Interview Philosophy

We want you to succeed – our goal is for it to feel like the interviewers and candidates are working on a problem together. As an engineer at Privy, you’re encouraged to discuss design with teammates and pair program when it makes sense. We’re happy to answer any questions, or to look something up for you if you need clarification.

Our interview problems can be solved multiple ways, and we’re not looking for a specific answer. When possible, we will give you advance notice on the types of problems we will cover. We care about your thought process at least as much as we care about arriving at a correct/optimal solution. We want to see how you think through a problem and defend choices.

We commit to being actively in touch and always letting you know where you stand. We know that interviewing is a big commitment and there are countless companies to choose from. We're humbled that you trust us with your time and will do everything we can to make sure your experience with us is a positive one.

What We Evaluate On

Evaluation criteria may differ between positions, but a few examples are:

• Communicates ideas clearly
• Ability to discuss optimizations / trade-offs
• Understanding of problem and proposed solution
• Ability to think about edge cases
• Testing and object-oriented design

What We Won't Evaluate On

• Riddles or puzzles
• Hardcore string search algorithms
• O(log(log(n))) optimizations
• Obscure computer science principles / data structures
• Language syntax or the names of standard library methods (pseudocode is fine when whiteboarding)

Example Interview Plan

• Preliminary call with recruiting (15 minutes), and a technical interview with engineering in CoderPad (30 minutes)
• Final round interviews, which may include:
  • Design exercise (45 minutes): Design a high level architecture or set of interfaces to solve a specific business problem.
  • Coding exercise (45 minutes): A more in-depth coding challenge that builds on concepts from the technical screen.
  • Up to one more interview, role-specific (45 minutes)
• Phone call follow-up within 48 business hours from People & Talent

Want to help us continue to refine and improve our process? Apply for a role a Privy now!