Zapier Site Reliability Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

Got the call from the recruiter the day after I applied and scheduled a video call for later that week. The recruiter call was pretty basic. They asked about my experience and what technologies I knew best. The recruiter also gave me some advice based on our chat about how to tackle the next interview. The next interview was set up and scheduled within a week. It was with two managers from teams looking for SREs. The questions they asked were super vague, like how I'd handle specific tasks without mentioning any tech. Both interviewers were really clear about the roles they needed to fill and the tech/methods their teams used. After that, there was a technical assignment, and I could pick one of two. The process for getting the assignment and sending it back was super smooth and professional. I spent about 5 hours on it. After I submitted it, I waited about a week for an email saying I didn't make it. The recruiter was really good at keeping me in the loop the whole time and was happy to chat to explain more why I didn't move forward.

I was cold contacted by Zapier on Linkedin and we set up an initial 30-minute interview via email. The screening went well and the interviewer explained the tech stack and Zapier's interviewing process. Unfortunately, the interviewer for my first interview on March 27th never showed up. After waiting 15 minutes, I emailed Zapier and after 8 hours, they apologized and we rescheduled. My second interview on April 7th was standard, and I felt it went okay, but I didn't think I was a technical fit. To my surprise, on April 15th, I was invited to complete a take-home tech project. I received the project details on April 16th and was told there's no deadline but it should take about a week. They sent a check-in email on April 23rd, and I replied saying I'd submit it on the 27th, but got no response. I emailed again on April 27th needing a few more days due to my current job being demanding, still no response. I submitted the project on April 30th and emailed again asking if everything was okay since I hadn't received responses to my previous emails and reiterated my excitement for feedback. On May 1st, I finally got a response, possibly due to email issues on their end, and they confirmed feedback was expected in the coming days. On May 5th, I received an email stating the team was busy and feedback would be ready the next day. The following day, I got an email saying they weren't moving forward with me and provided NO feedback. To top it off, I was told I couldn't re-apply for 6-12 months, despite them initiating contact. I regret not checking Glassdoor reviews first.

This was the best interview experience ever! They actually got back to me within 7 days like they promised. Their communication was fantastic, always responding quickly, and if they needed more time, they'd tell me. After each step, I got a call with feedback and tips for what's next. I really felt like they were excited about me and wanted me to do well. No stressful live coding, no LeetCode, no whiteboard stuff, no weird algorithms or tricks. Everyone was super friendly and understanding that interviews are tough, doing their best to make it less stressful. My process involved calls with a recruiter, hiring managers, future teammates, and people from other departments. A lot of the focus was on how well I communicate (speaking and writing), if I fit Zapier's values, and how I'd handle fully remote work. The technical interviews weren't super hard, more like broad questions that let me start simple and then dive deep to show my experience. I also had a take-home coding assignment where I could use any language to build a simple tool for a real problem. It wasn't hard to do, and they didn't expect perfection, just correctness, good code, tests, and ideas for improvement.