I applied online. I interviewed at Emergent Software
Interview
The interview consisted of a ridiculous series of brain buster puzzles that included identifying shapes and colors in sequences. 90% of it had nothing to do with software engineering or how we solve real world software problems. The final question is a non-trivial algorithmic question that you have an hour to complete. There’s entire JS libraries meant to solve this problem and again it’s not representative of actual day to day work whatsoever. It’s hard to take this company seriously when they screen you on everything but your actual skill set.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Identify the next shape in a sequence to test your “problem solving” abilities
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Emergent Software in Aug 2025
Interview
Interview was exactly as depicted on their site.
1. Initial Application
2. Online Assessment & Short Coding Test - Short answer test related to soft skills, technical questions, and general problem solving.
3, Initial Phone Interview - Short call with recruiter to gauge interest and confirm expectations
4, At-Home Coding Exercise - Github repo with instructions for a small project
5. Technical Interview - Typical interview going over past experiences and technical questions, then a section for discussion about the at-home coding exercise you completed
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They started by asking my to pick a project of any size and explain what the goal was to then ask many follow-up question about.
It’s a multi-stage interview with automated and virtual activities ranging from IQ tests to English tests, which is a bit strange in the age of AI. Then there’s a Take Home test followed by a technical interview. In the end, they told me I wasn’t the right fit because my stack didn’t fully meet the requirements. They should have screened that out before all these steps. If you want to go through this process, think carefully about it.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Emergent Software (Minneapolis, MN) in May 2025
Interview
The interview process was very thorough. I felt like I was able to accurately show my skills and knowledge with the combination of online assessments and technical interviews.
I received no surprises during the process and it was all explained very well and directly via the careers page and recruiter.
The coding challenge was straight forward but also allowed a lot of flexibility in approach and discussion which I greatly appreciated. I felt it struck the right balance for being demonstrative of skills without requiring an overly cumbersome time investment from the interviewee.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe one feature or application you developed, what were the major considerations going into it and how did you solve for those?