YCharts Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The process included a video call with the hiring manager, followed by a take-home code challenge. After that, there were 3 rounds of technical interviews. Non-technical questions were also asked throughout the process.

So, there were three interview stages. First, a quick chat with a recruiter. Then, a one-hour meeting with a lead engineer. Finally, a three-hour session with three other engineers. I got to the second round but was told I didn't fully complete the technical assessment in time. The conversation with the lead engineer was great, covering technical stuff, my background, his experiences, and company culture. With about 20 minutes left, I got a CoderPad link to implement an algorithm and pass all test cases before time ran out. I could use any resources, and with a couple of hints, I had the right logic, but my tests were failing. I got nervous and struggled to debug in the unfamiliar environment while tests kept running. As soon as time was up, he cut me off, saying he had to go. He mentioned my implementation was correct and even seemed unsure about the bug himself. I found the bug right after the interview ended and fixed it. I emailed him the completed code, but the next day I was rejected because my solution didn't pass all tests within the time limit. It was disappointing because the rest of the interview went really well, and I had the correct logic. I think it's a shame they have such a strict rule about timed assessments, especially when the solution was almost perfect and other parts of the interview were so enjoyable. They might be missing out on good talent because of this rigid approach.

I had a call with a recruiter, then a technical interview with a non-senior developer. After that, there was a 3-hour panel technical interview that I didn't get to do. The technical interview itself involved talking about my past experience, the interviewer explaining the team's role and company structure, and an easy coding question. The coding question was to return the word count of a string as a dictionary in Python and pass some tests. To pass the tests, I needed to clean the input string using regex. After the coding part, there was about 15-20 minutes left for me to ask questions about the company. The next day, the recruiter sent me a rejection email. This was surprising because the technical interview seemed to go well and was actually one of the easiest live coding interviews I've done. Given the education backgrounds of the employees here, I suspect that interviewing without a top university degree might be pointless.