I recently interviewed with Toast, and overall, the process started on a positive note. The recruiter was very kind, and the person who conducted my interview was equally pleasant. I successfully passed the first round and was invited to participate in a one-hour technical coding challenge. I completed the challenge within the given time and had an additional 10 minutes to answer follow-up questions. However, despite completing all the requirements, I received a message a few days later stating that they had decided to move forward with other candidates. I reached out to request constructive feedback, but unfortunately, I did not receive a response. This lack of communication left me feeling a bit disheartened, as I had put in significant effort and followed all instructions.

I first had a call with the recruiter - communication was great, just a call for both parties to ask general questions. This part went really well. My next round was a technical interview with a just one senior engineer. We started off with quick introductions of our backgrounds etc. I was interviewed for a Front End Software Engineer II role. I was given 3 Coding problems to work on. Local data was given, the first two problems focused on use of JavaScript array methods, i.e. map() and reduce(). The last problem required knowledge of Object.entries() to help convert an object to array. All problem questions required knowledge of working with React’s JSX to display the resulting data within HTML. The Interviewer gave guidance and asked some questions on what certain things meant whenever I used them, for example, explain why I needed to add the key prop in my HTML tag when I did use it. I first started by talking about how I plan on tackling the problem at hand and then talked about each step of my code as I worked on them, example, “I’ll use map() here to get all the..”. After that, the floor was open to ask each other some general questions. Overall, the experience was great - the interviewer was very friendly and helpful, the whole process was very collaborative and the problems weren’t too difficult, I just needed to dig deep in my knowledge of array methods. I was expecting to work with an API to get the data, using fetch() or something. As this was mentioned in the initial preparation email from the recruiter. Perhaps this was going to come up in the next round. Overall tips: 1) Be sure to explain your work as you walk through your problem. In my feedback I was commended by the interviewer as this being my strong point. 2) Don’t be afraid to say you don’t know and ask questions. 3) Revise array methods, i.e. map(), filter(), reduce() etc. In the end, unfortunately, I did not progress to the next round. I was disappointed about this, as I thought I did good or at least okay with the technical problems. I spent some time preparing for this - a whole weekend on React. I come from an Angular background. You have the option to solve the problems without React but I preferred to do it in their primary Framework/Library, which is React. The feedback from Toast was that I fell down on some coding aspects and problem solving, but I did really well on articulating my lines of thinking and approach. I think being able to explain a problem and know what I am planning on doing or looking for, should have been the key focus for the interviewer. The coding part is always something I can research in my day-to-day job, because I know what I'm looking for. I wish I had at least 2 engineers in the interview as I was judged solely by the one interviewer. Another person brings a different perspective on things for them to debate amongst themselves. Overall, I had a positive experience and I really see myself working for Toast. I like their business focus and culture a lot. Maybe next time.

Initial call, and then technical exercise. Exercise was given as a real world problem which is always a welcome. They are looking for utilization of React and array methods. Unfortunately this was not communicated when I asked what they were looking for before conducting the technical. The answer I was provided was "understanding your thought process" when given the problems. A bit vague and does beat around the bush. All and all the interviewer was really nice and was a pleasure to work with.