I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Xero (Melbourne) in Jan 2021
Interview
4 Stages
- Phone interview
a get to know you kind of interview and basic questions such as why do you want to work at Xero.
- Take home project
A C# program would be given to you and you are asked to refactor it to the best of your ability, keeping in mind best practices and writing clean code as much as possible. no time limit on how long you have to refactor it so best to take your time and refactor as much as possible.
- Technical interview
If they are happy with your project, you would be invited in for an interview, where you will talk about the different aspects of how you implemented your project and the reasoning behind each decision you made.
A couple of programming questions too which should be relatively straightforward as long as you know your language well.
- Behavioral interview
If the technical interview went well, you will be invited for a final interview whereby behavioral based questions will be presented to you, like where do you see yourself in 3 years etc
All in all, a great experience, was kept informed of my application progress throughout and the interview was conducted in a professional manner
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Xero (Melbourne) in Mar 2026
Interview
It takes too long. The questions are difficult. Also there is a behavior test, not sure whether this test is useful. The technical questions are good:
Lead technical design and implementation of complex features and systems
Write high-quality, maintainable code and automated tests
Make pragmatic architectural and technical decisions that balance short-term delivery with long-term sustainability
Coding assessments: Can be live or take-home. pair programming with a given codebase.
Behavioral + teamwork: Interview with non-engineers (e.g., PMs) to probe how you work in teams, handle conflict, and resolve issues.
I applied online. I interviewed at Xero (Sydney) in Jun 2025
Interview
There were 4 rounds.
1) Chat with internal recruiter to check your values, experience and aspirations.
2) Coding challenge: Test conducted on HackerRank. Not overly hard but wouldn't say its simple. The engineer overseeing the test (Cath) was a legend and made me feel at ease.
3) Execution & Cross-Functional Collaboration Discussion: Chat with someone from a non-engineering team. Expect questions around your way of working, challenges you've faced and how you resolve conflicts.
4) Culture Fit & Team Interview: 2 senior/lead engineers check if you fit their teams. Expect questions about your technical background, your exposure to the technologies these teams use and challenges you've face.
Even though I didn't get the job I walked away having learned a lot and the feedback provided by the internal recruiter (Raisa) was very detailed and will help me in my future endeavours.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Write a function that takes in 2 string. Return true or false if a condition is met.