Forward Deployed Engineer Interview Experience
I passed the interviews and it was verbally confirmed, but when the process was finished they decided they only want to hire in SF. Even though I was open to moving, they saw some immigration risks that they didn’t want to continue.
Interview process
I got into ElevenLabs through a connection and the whole process moved pretty fast, about two weeks end to end. My loop was recruiter screen, a timed coding assessment, a live coding interview in a Google Doc, a customer-style case study, and then a CTO/founder interview. The consistent theme was that they wanted strong individuals, not people who hide behind team language, and they mixed behavioral questions into basically every round. The coding and case rounds were on the harder, more signal-driven side, while the founder round felt a bit off-topic and oddly fuzzy about the actual role definition. I passed the interviews and got a verbal yes, but I ended up not getting the final offer.
- Recruiter screen
- Online assessment
- Technical interview
- Other
- Final round
Interview tips
I'd prep for this by getting really crisp on what I personally built, because they keep pushing on individual ownership. Don't assume there's one separate behavioral round because they weave values questions into almost every interview. For the case study, don't jump straight to some shiny AI answer. Ask how the customer solves it today, what hurts, and what they actually care about, then propose something practical. Also, if you're interviewing for a forward deployed role at a company that also has solution architects, I'd ask early how those two roles split the customer work. And if location or visa matters at all, I'd force clarity on that sooner rather than trusting that it will sort itself out at the end.
Company culture
My read was that they're very result-oriented and pretty flat. I didn't get a warm, people-first vibe. I got a "we care about outcomes and signal" vibe, which some people will really like. They seem to want builders with entrepreneur DNA, side projects, hackathon energy, and clear examples of individual ownership. The process itself felt structured enough that I think they're reusing questions, and they can move very fast when they want to. At the same time, I also saw that headcount/location decisions can shift late, so even if the interview feedback is strong, I'd treat role scope and hiring location as things that still need to be confirmed.
Questions asked
Overview
The founder round was with the CTO and a lot of it drifted into curiosity about my past work that did not feel very relevant to the actual role. It also exposed some fuzziness around what the forward deployed engineer role owned versus what a solution architect owned.
Question types asked
Specific questions asked
How does that differ from what a solution architect would do?
What exactly does a forward deployed engineer own here?
I explained that I really like customer communication, but this is where it got confusing. He brought up the solution architect role and didn't seem to have a crisp answer for how forward deployed engineering was scoped relative to that. My takeaway was that he felt more scientific than operational, like he might spend more time in the science side than the engineering org. That was the one round where I left not fully understanding what signal they were trying to get.
Get full access with a membership, or share your experience to try it free.
