Interview process felt unfair. That's because I applied for a Windows Engineer role and nowhere in the job description did it say I needed to know how to code. But they give you this HackerRank challenge with 2 SQL and 2 Python questions. I was very clear in my interview with HR that I do not code in Python as I am still a beginner and I can write basic scripts, to which they said "oh you don't have to code". I don't think they know how their own tests work, they expect you to code and provide them a solution that passes any and all test cases. I still took a dig at this challenge and I completed 2 out of 4 questions. The next 2 which were in Python I did not do so well on because I don't have much coding experience in Python which they completely overlooked and told me I am not eligible for this position. If you were truly looking for scripting skills why don't you first understand the strengths of your candidates before giving them a generic coding challenge that's not even applicable for the role you're hiring for. I believe I'd have been easily able to get to the next rounds if the tests were in PowerShell because that's what I've done before and that's a skillset I have. But there was no option for PowerShell although it's a Windows Engineer position. Needless to say, I hope they fix this broken process because at the end of the day, it's Optiver that's missing out on good candidates.

I found the opportunity through an outside recruiter. After a brief conversation with their staff recruiter, Optiver invited me to take a technical assessment, which was fairly easy. Two questions each on SQL and Python. You got 24 hours to finish the test and could do all the online research you wanted. Passing this got me invited to an onsite interview. It was a full half day and then some. I spoke with the department head, the person who would be my manager, a would-be peer, a few folks from a related department and then had lunch with another would-be peer. All and all, it was pleasant experience as far as doing a half day's worth of interviews all in a row goes. There were no programming tests or technical assessments at all. I got asked the typical questions about my experience and then some of those questions that test your problem solving skills more than anything. These were pretty fun and I found the conversations enjoyable. My one complaint is after all of that, the feedback I got was really vague and not helpful at all and based on what they said, I feel like they should have filtered me out at the phone interview if not having experience in certain areas was what was going to kill me. It is all on my resume, after all. I was happy for the opportunity but ended up with the decided feeling that I would not have got that position no matter how well the interview went. Also, they gave me a Starbucks gift card for some reason.