Interviewed for a Senior Software Engineer (backend) Position in Jan 2024.
Had a few rounds, eventually decided to stop the process before the last interview as they didn't offer me a role + salary I wanted. Also, they don't give out full-time contracts, only 2 year limited time contact to start with - which is very uncommon in Berlin.
Process is as follows
- Recruiter call -> Detailing about the process and stuff, weirdly with a big emphasis on how difficult it is to get into Hello Fresh. This condescending tone is going to be the theme of a few other things I noticed.
- Take home test -> Solve a given problem. Emphasis on problem solving and coding standards. Make sure to have production level code, even though the docs might say otherwise :)
- Coding Interview -> Was told it would be a pair
programming one, but turned out to be a standard Leetcode one, so could be either of these. Medium level question, I was not properly prepared, so took a lot more time than I should have.
- General Tech -> Resume/experience based
- System Design -> Standard system design problem.
- Executive Interview (skipped) -> With a VP of something. Apparently, this interview has not a lot of weight in the decision making process as they had already decided before this that they would give me a Mid level position instead of senior.
Overall I would say good interviews, I did not have 100% perfect interviews, hence the mid-level eval from them. Fair enough. But also felt like the interviews were trying to dig out the slightest mistake you can make, rather than collaborating/evaluating your skills -(esp in the code review and System Design interview), this was evident in the very nitpicky feedback I received afterwards. I had an impression that I probably won't like working there because of this.
But maybe good riddance that they did not meet my expectations and I didn't meet theirs :)