I applied online. I interviewed at Metaswitch (London, England)
Interview
After applying online, I was invited to undertake the online aptitude test, which was fine. I was then invited to an interview at their offices. This lasted five hours and was very intense. There were 4 other people being assessed at the same time. We were first given a presentation on the company. After this our first assessment was performed: an aptitude IQ-type test, a combination of maths (fractions/ratios) and patterns/sequences with verbal questions near the end. Second assessment was a logical thinking test called "tablets of stone", effectively an analogy to data packet transmission. The third assessment was reading a program's code written in pseudocode, having to keep track of how the value of variables changed and writing down the output after numerous 'loops'. The final assessment was to write a program in pseudocode for a card game, similar to blackjack, with improvements that will make the computer win more often than the player. The day finished with a 30 minute interview where we discussed over the assessment results. They provide free lunch and reimburse travel costs which is very generous, however lunch was provided very late and I am pretty sure affected my performance in the assessments: make sure you eat a lot before coming!! The next stage of interview, had i got through, was apparently going out for dinner with them, staying in a hotel overnight (all paid for by them) and then attending an assessment day the following day.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Write a program in pseudocode to play as opponent in a game of cards, similar to blackjack
Multiple rounds of tests for aptitude. On multiple days. Basic coding knowledge helpful but not required as they accept people with the skills they are looking for. I interviewed a few years ago so things might have changed
The interview process involves going through a day of tests for which you dont get told what they are.
One was a high IQ test (to justify their arrogance)
One was a verbal reasoning
One was a basic code review challenge
Then there was an interview with a developer. He told me that I would want to work in finance, when finance was not even on my CV! He seemed upset he didnt work in finance. He was very aggressive and lacked social skills at the same time.
Noticeably the office was VERY MALE which was very off putting. All the women seemed to have low level admin jobs which was VERY OFFPUTTING.
Seem to have a fascination with maths grads.
The lady from HR phoned me after to tell me that they had rejected a PhD Physics graduate from Oxford recently for not passing the hiring bar. She delighted into telling me this.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Do you want to work in finance?
High IQ test (because they are very special)
No CS questions
I applied online. I interviewed at Metaswitch (Enfield, England) in Feb 2022
Interview
An on-site interview consisting of one round of multiple choice mental maths questions and second round of 8 math/algorithmic puzzles followed by an interview discussing the answers. This final interview also asks more genral fit questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Puzzle involving a car going around a circular track with a limited gas tank.
Software Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Metaswitch with 3.3 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 75% positive. To compare, the company-average is 65.5% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Software Engineer roles take an average of 22 days to get hired, when considering 10 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Metaswitch overall takes an average of 20 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Metaswitch as a Software Engineer according to 10 Glassdoor interviews include:
IQ intelligence test: 35%
One on one interview: 30%
Skills test: 15%
Presentation: 10%
Group panel interview: 5%
Personality test: 5%
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