I was reached out to by an IXL recruiter on LinkedIn.
The first step was a phone interview with the recruiter.
Second step was an hour-long technical interview with a frontend engineer.
Last step was a virtual onsite, which consisted of three technical interviews with engineers and one interview with a recruiter.
All of the IXL employees I spoke to were friendly and laid-back, although not enthusiastic. The engineers were all clearly technically skilled as well. I got the overall impression that IXL hires for technical skill rather than passion or enthusiasm.
The technical interviews were difficult, but very fair and reasonable. I unfortunately flubbed a few questions due to being underprepared for backend questions, and I completely understand why I wasn't extended an offer.
However, there were two issues that made the overall experience neutral rather than positive. First, I was interviewing for a Frontend Software Engineer role and was told by the recruiter that I would be asked primarily frontend questions during the interview process. However, through the whole interview process, I was not asked any frontend questions at all, and was given algorithmic / backend questions at every step.
Second, the virtual onsite was a series of 45-minute technical interviews, with about 10 minutes at the beginning of each interview dedicated to behavioral questions. That made every interview feel super rushed and left me almost no time to ask questions about IXL and gauge for mutual fit. One engineer went over time by ten minutes to help give more insight on IXL, which I really appreciated. However, it shouldn't be necessary to fight the interview structure just to adequately gauge for mutual fit and allow time for questions. 1-hour onsite interviews would have been better than 45- minute interviews.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience interviewing at IXL and left with a positive impression of the company. However, there were some issues with the hiring process that I hope they fix for future candidates down the line.