I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Forsta in Feb 2025
Interview
In February, I had an interview with the tech team. I enjoyed talking with them, but I didn't receive an offer.
The interview was divided into two parts: one focused on Python and the other on React. During the interview, the entire principal team—around six or seven members—was observing how I solved the coding challenges.
For the Python section, I had to debug an issue in a small Flask project they had prepared. They shared a Replit link where I could see the exercise, and I had to fix the issue while explaining all my steps.
The React section was similar. They provided a new project with three issues, and I had to resolve all of them.
After completing the coding challenges, they asked behavioral questions, and we discussed various topics since we had plenty of time. They were very kind and personable, cracking some jokes, and I felt a great connection with them. I genuinely wanted to work with them.
Unfortunately, they decided to keep me in consideration while continuing to interview other candidates. They mentioned that I had performed well but wanted to evaluate more applicants. However, they kept me in that status for almost two months, and in the end, they chose another candidate. I understand that they need to find the right candidate who fits their culture and can contribute to the company's goals, but keeping me in limbo for nearly two months before ultimately rejecting me was a really disappointing experience.
I applied online. The process took 4 months. I interviewed at Forsta
Interview
Had first call with recruiter 3 months after applying, who lowballed the salary range to 80k for senior position. They were interested in the salary negotiation rather than experience or skills. Negative experience with the recruiter, it felt like haggling for a fair salary. They wanted to know my previous salary which was unprofessional. Would never interview again.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Forsta (Portland, OR) in Feb 2018
Interview
Had a video interview with two people, the questions and topics were very easy.
They wanted a second video interview but were very inflexible about the dates and times. I work a full time job and can't just open up my work laptop in the middle of the day and take an hour long video call for some other job. I told them it would have to be either at the beginning or end of the work day so that I could make proper arrangements, and they pushed my interview out two full weeks because of that.
The second video interview one guy forgot that he was doing an interview and was about 20 minutes late. During those 20 minutes the one guy that did show, kinda sat there staring at me awkwardly. No questions, nothing, just wasting my time away.
Finally the other guy remembered and joined the call. At that point they googled some software test question and copied and pasted it to some super lame online editor. These guys were totally unprepared.
In my experience, the ability to talk through a problem is just as important as solving the problem. They basically ignored me the whole time. I tried to ask them questions to clarify their vague problem and got answers like "yeah sure whatever man, just do whatever you think" then i would see the lights flickering on their faces like they were browsing the internet.
I got so frustrated I stopped the interview and told them that I was no longer interested in working at FocusVision, then hung up.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Write a function to determine if a hand of cards is a full house.
Thank you for taking the time to speak with our staff on our open Software Engineer role. It is unfortunate to hear you did not have a good interview experience with our team as candidate experience is very important to us. It is a shame to hear your frustration resulted in a hangup, but we appreciate you letting us know so we can make the improvements with not only our staff, but the recruitment firms we partner with. We wish you the best of luck in your job search and please reach out again if you have any questions or concerns.
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