I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Toptal (Zagreb) in Feb 2013
Interview
English test, Codility algorithms & data structures test, live paired programming test, mini project w/review. For me, the codility test was the hardest, although, when I met some colleagues later, I realized that I got a bit harder assignments. Paired programming is apparently very hard to pass (again, from what I heard about it from other people) but was very easy, and not too stressful for me.
I guess, you should prepare for the interview, and if you never did solve algorithmic problems before, you will struggle. But for anybody with basic to medium CS skills this should not be a problem.
Assignment was not too overwhelming and basically serves the purpose for them to see how self-driven person you are. Some people have great skills, but are unable to intrinsically motivate themselves.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
After passing the technical interview they asked what would I do when unexpected things happen on the project.
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Toptal in Apr 2021
Interview
I had a phone screen and a video call before taking the skills assessment. Both interviews were pretty useless, talking to people very low on the chain with little or no development experience. But the skills assessment was a real nightmare.
They will give you a limited time to answer three questions. These questions were ambiguous enough that I answered as best I could within the hour provided, and submitted. They wrote me back a week later saying I scored something ridiculous like 10/600. It was an insult to my skills, as I know I am worth more than 1% of a "real" programmer. I can take the low score, but there was no attempt to follow up with correct answers. Just re-apply in six months? Why would I. You asked me to apply, not the other way around.
The real cherry on top is today they cold emailed me like we have never met before. No thanks. Run far away. Go get your own clients. Lots of people need developers, don't work for this people.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Very stupid Algo questions about geometry when I literally write HTML and CSS all day long.
I applied online. I interviewed at Toptal (Madīnat Sittah Uktūbar) in Jul 2017
Interview
the interview has more than step .. I finished two steps so far.
1- a behavioral interview which was on Hangouts and it was pretty nice and friendly.
2- coding test interview on Codility.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1- the behavioral interview was just about collecting some information about me and about my experience.
2- the coding test was a bit difficult .. it was about 3 programming problems .. the first was fairly easy dealing with the array properties ... the 2nd was about binary trees and the 3rd was the most difficult i think ,,it was about finding the best path.
I applied online. I interviewed at Toptal in Feb 2016
Interview
Applying was easy enough, but I was unimpressed with the punctuality of the interviewer and did not have a chance to actually interview because he wasn't able to show up when he said he would. I scheduled a time with the interviewer over a week in advance and logged onto Skype shortly before that time - this had actually broken my momentum on an important development project because I didn't want to get involved in it shortly before the call. The interviewer was busy and had to reschedule for two hours later, which further prevented me from getting anything done but was acceptable enough - stuff happens. He then did not show up two hours later either, which is where I draw the line. This was highly unprofessional and wasted most of a day of my time, which I am sure I'll never be able to bill them for.
The kicker is that they then sent an email the next day, probably from a bot, essentially blaming me for missing the interview and demanding that I reschedule. I'm done with them unless they want to compensate me for the time they wasted.
