roles. The whole process took a couple of months, which felt long.

So, first, I had a quick chat with HR to make sure I was a good fit. Then, I went into a pretty long interview, about 2 hours. It was split into two parts: technical and behavioral. The technical part involved a case study they sent over before the interview, which I had about 30 minutes to work on. Then, we talked through it and my thought process. They also asked me some technical questions about the main technologies for the job. That took about 45 minutes. After that, we switched to the behavioral part, which was mainly just asking personality-type questions.