I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Step
Interview
Really great interview process, everyone I met was really smart and friendly. The technical question were very fair and very relevant to the job. They weren't regular LC questions that needed dynamic programming, they were things you would see in a normal work environment and you would be expected to describe. Overall the process was smooth and meeting everyone was very enjoyable!
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Some coding questions and some systems design questions.
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Step in Feb 2022
Interview
Initial coding interview, followed by virtual onsite with two more coding interviews and a system design interview. Was told they sometimes do an additional round (coding or design) if they want more signal.
Good experience throughout, they let me delay the interviews so I had time to prep, also were very quick with feedback (e.g. heard back within 2 hours of initial coding screen). At the end they took time to give me legit feedback despite the rejection. The recruiters and technical interviewers were all very nice. Had I gotten an offer, it would have been a tough choice between them and the other offer I did take.
The interviews were not terribly difficult but got the impression they have a high bar.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Two of the three coding rounds (including the first) were problems you might see on the job, one of those with an OO focus that also touched on multithreading. The other was a DSA focus with a medium-level Leetcode problem. Kudos to them for asking some real-world problems and not just LC.
For coding prep I would focus on being able to write quality code fairly quickly. None of the problems required a lot of code but you want to write it like it's production code. The OO question in particular had a lot packed into it and the time sort of got away from me. I don't recommend using a verbose language like Java or C++ unless that's all you know well (I used Python).
For the system design round, was asked to design a specific feature in a well known app. The interviewer scoped the problem at a small/medium scale and did not ask about scaling up, and I got feedback that they wanted to see a design that scaled better. I think this is ultimately what sunk me. So I recommend designing or at least talking about scale unprompted.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Step (Palo Alto, CA) in Oct 2021
Interview
Standard interview process with mix of leetcode style problems and a system design round.
The interviewers were all stellar, experienced, knowledgable and pedigreed engineers. The engineering practices, choice of stack etc is solid unlike other startups that can be haphazard in their choices. The recruiters are excellent, high calibre individuals. The process was very respectful and pleasant. The team was generous with their time in going over all of my questions. Highly recommend them as a model to follow for other companies.
Overall, I was quite impressed with the team and would recommend them highly.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Insert medium difficulty leetcode problems here, and a system design round, think financial applications etc.
