I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Trellis Technologies (Los Angeles, CA) in Feb 2025
Interview
Standard software engineering interview gauntlet:
1. Hiring manager meeting
2. Automated technical (Woven)
3. System Design
4. Deep Dive technical (Past Experience)
Followed by, what you would be a normal reference check. Or what I would describe in this case as a collective and offensive time waster.
The techinical team was a delight to talk to. They sold the company and product really well. The techinical lead seemed a bit intense and stressed, but to be expected in a tech startup; been there, done that. Maybe there is more there in hindsight... Everyone came across as well experienced, with a solid techinical background and emotional intelligence / soft skills.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The typical set of questions. Woven asked an architectural question to troubleshoot the likely source of an issue. Followed by a "Mock e-mail to a more junior developer" with an action item to help them find a root cause of a system issue, with mentoring them on how to get them if they don't have experience (Such as using observability tools, etc).
The rest of the interviews were very individualized and standard.
I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Trellis Technologies in Dec 2024
Interview
3-faceted interview process that used Woven interviewing platform. AI was allowed for the coding part, while it was not allowed for the two behavioral related questions. The coding challenge used an existing codebase and implementing a new feature.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
Brainstorming potential solutions for a backend architecture problem with limited information (15 minutes)