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Technical Interview at mesoneer - What to Expect?

Hi there, we are excited that you will be interviewing at mesoneer. In order to make you feel comfortable and least surprise, we've put up this short guide so that you have an idea of how the interview will take place. The purpose of this guide is to provide you enough information to prepare for the upcoming interview.

Like many things we do, we strive to constantly improve and iterate on how we interview, so if you have any comments, questions or concerns please let us know at hr.vn@mesoneer.io.

Quick Links:

Summary

  1. Welcome and explanation (15 minutes)
  2. Programming Challenge (30 minutes - 1 hour)
  3. Technical Interview (30 minutes - 1 hour)
  4. Questions from Candidate (15-20 minutes)
  5. HR Chat (5 minutes)

ℹ️ : The (2) Programming Challenge part may be done before the scheduled interview.

How to prepare before the interview

General

  • Be well-rested and ready to think on your feet as the interview requires you to problem-solve in real time.
  • Come with questions for your interviewers. These can be technical or not. Think about what’s important to you, and ask us how (well) mesoneer does on those things.
  • Please do note that we will use English during the interview

In-Person Interview

  • We don't have any dress code so you can wear anything that makes you feel confident. Our members casually wear jeans and t-shirt on daily basic.

Video Interview (Microsoft Teams)

  • It's crucial to make sure you are in a quiet environment.
  • Have a good internet connection.
  • A good headphones (or speakers + microphone).

Programming Challenge

Length: 30 minutes - 1 hour

You will be presented a Programming Challenge with detailed requirements. The problem you will solve are closely related to what our software developers face everyday.

Environment Setup

If you are interviewing in one of the programming languages below, please follow the instructions so that you can have a working environment of your choice.

Read our dedicated guide for Programming Challenges.

Java

  • A working environment using either JDK 17 or later.
  • Please use the IDE of your choice (in mesoneer, IDEA/Eclipse/VS Code are popular).
  • Additionally if you use external libraries, a default Maven installation would be fine (or less often used Gradle).

JavaScript

  • A working environment using Node.JS 18 or later.
  • Please use the IDE of your choice (in mesoneer, IDEA/Eclipse/VS Code are popular).
  • If you have experiences with Angular/React, an environment with these installed will be useful.

C# in .NET

  • The dotnet v8 (recommended) is installed on your working environment.
  • Please use the IDE of your choice (in mesoneer, IDEA/VS Code are popular).

Programming Challenge - What to expect

If you are assigned a Take-home Programming Challenge, you will be provided access to a GitHub private repository (cloning using SSH). The instructions will be sent to you via email prior (1 weeks) to the Technical Interview. We expect the time to finish the Programming Challenge is within 2 days.

We won't interfere when you are working to solve the challenge. If you are in In-Person Interview, you will be provided a laptop and a room to work alone. For Video Interview, we will hang up the call for you to focus.

You are free to use any resources (e.g. StackOverflow, Google, etc.) to solve the challenge. Nowadays, we accept you using a certain Generative AI tools (e.g. Claude, Copilot or any LLMs etc.) to solve the problem. We consider that as "using a tool to help your productivity". In return, we expect that you understand and take full responsibility of the implementation and you are capable of extending the Programming Challenge in the Technical Interview.

Please do note that we don't have much favor for algorithmic problems so you don't have to worry about sorting, graph traversal or dynamic/greedy algorithms. Of course you are free tos use those existing knowledge of data structures and algorithms to solve the Programming Challenge.

Programming Challenge - How to prepare

Depending on the challenge, this may take time. Don’t worry, completing this problem is not the only measure of success for us here. We really emphasize on how you solve the problem as well as the code and the quality that you are writing.

  • Go with quality as long as you are still able to make progress forward.
  • Strive to have both tests and implementation code are in synced.
  • We do care about how thoughtful you are for code cleanliness and vocalizing trade-offs.
  • Please strive to do it as if you are doing it on your daily work.

Once you have done the challenge, our interviewers will also discuss with you regarding the choices you made as well as your thought process. We may also extend the problem in different ways and ask you how would you adapt your current solution to the new ones.

Programming Challenge - What we evaluate

  • Correctness/Testing
  • How well do you use the programming language and its idioms.
  • Your coding styles.
  • Your problem solving skill.

Technical Interview

Length: 30 minutes - 1 hour

In this interview section, we strive to understand your past work as well as your knowledge and experiences.

Technical Interview - What to expect

We will talk in-depth about what you have worked as you have written in your CV. Please expect that you will be asked to present the architecture overview (by using a whiteboard or an online drawing service) of your past system.

We also may do some System Design question to understand more your knowledge and experiences in designing & implement the system.

We also may ask you some advanced use cases of the tools/frameworks your have listed in your CV as well. Don't be stressed! We just want to know how well you have mastered your toolbox. In these discussion, we also may learn from your side.

We also have some Behaviour Questions to know more about your opinions, your attitude as well as how you care about your professional career.

Technical Interview - How to prepare

  • We recommend you to have a look back at your work for at least 1-2 years in the past to refresh your memory of the knowledge of the systems and technologies that you have used.
  • Prior to the interview, our HR will also send you 3 preliminary questions. We will re-visit your answers on the interview to ask for more details as well as discuss further.
  • If you listed your public GitHub profile or your public work on your CV, please make sure that they are accessible. Our interviewers may be interested and may want to talk about those as well.

Technical Interview - What we evaluate

  • Your communication as well as your English. We don't expect you have a TED-level but communication in English is critical to our day-to-day operations. So we expect you have a certain amount of fluency in English.
  • Your insights and experiences in your past works.
  • Your problem solving skills when it comes to extending the systems you have worked on.
  • Your attitude as well as how you care about your own profession (practices, career path, etc).

Questions from Candidate

Length: 15 minutes - 20 minutes

What to expect

This section is reserved for you to have questions to mesoneer. Please do note that we only answer questions regarding technical aspects.

How to prepare

Don't be afraid to ask questions that are important to you to make decisions. Julia Evans has a great blog post Questions I'm Asking in Interviews.

HR Chat

Length: 15 minutes.

Our HR staff will sit down with you to explain to you mesoneer's working policy and benefits. You are free to ask questions or concerns regarding the company or working environment.

Additional Notes

  • Feel free to raise if you need a short break anytime.

Read More

Our GitHub profile is at mesoneer-ag.

References