Thought I’d share my experience interviewing with Bolt. I’m based out of India with ~8 years of experience as a software engineer.

How it started

Recruiter reached out on LinkedIn → I sent my resume → a screening call (30 mins) got scheduled.

…except recruiter didn’t join the first time 😅
Sent an email, rescheduled → second time happened smoothly.

Screening was pretty chill:

• Resume walkthrough
• Previous roles
• Relocation interest (Estonia)
• Some basic tech discussion

He then asked me to schedule the first coding round.

Round 1: Coding Interview (75 mins)

First 10 mins:

• Intro + questions around testing
• Discussed my past projects

Next 60 mins:
Hackerrank coding (can choose any language). I chose Python.

They gave a data stream-based problem where:

• Integers were continuously coming in
• Some operation had to be performed on the most recent N elements
• Then 2–3 extensions were added to change how results should be computed
• Final extension involved computing a statistical value from the stream
• Last part was mostly discussion because time ran out

Last 5 mins:
Questions from me about the team and work culture.

✅ Outcome: Was asked to schedule Code Review round the very next day.

Round 2: Code Review / Refactor (75 mins)

Before the interview, the recruiter asked which language I prefer. I picked Python.

They gave me:

• A small set of APIs
• Code with intentional design flaws

Task:
Review and improve the code to make it production ready.They were not expecting production-working code, but wanted to see:

"How would you FIX this if it came to production?"

This round was all about thinking like a senior engineer.

✅ Outcome: Was asked to schedule System Design round within a day.

Round 3: System Design (60 mins)

Bolt sends a prep guide explaining how they want candidates to structure answers — follow it.

Problem:
Design a write-heavy system with minimal reads.
Only 2 read queries had to be supported.

They cared a lot about:

• Tradeoffs
• Data modeling
• Scaling
• Failure handling
• Storage choices

This round went well.

✅ Outcome: Recruiter confirmed in 2 days final Team Fit round will happen.

Prep Call with Recruiter (30 mins)

The recruiter discussed feedback from previous rounds with additional discussions in the following topics:

• My salary expectations
• Team Fit round expectations

Round 4: Team Fit / Behavioural (90 mins)

Questions were mostly:

• Past challenges
• How I work with teams
• Ownership mindset
• Failures and learnings
• Last 15 mins:

Only my questions — culture, growth, roadmap etc.

✅ Outcome: Final Feedback call scheduled next day.

Final Outcome 🎉

In feedback call:

We are moving forward with the offer and full relocation assistance.

Couldn’t ask for a better ending.

Overall Thoughts

• Interview process is long but very respectful. From start to offer, it took around 70 days.

If you’re preparing:

• Focus on design thinking
• Be strong with communication
• Practice explaining tradeoffs clearly
• Don’t rush coding — explain your thought process