Engineering Interview Prep

We’re excited to have you interview with the Thirty Madison team! Your calls will give you an opportunity to meet a cross-section of our team, get a feel for what it’s really like to work here, and see if there’s a fit.

We’ve put together this short guide to give you an idea of what the interview process entails. Like many things at a fast-growing startup, we’re constantly improving and iterating on how we interview, so if you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please let us know.

We look forward to meeting you soon!

What to expect…

Our technical interviews simulate the engineering work you’d do day-to-day at Thirty Madison. In these interviews, you’ll consider technical problems and then write working code that will solve them. In some cases you’ll also have a design discussion with your interviewer before diving into coding. You should use whatever programming language/environment you’re most comfortable with.

During our behavioral interviews you’ll meet with cross-functional team members who will be assessing your communication and teamwork skills. You can expect to discuss your approach to collaborating, problem solving, and managing expectations. Be prepared to share specific experiences from your previous roles.

Initial Interview Rounds

Initial Code Screen

All candidates are given a 60-minute code screen with an engineer on our team using a collaborative online tool that allows you to run and debug your code. This interview is meant to simulate a programming session so we can get a sense of how you tackle problems and communicate with other engineers.

Please Note: In order to continually improve our process, we are constantly training and retraining our engineers on best practices, so occasionally you might have an engineer shadow your interview to learn or give feedback to the engineer conducting the interview.

Consider your interviewer a collaborator on the problem. We suggest “working out loud” with them and asking any questions that you have as they come up — for example, about constraints on the system. If you need to make assumptions about the problem, please also share with your interviewer so you’re on the same page. You will never be penalized for asking clarifying questions. Ultimately, the interviewer is there to help you succeed!

Initial Take-home

For frontend developers, we optionally offer a take-home that replaces the initial code screen. The interview itself is timed and tests your Javascript, Typescript, and React experience. If you decide to opt for the take-home option, an “onsite” review and followup will take the place of the architecture interview in the final round. You will work with an engineer to improve on your take-home and review your experience with frontend coding best practices, design, and patterns.

“On-site” Loop

After passing the initial phone and code screen, you’ll move on to 3–4 full interviews where we get the chance to learn more about your technical and professional skills. We’ll also be able to answer any questions around what it’s like to work at Thirty Madison, our mission, the technology, and anything else you’re curious about.

Coding

This interview is focused on a candidate’s technical depth. This interview will be conducted in a shared coding environment similar to the initial coding screen. Please feel free to use any programming language you are comfortable with. Duration: 60 mins

Architecture

This interview is focused on a candidate’s ability to build scalable and efficient systems end-to-end. The question will be open-ended allowing for a discussion that focuses on the part of the tech-stack that you are most familiar with. This interview will use a shared whiteboard tool. The goal is to focus on systems thinking, trade-offs, identifying design constraints and collaborating on a shared problem. Duration: 60 mins

PM Discussion

This interview is focused on product manager and developer relationships. Our engineering team partners very closely with our product and design peers. We want to ensure you are bringing a collaborative patient-focused attitude to our team. Duration: 30 mins

Leadership

This interview is focused on your engineering core values, allowing us to get a better sense of what you enjoy about engineering, your motivations and drivers and what a future for you would look like at Thirty Madison. Duration: 30 mins

Final Round

There may be a second technical interview at this point, but only if it is deemed necessary to test for specific skills.

At this stage of the process, you’re invited in to meet with the hiring manager and a key stakeholder. If we find that your interests and skills match to more than one team, we’ll first have you meet with hiring managers from different teams to find the role that fits you best.

• Manager interview: During this interview, we’ll do our best to ensure all questions or concerns are addressed and will give you a chance to hear about the various projects the team is currently working on as well as the future roadmap.
• [Optional] Additional Culture Add interviews: Joining a team is a pretty huge deal! If you’d like to meet with more cross-functional team members, we can arrange 1x1s or a group lunch.