Xandr Interview Questions
& Process

Started with a recruiter screening call. Then a 30-minute first call with the hiring manager, followed by a 45-minute panel interview with 4 interviewers. They indicated they wanted to proceed and initiated the background check, which took a week. I received a verbal offer and accepted it, but without a confirmed start date because the company was in the middle of an acquisition by Microsoft. I was told I'd have an update in two weeks. I had to check in every two weeks as the deadline kept getting pushed back. Three months later, after the acquisition was finalized, the offer was rescinded. It seems like the executive leadership at Xandr, now part of Microsoft Advertising, has very little control over these decisions. They were hiring a lot of people but then couldn't move forward with them due to the changing business landscape, likely due to Microsoft's intervention. While hiring freezes during M&A are normal, both HR and the hiring manager assured me multiple times that start dates would be provided and the offer was still valid. What initially seemed like a great work environment with a startup culture has transformed into a Microsoft corporate culture where the original Xandr/AppNexus team has no decision-making power. Perhaps it was for the best!

The interview process was pretty straightforward. It started with a call with the hiring manager, then a take-home test covering SQL, API, and Python. After that, there was a 45-minute panel interview. Once I finished the test and the panel, I had to keep asking the recruiter in NYC for feedback. After sending a bunch of emails, the recruiter sent a short reply saying they were moving in a different direction and thanked me for my interest. I thought that was a ridiculous response given the test and the 3/4 hour interviews. It was very unprofessional and surprising for a company of that size. My advice is to stay away!

I was contacted by two recruiters for the same role, but ended up interviewing with three different people. Initially, I spoke with two managers. They asked me to complete a gilded rose project, which I did. When it came time to review the project, only one of the managers seemed to understand it; the other admitted he'd only looked at it 10 minutes prior, despite being told to submit it a day in advance. This manager seemed unprepared and uninterested, and I suspect he's the reason I wasn't selected, as I felt I had completed everything successfully. He also asked an odd question about creating an alternative route to an object, which didn't really apply to the class-based project where we weren't supposed to modify the original code. I didn't receive any feedback after the review, and both managers seemed disengaged. Later, another recruiter reached out about the same position. This time, I interviewed with the senior manager who was knowledgeable and explained their current projects well. We had a good conversation, and he said he would follow up, but I was ultimately informed they were not moving forward. I'm guessing the other managers' negative impression influenced the decision. I appreciate the recruiter getting back to me, though. I'm confident in my skills with their tech stack (React and Node), but it seems like internal disorganization or politics might be at play.

Got reached out to by the hiring manager through a LinkedIn connection and went in for an interview the next day. It was super fast, and even though I didn't get that job, they contacted me about a month later saying they were really impressed and had another opening that was a better fit. So I went in again, and a few days later, I got an offer. The whole thing was really professional, and I liked that they actually consider past applicants for future jobs, which a lot of companies say they do but don't. Super happy with my current job!