I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Block in Jun 2021
Interview
The interview process made me very hesitant about joining the company because it was so strange and not well thought out.
I had 7 rounds of interviews total for a mid-lvl engineer.
1st technical screen was a 1hr coding interview. I was 90% done with the last problem when then the interviewer stopped me due to 5 mins being left. They then erased my work to fill in the answer themselves. Despite the interviewer having 10 YoE in SW and knowing the answer, they struggled and took 20 mins to get a working program. I then got feedback after the first round saying I passed, but the interviewer ironically said that I struggled on the final question. Clearly they had a hurt ego, but I got past the round so no harm, no fowl.
Next was the actual core interviews. At this point they make you sign an NDA and let me know I had 6 more rounds.
During these interviews, I was really confused as to what Square was trying to achieve or learn about candidates.
No one asked me a single behavioral question, qualifications, or even basic programming theory. Instead, it was hours of theory questions, a couple more coding questions (which was basically a repeat of the tech screen), and maybe 2 questions about my resume. Some of the theory questions were really dated too. Interviewers did seem a bit inexperienced since they didn't know much about other facets of the topics they were interviewing about.
It seems like the only reason they make you sign the NDA is so other people don't find out how much of a mess the interview process is.
It's true Square is taking in surveys to improve the interview process and Everyone talks about Square having "growing pains", but you have to remember that they've been around and interviewing for over 10 years.
It really doesn't get much better than this.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Coding Questions and Theory about programming/architecture
Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. We are very sorry to hear that you didn’t have a positive experience while interviewing with Square. Your feedback regarding our technical screen has been shared with our Talent team.
I applied through university. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Block (Waterloo, ON) in Jan 2016
Interview
2 30 minute calls with team lead
Followed by invite to interview on site but couldn't go so I did 4 consecutive technical webcam interviews
Was recommended to another team and did one more technical interview with team lead of another group.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
-What's your test and bring up procedure?
-How do you select RC values for a low pass filter
Hi,
Thank you for taking the time to tell us about your experience with Square! We are happy to hear that you had a good experience with the Hardware Engineer Interview. At Square, we are always striving to provide the best candidate experience possible and we value your positive feedback. Hopefully your post will help others prepare for their interviews at Square. Thank you for sharing!
Best,
The Square Talent Team
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