In 2022, we wrote about our engineering interview process to make it more transparent and accessible to candidates. A lot has changed since then: we've grown to 80 people across London, San Francisco, and New York, and naturally, our interview process has evolved too. We thought it was time for an update!
Why the change?
As we've scaled, our interview process has evolved to reflect better who we are and what makes engineers successful here. While technical skills remain crucial, we've found that product thinking and the ability to ship features effectively are equally important for our Product Engineers. This has shaped how we evaluate candidates, particularly in our Hiring Manager interview.
The process today
The overall structure of our interview process for engineers remains similar:
Let's dive into what's changed.
Initial call (45 mins, remote)
You'll chat with one of our internal talent partners and our VP of Engineering, Norberto. This conversation is all about getting to know each other—your background, what you're looking for, and whether incident.io might be a good fit.
We'll also cover practical things like location, timing, and any questions you have about the role or company.
Hiring manager interview (75 mins, remote)
This is where things look quite different from 2022. Instead of a traditional technical discussion about past projects, we now run this as a product-focused session with two of our engineering managers. We'll walk through how we approach building and shipping features at incident.io, putting you in the driver's seat of a theoretical project.
You'll get to demonstrate:
- How you think about product problems and prioritization
- Your approach to scoping and delivering features
- The way you balance technical and product trade-offs
- How you collaborate with different stakeholders
Don't worry—we'll send you a detailed prep guide beforehand so you know what to expect. We believe interviews work best when candidates can showcase their real thinking and decision-making rather than having to guess what we're looking for.
Technical challenge (60 mins, remote)
This stage is now run by two senior engineers, but the core remains unchanged. We'll give you a real-world problem to solve, complete with tests and a clear objective. You can use your preferred language (we support Go, TypeScript, Ruby, and Python), and we encourage you to treat us as teammates you can bounce ideas off.
What we're looking for hasn't changed—we want to see how you approach problem-solving, write clean code, and communicate your thinking. And yes, Google is still absolutely allowed!
System design (60 mins, in person)
Also run by two senior engineers, this interview explores how you approach designing larger systems. We'll present you with a real product challenge (the kind we've actually had to solve) and work together to design a solution.
We'll discuss things like:
- How to break down complex problems
- System architecture and trade-offs
- Scaling considerations
- Potential failure modes and how to handle them
Don't worry if distributed systems aren't your specialty—we're more interested in your thinking process and how you work through problems collaboratively.
Culture (60 mins, in person)
Our Company Values are now a core part of our Culture interview. You'll meet with one of our founders (often our CTO) and another team member (we call ourselves incidentios) for a conversation centered around our core values: Raise the pace, Make it magic, Find a way, Trust by default, and Win together.
These aren't just words on a wall—they're how we actually work. We might discuss how you've demonstrated resilience in tough situations (Find a way), or talk about times you've gone above and beyond to delight customers (Make it magic).
What makes things different?
A few things stand out about our current process:
- Product thinking matters: We believe great engineers aren't just technical experts - they're product thinkers who can ship features that solve real customer problems.
- Values-based evaluation: Our values aren't just for the Culture interview—they run through everything we do. In the Hiring Manager interview, we're looking for people who can raise the pace and find a way. In the Technical Challenge, we want to see how you win together.
- Preparation matters: We send detailed prep guides before key stages because we want you to succeed. This isn't about testing how you perform under pressure - it's about seeing your best self.
What's next?
We're always iterating on our interview process based on feedback from candidates and our team. As we continue to grow, we'll keep sharing updates about how we evaluate and hire engineers.
You can read more about our interview process across roles over on our Candidate Hub.
If you're interested in joining us, check out our open roles. We're hiring across all our locations and would love to hear from you!
P.S. We still believe in moving fast—while our process has evolved, we try to run the entire thing within a week or two.
