Xero interview questions

A recruiter reached out and scheduled a first interview with the Engineering Manager. The manager asked a few non-technical, job-related questions but seemed disinterested. What was supposed to be a 30-minute interview ended in just 10 minutes, and unsurprisingly, I was rejected. The recruiter was keen to provide feedback and asked for my availability for a call. I shared my available time but never heard back.

The interview process had five stages: 1 - Recruiter Phone Screen, a casual discussion about my experience and motivations. 2 - Technical Assessment, a HackerRank test covering Node.js and React. 3 - Engineer Manager Screen, a brief talk with the engineering manager which covered much of the same ground as step 1. 4 - Technical Interview, a pair programming session with two lead engineers. The first half was a solid discussion about real-world experience, system architecture, cloud services, and mentoring. The second half focused on leetcode style questions that felt disconnected from the advertised role (which emphasised Node.js, React, and full-stack engineering). 5 - Culture Fit, I didn't make it to this one. The interviewers were friendly and helpful, but the technical portion was heavily puzzle solving focused rather than being relevant to actual web development. If you have a CS degree or strong algorithm knowledge, you’ll do fine.