They had multiple stages, each stage had a simple code/alogorithmic test. I believe there are 3 rounds in total. The first one was very easy, a technical screening interview. The second one is a little more involved- super basic algo/ds and unit test, easy for most developers. Despite solving the problem(s) correctly in the allotted time, unfortunately I did not make it to round 3.
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Desmos in Jul 2024
Interview
I personally enjoyed this interview process: It felt relevant to the job (no crazy coding/algorithm gymnastics) and the people I got to speak with seemed genuine and passionate about what they do. There was even a chance at the end for me to ask Desmos questions to see if the company is a good fit for me.
- Initial Call
- Take Home
- Live coding exercise to extend take home
- Final rounds
- Product Collaboration with Product
- Culture and Values with Chief of Staff
- Previous Achievements with Engineering
- CEO conversation
- 3 references, each get a 15 min call
Spent an hour-two discussing with the various members of the team.
One member had me build something, and he watched over my shoulder as I did it, to get a sense for how I work. I felt I did strongly here as I was able to share some knowledge of how I did things, and could complete the task in a short amount of time. He also grilled me on an architecture to see how unfamiliar I was with it, but it was new to me so I was actually just unfamiliar.
A designer I taught some basics of css, how to use chrome's dev tools to manipulate css properties and experiment.
Another member I taught the basics of css positioning.
Overall it seemed like a positive experience. I was very surprised and upset to not receive an offer.
A common trend among members was css layouts. I get the sense they wanted me to have an answer to their woes, but unfortunately, css is just something you need to learn with time and experience, and I sensed they found this answer unsatisfactory.