I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Agoda in May 2021
Interview
I spent a lot of time in this process. Majorly due to the time difference and long feedback loops.
I am in WestAfrica and the recruiter reached out to me trying to see if I was interested in working in their Bangkok office.
I said, why not?
- I had a chat with the recruiter for about 30 minutes
- They sent me 13 stack-related multiple choice questions + 2 rather long coding tasks on codesignal. I only attempted the 13 and was scored 11/15 and was moved to the next round. I made a decision not to attempt the other 2. I had about an hour to attempt this.
-The next stage was another 2 hr interview. 1 hr Algorithms with a Development Manager and only if successful (which I was), another 1hr building an iOS feature in codesignal, a text-based editor with proper architecture and clean code without auto-complete or syntax highlighting. I was interviewed by a Lead Software Engineer. I was successful in this and was moved to the last round.
- The last round was with a Senior Development Manager and we discussed high-level architecture, scaling, both from the iOS and backend point of view (As i have backend experience) for about an hour.
I was eventually informed that they would love to have me on their team. I negotiated my salary and was very ecstatic because although the opportunity was in a country I was not so enthused about, I felt it was better than the situation I was in.
You see I have not had luck getting interviews at international companies in the past so you could imagine the joy my family had for me when I informed them about this supposedly great news.
After about 3 weeks, Signing the offer, telling my family, daydreaming about life in Thailand, and almost submitting my resignation letter, I woke up to an email telling me that I can't work with them now because I can't get a Visa.
My Bachelors is in Chemistry and although I have 4 years of Professional Software Engineering experience, I need 5 years without a CS degree to migrate as an 'expat' to Thailand.
I tried to see if I could work remotely but they weren't interested in that.
I kind of feel I wasted my time interviewing at this company.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Classic Algorithm problems. About Leetcode Medium level.
Stack / Platform fundamentals.
I applied online. I interviewed at Agoda (Bangkok)
Interview
They asked two medium algorithm problems; one focused on recursion. I explained the approach and implemented a clean recursive solution using Swift, discussing complexity, base cases, and edge handling clearly.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Mostly they didn't ask anything in this first round assessment interview.
The first technical round was a live coding session with 2 Leetcode-style tasks. The interviewer was friendly and supportive, creating a comfortable environment. The second round was to refactor code. Overall, it was a positive experience.