I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Block
Interview
* Call screen w/recruiter – 15m
* Code challenge with dev – 1hr
The code challenge was pretty easy. The interviewer encouraged me to not worry about code structure/quality, just go for a working solution. I followed this suggestion and had a correct solution in 22m.
A few days after the code challenge. I got an email saying I'd failed the challenge. I followed up with the recruiter. They reached out to my interviewer who provided a few things they'd failed me on:
* Didn't talk enough out loud while solving the problem
* Didn't have a clean enough code structure
* Didn't answer the bonus question fast enough
None of this seemed particularly fair. I wasn't aware I needed to talk out loud when trying to solve the problem. The interviewer explicitly told me not to worry about code structure. And the bonus question seemed like it was just that: bonus. I didn't realize it would count against me if I didn't solve it.
The interviewer seemed young, out of undergrad a few years, and basically like a 'brogrammer'. So my best guess is they evaluated me as not a good culture fit. Maybe they are correct and saved me from working with people I don't jibe with.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given a set of players on a coordinate plane, find those that are close to each other.
I applied online. I interviewed at Block in Oct 2025
Interview
I had a call with their recruiter first, talked about my past experience and what I'm look in for in my next role. Then had a technical front-end screening with two engineers where I needed to build an application. I thought I did well, I was able to implement a working app, but I did not pass. Not further feedback was given.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Implement a memory game in any JS framework or vanilla JS. You need to implement this game based on some demo app that you can play around with before hand. You need to implement the HTML/CSS and JS all from scratch. The game has the following behavior: you need to display N x N cards in a grid lay out. The number of N should be configurable by the user through a slider. When the user clicks a "start" button, N cards a highlighted for 2-3 seconds. Then the user needs to click on the cards that were highlighted. If the user clicks on the correct card, it changes the color to green, otherwise it changes to red. If all the initially highlighted cards are clicked the game is over. What to watch out for: you need to track the cards that were clicked in the grid, you need pick N random cards to be highlighted for each round of the game. You need to make sure the gird of N cards can be increased and reduced. It's not enough that the app works, you also need to write clean/readable code. You have about 40 minutes to implement this, and you need to talk through your work.
Long process. System design felt like I aced it but they didn't pass me. It was the classic design a hotel booking platform question. They put you through a lot of rounds up front.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Block in Feb 2025
Interview
Two rounds: the first was a technical screen and hiring manager interview, and the second round was 5 interviews (2 coding, 1 system design, 1 technical project review, 1 leadership interview)