Interviewing at Confiz is challenging and fun at the same time. While the interview structure might slightly change because of diverse roles or teams but core format will not change i.e., we will explore your knowledge, its depth, and your reasoning behind it. We look for abilities like problem solving, writing code, applying design patterns/data structures and optimizing code, just to name a few.
Below table explains the interviews you will go through depending upon the position you are appearing for. Besides what we ask, you should come prepared for the competencies mentioned in your resume. Keep in mind that interview is not limited to this writing.
This interview is designed for engineers with relatively less experience so complexity for a question varies. Explanation for couple of a topics from above diagram is given so that you get an idea of what to expect.
For coding question, we expect you to write compiler correct code, either on an IDE of your choice or a notepad. Generally, we ask candidates to use online code editors like codeshare.io or collabedit.com.
What we ask: “write a function that takes a string as input parameter and returns all the palindromes”
For SQL practical, we can ask you to write a query that finds particular rows using different joins or apply different joins on couple of tables to retrieve data set based on certain conditions.
Candidates that are skilled at writing code say that this interview was a nice warm up.
Moving forward, this interview is designed to combine coding skills and foundational knowledge; scale of complexity for a question varies depending upon the experience of candidate. Explanation of a few topics from above diagram is given so that you get an idea around what to expect; not all topics are covered in the interview.
For coding question, we expect you to write compiler correct code, either on an IDE of your choice or a notepad. Generally, we ask candidates to use online code editors like codeshare.io or collabedit.com.
What we ask: “Write a function that finds all the cascading numbers between any two given numbers; where a number is cascading if its immediate neighboring digits have difference of 1 only e.g. 5432 is but 3542 is not as 3 and 5 has a difference of 2.”
For algorithms and data structures, we will not be focused on memorization of algorithms. Knowing the runtimes, theoretical limitations, and basic implementation strategies of different classes of algorithms is more important than memorizing the specific details of any given algorithm.
What we ask: “Why insertion can be a costly operation in an AVL tree.”
For Security, we do not expect you to work on security application, but one should be familiar with how data is hidden in the world of software.
What we ask: “Why symmetric encryption/decryption is faster.”
Candidates who like to read as well – apart from writing code – enjoy this interview.
This interview is designed to combine coding skills, theoretical knowledge and technology expertise; scale of complexity for a question will not vary much depending upon the experience of candidate as this will test your ceiling. Explanation for a few of topics from above diagram is given so that you get an idea around what to expect; not all topics are covered in the interview.
For Coding / Software architecture, it’s up to interviewer what he thinks is the right pick. To understand what is expected for coding topic, please have a look at interview template of ‘Technical I’ and ‘Technical II’. For software architecture, you will be asked about different architectural styles that are used to structure and design software for a system.
For cloud technologies, you will be asked if you have worked on services provided by AWS, Azure or any cloud provider. From there, questions expand around those services inquiring about different use cases, strengths and weaknesses of competing services. Focus is on your understanding and knowledge about their internal working.
For algorithms and data structures, we will not be focused on memorization of algorithms. Knowing the runtimes, theoretical limitations, and basic implementation strategies of different classes of algorithms is more important than memorizing the specific details of any given algorithm.
What we ask: “What design elements make Amazon Aurora’s crash recovery almost instantaneous.”
For SDLC, we ask about how you have practice it in your projects.
What we ask: “How do you estimate story points for a user story.”
This interview explores the candidate’s abilities to design a System from ground up and cover all important bases. For example: choice of language and stack, infrastructure, Data stores, security, scale, performance, testing strategy and design patterns. We drive this interview by picking a real world example such as building a Video sharing platform like YouTube or Rich text chat system for 10 Million users.
There are few wrong answers in this interview, the intent is to find out if candidate can think holistically and hold her ground while presenting the architectural choices she comes up with.
Hiring candidates who are a great culture fit is very important to us. We have worked hard to create a culture which obsesses about quality in engineering, processes, communication and learning. We take pride in the this obsession to quality and continuous investment of time in learning. Another key value at Confiz is team work as we own all successes as a team and learn from mistakes as a team as well.
Some of the questions you will be asked in this interview are:
