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Technical Interview

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Randy Syring edited this page Apr 16, 2026 · 6 revisions

The Technical Interview is the first interview in our application process.

Format

  • Zoom
  • U.S. Eastern Time business hours
  • Scheduled for 60m
    • We'll ask you if you have a hard stop at the scheduled meeting end
    • If not, we usually have margin to go 5-10m over if needed

Agenda

The interview usually goes something like this:

  • Intro & current employment review (5-10 mins)
  • Dev Skills / Coding Demos (20-30 mins)
    • Live coding relatively simple scripts, mostly in Python
    • Internet searches permitted, but no AI
    • Data scenario review and discussion
  • Performance review & reflection (5 mins)
  • Your questions (5-10 mins)
  • Parting thoughts (5-10 mins)

Because we have a fair amount to cover in a short time, we'll keep things moving.

Preparation / Notices

Warning

Not being prepared can easily chew up 10+ mins, which is A LOT in a 60m meeting. Preparation is part of the interview, so please plan accordingly.

  • Have Zoom installed. Considering doing a test meeting with someone ahead of time to make sure your setup works.
  • We will be recording and transcribing the meeting to provide context to other L12 team members involved in the hiring & evaluation process.
  • Be prepared to share your screen with Zoom and do all your work on one monitor/screen.
    • Don't have any windows/tools/apps open (minimized to tray is fine) besides Zoom when we start. It's our intention to see the tools you use and how you use them.
    • Close any applications (email, Zoom) that might pop up messages that are private or confidential, or otherwise suppress notifications during the interview.
  • Know how to increase your font size in your editor and terminal.
  • Try to relax. :)
    • This is an imperfect system and not how we'd normally work. We take that into consideration.
    • You don't have to be a superstar to pass this interview. It's designed to show us you have enough skills to mutually invest in having you move on to the next set of skills tests. We don't think the timing or nature of the interview shows us what you can really do as an engineer.
  • If you have questions about Level 12 you'd like answered, please send them over ahead of time. We'll answer as many as possible by email since there isn't always a lot of time for questions at this stage.
  • Note that the salary ranges posted in the job description are what we intend to offer. Please let us know before the tech interview if your desired salary is above our posted range.

Internet Search without AI

You will need to do internet searches without AI summaries visible. In our opinion, from easiest to hardest:

  • Use DuckDuckGo and set their "Search Assist" to "On Demand"
  • Use Kagi; by default, their AI summaries are by request
  • Google's summaries are not easy to disable, but it's possible. We leave that as an exercise for the reader. :)

AI Editor Integrations

Ensure you can turn off or hide AI integrations in the code editor you will use for the coding demos.

None of the demos are complex enough to need full IDE support. Using a basic editor with syntax highlighting will be sufficient if you don't want to tweak settings on your primary editor to remove/hide AI features.

Dev Skills Instructions

These are the instructions we'll give, almost verbatim, prior to starting the skills assessment:

  • Close any potentially private apps/tabs you have open like Email, Slack, etc. Suppress OS notifications if desired.
  • Please work on one monitor and share your entire screen.
  • You are welcome to use internet searches and documentation but no AI / LLMs
    • Use search for language, library, and syntax details—not to look up a full solution to the exercise.
    • E.g. "python list comprehension examples" is ok; "python list comprehension to flatten a list of lists" is not
  • If you need docs, don't hesitate to use them. It won't count against you. If docs would clearly help and you avoid them anyway, that can work against you.
  • These exercises are deliberately short. Most of the time, it only takes 5-10 minutes.
    • If you hit 10 minutes on any of them or really seem to be struggling, in the interest of time, we'll have you move on.
  • We realize coding like this isn't natural. Try to relax. Do what you would normally do and try not to second guess yourself.
  • Our goal is code that works eventually; it doesn't have to be perfect the first time around. We expect to see some errors and troubleshooting in the process, just like if we were coding them.
  • It's NOT production quality code, we just want to see that you can accomplish the task.
  • While you are doing the exercises, focus on completing them, and don’t be overly concerned with how we are evaluating you or feel like you need to explain what you are doing. We’ll ask you when we are done what you thought went well, what didn’t, and why, so you’ll have a chance to explain.

Candidate Checklist

  • Install Zoom
  • Do a Zoom test call to verify audio, video, and screen sharing
  • Be ready to share your entire screen
  • Plan to work on one monitor only
  • Close or minimize all apps except what you need for the interview
  • Turn off notifications and hide anything private or confidential
  • Know how to increase editor and terminal font size
  • Set up web search so you can search without AI summaries
  • Disable or hide AI features in your editor, or use a basic editor
  • Be ready to do simple live coding in Python
  • Be ready to use docs/search for syntax and library details, not full solutions
  • Be aware the meeting will be recorded and transcribed

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