Yubico Interview Questions
& Process

It was a really great interview process! They have a 2-part online assessment that was clearly well-thought-out. They're looking for someone who can not only write code and a design doc, but also include tons of documentation, including their thinking on trade-offs and risks. The whole thing was super smooth, honestly the best I've had in a while. It's a pretty standard flow: Recruiter Call -> Hiring Manager Call -> Online Assessment -> Final Call -> Offer. The recruiter was awesome, gave me all the info I needed upfront and helped me know who was next. The hiring manager was super knowledgeable and gave a ton of info, which made me really excited. She asked about my experience to see if I'd fit and about times I'd run into issues. Just have some key experiences ready, and you'll be fine. The online assessment was cool! It had two parts. First, you update an API that uses hardcoded values to use a real datastore. The code's in Go, but even though I don't know Go, it was easy to pick up. Second, you write a design doc for the next phase of APIs. Both parts require you to document everything you think of – comment your code a lot and write a really thorough design. They want to see that you can execute but also think about trade-offs and risks, so make sure you include all that. All in all, a fantastic interview approach.

I went through about 6 interviews. There wasn't a technical or take-home test, but I had some good conversations with a Python developer and a Sr. Data Engineer where we talked about my past experiences and projects. I was feeling good about it by the last interview, but they ended up choosing another candidate. Overall it was a good experience, and the HR manager kept me informed about everything.

It had multiple rounds, starting with a recruiter screening call, then phone interviews with the hiring manager and other people involved, each about 30 minutes. After that, an in-person interview was scheduled. This part was pretty extensive, with 5 different people in 20-30 minute chats. They were all really nice and asked about qualifications, experience, and personal stuff like hobbies. The final round was an interview with the CEO and CFO, either in person or on Skype. Yubico really cares about hiring, even having C-level execs involved, which was cool. It was tough but a good, organized experience.

I was contacted by the recruiter the same day I applied. The first call was about 30 min, asking basic questions about my interest and motivation. 10 days later I got an interview with the hiring manager. This interview went well and smooth, however, due to holidays, I had to wait 2.5 weeks to get a third interview with the head of the department. After having the interview with the head of the department I felt that there is no much space for development later in my career. The American part of the company was dominating the Swedish culture, which is not really what I was looking for when working in a Swedish office. The job description claimed, that part of the job is to contribute to the product development, which I found is not really accurate and leads to false expectations. I would say the company is still in the development phase and many processes could be improved. For example, working in the evenings due to company all management located in the US, does not seem to make people happy.