Wolfram Research Web Developer Interview Questions
& Process

I sent in my application online and heard back from the recruiter the very next day to set up a call. The recruiter kicked things off by asking about my past experience, the projects I'd done, what I was looking for salary-wise, and where I wanted to work. Then, she set up a phone interview with the Head of Web R&D for later that week. During the 30-minute call, after discussing my background, he shared a link to an online coding platform. We were supposed to tackle two coding challenges, and for the second one, he wanted two solutions: one with O(N) complexity and another with O(N log N). The platform kept glitching, so we ended up just talking through the first problem. He then told me to finish up all the problems and email him the code. I did that, and the following business day, I got an email letting me know they weren't moving forward with my application.

It was a really drawn-out interview process. It kicked off with some back-and-forth via email with a recruiter, who actually left the company during my interviews and didn't even tell me. Then I got hooked up with a different recruiter. After a brief initial chat, they told me to re-apply online in about six months because the roles I applied for were already filled. Eventually, about six months after I first applied, I had two technical phone interviews, followed by a two-hour Skype call with the team. After that last interview, I didn't hear anything back for two months, even though I sent the recruiter several emails. In the end, I got a generic rejection email. So, the whole thing was this confusing 8-month ordeal with hardly any communication and recruiters who were hard to get a hold of.

It started with a quick chat about my previous work. Then, some fundamental questions about web development and security came up, like 'What is XSS and how do you stop it?' and 'What other security problems can web apps have?'. They also asked a couple of behavioral questions, such as how I tackle problems. I think I might have fumbled on the behavioral part, wasn't really confident. About three weeks later, I followed up and heard I didn't make the cut.