My Tech Interview at a Remote-First Company

I want to share what my interview process was actually like for a remote software engineering role, because most of what I'd read beforehand didn't quite match reality.

The process had more stages than I expected

It started with a short recruiter call, followed by a take-home technical assignment, then a live technical interview walking through my solution, and finally a culture-fit conversation with a future teammate — four stages in total, spread over about three weeks.

The take-home assignment mattered more than I thought

I initially treated it as a formality, but the live interview spent most of its time discussing the decisions I made in that assignment — why I structured the code that way, what I'd change with more time, and how I'd scale it. Documenting your reasoning as you go turns out to be genuinely useful.

What I'd do differently

• Prepare specific questions about the team's remote working norms — how they communicate, how often they meet, and how feedback is given.
• Test my internet connection and setup properly ahead of the live technical round; a lag-filled call is a distraction neither side needs.
• Ask directly about growth expectations for the first six months, since it wasn't clearly covered by the recruiter.

The whole process reinforced something simple: being able to explain your thinking clearly mattered just as much as the code itself. If you're preparing for something similar, practice narrating your decisions out loud, not just solving problems silently.