I applied online. I interviewed at Swappie (Helsinki, Southern Finland) in Feb 2021
Interview
Got an email from their internal recruiter and agreed on a meeting with their lead developer.
After the meeting, that was mostly general discussions about company and what they do, I got a technical and architectural interviews scheduled.
Technical one was 1 hour of pair programming. The point was to demonstrate that one is able to use tools of a language effectively (in my case it was JavaScript).
The architectural one was a discussion with 2 team members about a hypothetical stock app and what kind of decisions I'd make (both front and back end related).
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
App needs to show in near real time stock price. How'd you implement it (high level overview)?
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Swappie (Helsinki, Southern Finland) in Feb 2026
Interview
The interview process is well organised overall.
The TA interview was great, they ask the right questions to assess the culture fit.
The hiring manager interview was also nice, good chance to learn more about the role, the team, the challenges etc. Everyone was exceptionally nice.
The tech interview was 2 parts and is booked at the same time. Which is a bit strange. I guess they wanted to test both coding challenge and system design knowledge at the same time. Which might sound like a good idea for the company, but not for the candidate. After I took the life coding, which imho went pretty well, I went through a system design without knowing if I failed the life coding or not. During the interview I strongly felt that the interviewers have already made their decision, that they've already selected someone else and just pushing through.
I do not think this is fair to the candidates. I personally spent hours preparing for both interviews. It was really disappointing to join the final interview and realize no one is really interested in what you're saying because someone else was selected.
I wish the process was more honest and transparent.
Bowls
Get actionable career advice tailored to you by joining more bowls.
Want the inside scoop on your own company?
Check out your Company Bowl for anonymous work chats.