I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Rokt (New York, NY) in May 2022
Interview
1. IQ test - Weirdest part of this whole process. Never seen a company send out IQ tests before. Red flag from the start, but whatever.
2. Take Home - Not too hard, create an API to provide some data with filters and dockerize it.
3. 3 part onsite - Sys design, coding, behavioral. Sys design was fairly straight forward but don't really like how the interviewer handled it. Coding was one of the easier coding interviews I have done, average medium difficulty. Behavioral was odd as it was with CTO and he is quite the character. Seems to me that he tries hard to seem cool, but generally comes off as unprofessional. Appreciated the transparency with the CTO but didn't feel like an actual interview.
4. "Bar Raiser" - Behavioral with an executive outside the engineering department. Seemed disinterested, wasn't very clear what they were looking for.
Honestly lots of red flags with Rokt.
- IQ test
- Even asking them about WLB is frowned upon. CTO was straight forward about the fact that if WLB is a priority for you, you shouldn't work at Rokt.
- Role definition was very unclear and nobody could clarify it for me
- Put off a "work hard, play hard" vibe which just comes across as work hard.
- Engineering team distributed across Sydney and New York meaning late nights and long hours
Honestly I would just avoid Rokt. The money is very tempting since their options package is generous in theory, but I am curious to see how those options actually materialize if/when they IPO.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Nothing crazy, wouldn't worry about the technical interviews too much. If you're passing other technical interviews you'll probably pass this one.
Standard IQ testing + 2min video about project I'd completed, then zoom code interview, then system architecture interview, then finally a fit interview. Early interview section was fairly easy, System design was a pretty reasonable 2 stage login/verification app, fit interview was quite engaging and in depth.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
System design was a pretty reasonable 2 stage login/verification app - was asked first to design a scraper to import logins from a text doc on s3 to a db. then infrastructure on how to get logins within 100ms from front to back.
Was in invited to a virtual coding interview as the first round, was equivalent to an easy leetcode problem. Did not finish question within the interview because I got tripped up, but the interviewer said he saw that I had the solution. Got a rejection email a week later.
Questions similar to IQ tests for an initial round. Coding interview was online with live interaction from the interviewer to talk through the thought process. System design interview was quite involved. It really focused on the thought process and design reasoning rather than knowledge, with the interviewer accommodating any knowledge gaps I had. Behavioral interview was fairly standard.
Overall it felt they made an effort to make the interviews fit the candidates' experience and expertise, which I appreciate.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Leet code style, roughly medium level coding question.
