I applied online. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Toptal in Sep 2021
Interview
I did a short interview and then they sent me an SQL+Java test to do in 1:30 hours. Until then, it was hard but all good.
Then we did two task of 15 minutes each. Pretty hard for the time given but I passed.
The terror came afterwards when they asked me to do a 2 weeks "screening" project for free. What a joke!
They were expecting me to spend 2 weeks of my time to work on a mock project in order to validate my skills. I have worked in more than 20 projects in my career, they could call any of my previous clients to ask for references.
I found this offensive, because they wasted my time. IF they would have told me that the selection process would include 2 weeks of work I would have never tried to join them.
I doubt they will get the top talent if they ask people to work for free for 2 weeks.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Can you work for free for 2 weeks full time on a screening project ?
I applied online. I interviewed at Toptal in Mar 2026
Interview
For me it was first general introduction which went fine and then they immediately invited me for the next step, which is coding where you are not allowed to take any external help includign Google. This step also went fine, cause I was gridning SQL and python. I got 2 SQL questions, quite easy and an algorithm, which I completed but with not the optimal solution. Still got a callback for the third interview, which is live coding, it requires to have the environment ready, According to my interviewer I'm about to expect data-related problems which I should solve with either Python, SQL or PySpark. That's all that I know so far.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Toptal in Apr 2025
Interview
-> Screening (just to know you, ask about your experience, etc.)
-> Problem solving (1 SQL problem, 2 Python, first one was to regarding characters in string, second one was to solve a bug in already Python code)
-> Live coding (so far in the email he has just mentioned to setup both Python and SQL setup)
-> Project (no clue right now)
It was a 3 or 4 stage process which has various types of interviews. One among them pre screening round, and another is online test, and one more is video interview, etc