Software Engineer (New Grad) Interview Experience

The whole process felt way more startup-y than normal. First was a 45 minute informal chat where he went through my background, asked why Cursor, and was very candid about the company and pace. Then I had a 60 minute repo-based coding round where I implemented a hash tree they actually use, and I was allowed to use Google, GPT, and Cursor for targeted syntax help. The final was the most unusual part: an 8 to 9 hour remote onsite where they gave me part of the codebase, a Slack channel, and asked me to figure it out, build a feature autonomously, and present it. They told me they're still figuring out what new grad hiring even looks like, so the process felt unconventional and a little vague, but also much more like real work than the standard interview loop.

The whole process felt way more startup-y than normal. First was a 45 minute informal chat where he went through my background, asked why Cursor, and was very candid about the company and pace. Then I had a 60 minute repo-based coding round where I implemented a hash tree they actually use, and I was allowed to use Google, GPT, and Cursor for targeted syntax help. The final was the most unusual part: an 8 to 9 hour remote onsite where they gave me part of the codebase, a Slack channel, and asked me to figure it out, build a feature autonomously, and present it. They told me they're still figuring out what new grad hiring even looks like, so the process felt unconventional and a little vague, but also much more like real work than the standard interview loop.