Status: 4 YOE, BSc in Computer Science, UK University
Position: Android Software Engineer at Non-FAANG Company
Location: London, UK
Date: Sep 2022

Application Process:

• Applied online
• Recruiter reached out to set up a call ~1 week later
• Scheduled first interview for ~2 weeks afterwards

Technical Phone Screen (1 hour):

• Standard Kotlin based interview questions
• Basic computer science questions around time complexity
• Basic Android questions
• Object Oriented Design Pattern questions
• Coding exercise around refactoring and enhancing some code with class level caching, and applying design patterns
• Recruiter reached out ~2 weeks later to schedule virtual on-site, for ~1 week afterwards

Virtual On-Site (4 stages):
Programming/DS and Algorithms Interview (1 hour):

• Linked List Cycle
• Palindrome Linked List

Mobile System Design Interview (1 hour):

• Design components and overall architecture for a Search feature in an Android application

IDE Programming Interview Exercise (1 hour):

• Implement a small 1 screen game feature, from fetching JSON data to displaying the UI
• UI displays 4 image options, with a question to guess the correct one
• Advised to set up a small project beforehand otherwise you will run out of time setting things up
• Include the basic skeleton of the layers from UI to data layer, including 3rd party libraries before the interview

Spotify Values Interview (1 hour):

• Standard situational and behavioural "tell me a time..." questions
• Few curve balls such as "a time when you had to motivate a team", "a time when you promoted diversity and inclusion"

Result:

• Received the offer call + email 1 day later
• Total Compensation ~£114,000 / year (base + Spotify Mix)
• Offer Details