How to Prep for the Engineering Technical Interview
At Cambly, we look for people who are excited about helping us develop & grow our product so that we can better serve our English learners. When it comes to interviewing for our engineering roles, we think it’s important to give candidates a heads up on what to expect. Below, check out some pointers shared by our Director of Engineering, Gar Higgins, that should help you get ready for your interview with us!
Our interview process is typically composed of 2 technical phone screens and 3 onsite interviews. Most of these interviews will focus on Algorithms & Coding. One interview will focus on role-specific technical skills.
Algorithms: The optimal algorithms are selected to be discoverable by anyone that is analytically minded. Don’t go dusting off your algorithms book — there won’t be a dynamic programming question! We’re interested in your process as much as whether you provide an optimal solution. In particular, we like to see candidates who propose an initial solution and identify unhandled edge cases, efficiency improvements, etc.
Coding: While arriving at the best algorithm is important, we put more emphasis on your ability to translate this algorithm into code. Make sure your code is an accurate representation of the algorithm, and that it is readable. You should be comfortable giving the runtime complexity of your algorithm. This will be done in coderpad.io so you will be able to run and debug your code.
System Design : You’ll be asked to design a piece of Cambly given some product requirements. This won’t involve any code and the focus will be role specific. For example, for Backend roles you’ll describe how to piece together building blocks like a database, cdn, queue, etc. to meet the product needs. For Frontend roles you’ll focus on the web piece of the project. The system design question gives us a sense of how well you understand web development as a whole.
We hope these pointers give you a better sense of what we look for in our engineers and help you feel confident in sharing your abilities with us! We look forward to getting to know you!
Interested in joining Cambly and watching your work impact people’s lives every day? We’re hiring!
