I applied online. I interviewed at Revolut in Feb 2024
Interview
I sat my 'live coding' interview a week ago and still have not been told if I have passed or not.
My experience during the first round interview was good. I was caught a little off guard by being asked some technical questions during this round but I assume that is by design. I was then invited to book a `live coding` interview along with instructions on how best to prepare and the expected coding environment that needed to be setup and working prior to the interview starting. All very professional I was fairly impressed.
The `live coding` interview was OK. They put a large emphasis on using TDD but also completing the task to a production quality. These two concepts do work a bit against each other when you have such a small amount of time. Eg: For a production quality function I would (and did) spend a lot of time validating the input to the function. (eventually the interviewer did tell me to not worry anymore with input validation) but by then I had wasted a bunch of time. The interviewer did not provide me with any kind of requirements which again goes against the time factor by having to build my own set of requirements by asking questions or coding in the wrong direction for some time.
My real issues started after the `live coding` interview. My expectations for when I would know if I passed the interview or not were set at the end of the interview. My interviewer thanked me for attending and told me that he would let the recruiter know straight away.
The next day I sent an email to the Revolut recruiter asking about the result. I received nothing back for another 2 days. I was told the recruiter would ask about the result and get back to me as soon as possible. After another day waiting I send another email to which I still haven't received a response.
I have been polite and have asked about when I could expect to hear the result of my interview so as to correctly set my clearly non realistic expectations of the time line. I have had little to no response form Revolut and the professionalism and preparation I afforded them has not been reciprocated at all.
I can now only assume that I did not pass the interview and have simply been tossed aside. I hope I simply fell through some kind of internal process and this is not how they treat people and conduct their business.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Live coding: write a URL shortener in java using TDD.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Revolut (Varsovia, Mazovia) in Jan 2022
Interview
It is a big corporate so review was a regular interview with standard questions. After answering them I got technical verification on which I was asked basic Java Script tasks. Boring...
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Revolut in Feb 2024
Interview
This is my first time writing a negative review. Initially, the process seemed promising with a pleasant interview conducted by the lady recruiter, who even conducted a basic technical screening. However, the subsequent interview left much to be desired. I felt as though I was being assessed by someone lacking the necessary qualifications for the role. The interview was relatively straightforward, covering topics like multithreading and data structures—areas in which I have extensive experience spanning 13 years, with positive feedback from previous employers on complex technical solutions. Upon reviewing the interviewer's LinkedIn profile, I discovered they only had four years of experience. It was like explaining the intricacies of car transmission to someone who insists on starting in first gear after hitting a bump on a high speed, despite me knowing it should be at least the second.
Moreover, the interviewer failed to articulate their questions clearly; for instance, when asking about the determinism of a method, they expected a new test using a mock, despite the interview guidelines explicitly stating no libraries or frameworks were allowed (hello Mockito).
after I found out what he really expects, I explained the way it could be done with a mock, but normally people without interview experience do not count the answer when its not exactly as they planned.
Maybe they dont want to waste time of senior engineers on this stage, but looks like it might backfire in some cases.
After a week, I got a rejection email saying:
"We have decided not to proceed further with your application, as we require more specific knowledge to be successful in our recruitment process." I politely asked them if they could provide a bit more detailed feedback, on which skills I lack more specific knowledge, it's been a week with no reply.