How to Prep for Your Technical Interview with Thumbtack

At Thumbtack, we’re always looking for ways to make the interview process as seamless as possible. To help you prepare for your technical interview, we’ve broken down each step in the process (with some helpful tips) to ensure you feel prepared and ready to showcase your skills. Here’s what you can expect:

Part 1: A Technical Interview via Zoom

During this 60-minute technical interview, you’ll utilize HackerRank to complete a live coding session. We’ll use the first 15 minutes to address your questions and gather requirements. From there, you’ll use your preferred coding language to solve open-ended problems or build a simple feature. In addition to coding, the interviewer will be assessing your technical communication, problem-solving and learning skills. By the end of the session, you’ll need to provide a solution to the presented problem to move forward in our interview process.

Tips for Success:

• Choose a good interview spot — one that is quiet, clean and has good WiFi.
• Select the coding language that you’re best at. For mobile interviews, we encourage you to use your preferred IDE when choosing to code with Swift or Kotlin for the most up-to-date libraries.
• Think out loud and share your reasoning during the interview. Help the interviewer understand the “why” behind your decision-making. Include the interviewer in your thought process and treat the interview like a dialogue.
• The interview questions will mirror challenges our team has encountered, and most will have more than one solution. We’ll also want you to find as many test cases as possible toward the end of your solution.
• We also encourage you to look for edge cases and ways to optimize your code.

Part 2: Virtual Onsite Interviews

At this stage in the process, you’ll meet members of our team via Zoom for a series of 4–5 virtual interviews. You’ll use your preferred coding language throughout this set of interviews. We also use Google Draw for System Design and Feature Design Interviews. Draw can also be used for Technical Project Retrospective Interviews where you can diagram/outline your project charter before your interview. This will allow you to prepare beforehand and deliver any details that could be missed during the interview process.

Tips for Success:

• Before your interviews, be sure to book time with a recruiter for a prep call to learn more about what to expect during each session.
• Be ready to discuss past work during your interviews. Our team wants to know what you’ve accomplished and how it was done.
• Bring questions to ask — whether it’s about the Engineering Team or Thumbtack. The virtual interviews are the perfect time to ask about anything that may be lingering.
• Remember that we evaluate candidate performance within the following pillars: coding, technical communication, problem-solving, and learning.

Once the interview process is complete, we’ll be in touch with interview feedback. If you have any questions in the meantime, your Recruiting Partner will work with you to ensure you feel supported every step of the way.

Interested in staying connected with Thumbtack? Follow us on LinkedIn or check out our latest openings at thumbtack.com/careers.