What to Expect: Tech Tests
Hey! 👋🏼 Congrats on moving forward to the next stage of the interview process!
We believe that our technical interviews should reflect real-world workflows, and therefore they are designed to assess not only your technical skills but also your collaboration, communication, and problem-solving abilities. Here's what you can expect from each stage of the technical testing:
Coding Test
Financial Calculator (One Hour)
You'll embark on a backend-focused project using Nest.js and TypeScript. In this stage, we aim to evaluate:
- Technical Expertise: Demonstrate your coding skills and understanding of backend development.
- Problem Solving: Show how you approach challenges and find effective solutions.
- Communication & Collaboration: Highlight your ability to work with others and articulate your thoughts.
Successful candidates from this phase will progress to the system design test.
System Design Test
Design a platform (One Hour)
This stage is a collaborative system design session based on a realistic product problem. It’s designed to reflect how we work together as a team - exploring ideas, asking questions, and iterating on solutions.
This is an interactive session. We encourage you to ask questions, test assumptions, and think aloud as you go.
You won’t be expected to arrive at a perfect or complete design. We’re more interested in how you think, structure problems, and make decisions.
The session is typically structured across four phases:
1. Problem Scoping
You’ll work with the interviewers to understand the problem and define the scope.
We're looking at how you:
- ask clarifying questions
- identify key requirements and constraints
- form a shared understanding of the problem
2. High-Level Design
You’ll propose an initial approach to solving the problem.
We’re looking at how you:
- structure a system at a high level
- break the problem into key components
- communicate your thinking clearly (e.g. diagrams, verbal walkthrough)
3. Deep Dive
Together, we’ll explore specific parts of your design in more detail.
We’re looking at how you:
- reason through trade-offs and design decisions
- prioritise what to go deeper on
- consider important system constraints and trade-offs
- respond to questions and evolve your design
4. Conclusion
You’ll wrap up your design and reflect on your approach.
We’re looking at how you:
- articulate why you made certain decisions
- identify limitations or areas for improvement
- demonstrate critical thinking and reflection
What We're Looking For
We assess a combination of:
- Problem framing: how you scope and structure an ambiguous problem
- Communication: clarity, structure, and ability to think aloud
- System design fundamentals: sensible architecture and component design
- Prioritisation: focusing on what matters most within time constraints
- Trade-off thinking: awareness of different approaches and their implications
- Adaptability: openness to feedback and willingness to iterate
There is no single “correct” solution. We’re interested in your reasoning and approach.
As always, you're more than welcome to connect with the team if you have any questions! We look forward to seeing you soon 👋🏼
Diversity and Inclusion 🫱🏻🫲🏼
We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment where all candidates feel comfortable and supported throughout the interview process. We recognise that different people have different strengths, and we want to ensure you have the opportunity to showcase your skills in the format that suits you best. Please feel free to communicate your preferences to your recruiter, who will be more than happy to accommodate your needs.