I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Blocknative Corporation
Interview
The interview process is "high touch" in the best possible sense of the word.
In the first step, I had an hour-long discussion with the CTO, in which we discussed all the usual subjects (past experience, technical interests, context about the company, etc.), and which quickly converged on the overlap between my skillset and the company's projects. I should stress that this didn't feel so much like an interview as much as an whiteboard/engineering/brainstorming session.
The second step was an interview with two members of the engineering team. Again, this took the form of an hour-long conversation in which we dove into both the specifics of my background (education, prior experience, etc.) and an in-depth discussion about the kind of work I would be interested in doing within Blocknative.
The third and final step prior to receiving an offer was a short (30 min) conversation with the CEO. Technical conversation was unsurprisingly light, and it felt to me like an opportunity to inquire about the commercial and cultural aspects of Blocknative. As with the first two conversations, this was extremely pleasant and professional.
From there, I received a phone-call from the recruiter who had been scheduling meetings throughout to be informed of Blocknative's offer. After a few days of negotiation, I signed on the dotted line.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Note: I labelled the interview as "difficult" because it's nearly impossible to fake deep understanding of niche technical subjects. There are, however, no "gotcha" questions or anything of the sort. Questions are open-ended and invite detailed analysis of current problems and past work in your area of specialization.
