Affinity

Staff Machine Learning Engineer Interview Experience

June 1, 2023

Positive ExperienceGot Offer

Process

Standard hiring process:

Initial screen
Two tech screens, including one with code. This was not pure LeetCode, which was a nice surprise and enabled more discussion.
Hiring manager screen: half questions (e.g., "How would you do X?") and half discussion.
Virtual on-site: Multiple design interviews focusing on different areas of an ML product and pipeline, as well as behavioral and cross-team collaboration. This comprised about five rounds.

Difficulty is hard to gauge. I have enough ML industry experience to navigate the questions with some initial answers based on projects I led in the past. There were a couple of hard questions around MLOps.

Questions

(Coding) Write an API and data structure for a specific use case. How would you test it? What's the complexity of the different operations?

What's your experience with feature engineering? In hindsight, how would you do it differently and why?

What's your experience interacting with product teams or managers?

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Affinity Staff Machine Learning Engineer role in United States.

Success Rate

100%

Pass Rate

Affinity's interview process for their Staff Machine Learning Engineer roles in the United States is incredibly easy as the vast majority of engineers get an offer after going through it.

Experience Rating

Positive100%

Neutral0%

Negative0%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Affinity's Staff Machine Learning Engineer interview process in United States.

Affinity Work Experiences

Good company to work with

Automation Engineer • Current Employee

Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Pros: Good communication. Dedicated team to help you continue progressing in technical skills and to certify yourself.

Cons: Lack of some technical skills on the manager's side.

Good company to work with

Automation Engineer • Current Employee

Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Pros: Good communication. Dedicated team to help you continue progressing in technical skills and to certify yourself.

Cons: Lack of some technical skills on the manager's side.

Inspiring Leadership, Great Product, and a Supportive Team

Director, Engineering • Current Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pros: The leadership team is thoughtful, transparent, and has a clear vision for where the company is headed. The product itself is genuinely exciting with massive potential, and it's great to be part of a company that's solving real problems. The people here are one of the best parts — smart, humble, and always willing to collaborate and support one another. The culture is open and feedback-driven, and there’s a strong sense of shared purpose.

Cons: Engineering velocity has been impacted by accumulated tech debt over time, which can slow things down. That said, there are a lot of initiatives currently in motion to address this and improve the pace of development. Cross-team alignment can be a bit challenging at times, but it’s something that’s being acknowledged and worked on.

Inspiring Leadership, Great Product, and a Supportive Team

Director, Engineering • Current Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pros: The leadership team is thoughtful, transparent, and has a clear vision for where the company is headed. The product itself is genuinely exciting with massive potential, and it's great to be part of a company that's solving real problems. The people here are one of the best parts — smart, humble, and always willing to collaborate and support one another. The culture is open and feedback-driven, and there’s a strong sense of shared purpose.

Cons: Engineering velocity has been impacted by accumulated tech debt over time, which can slow things down. That said, there are a lot of initiatives currently in motion to address this and improve the pace of development. Cross-team alignment can be a bit challenging at times, but it’s something that’s being acknowledged and worked on.

Best team I've worked with

Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

February 9, 2021

Pros: My absolute favorite part of working at Affinity is the people. I have so much respect for the leadership team, and I have full confidence in their ability to make the best decisions when challenges arise. Even if I might not agree with every single decision they make, they put in the effort to make sure everyone understands where they're coming from, and I respect that a lot. The people I work with on a day-to-day basis are some of the smartest and most caring coworkers I've had. We celebrate open-mindedness, and everyone is always open to hearing feedback and is eager to grow.

Cons: We're growing fast in a turbulent economy. This means that there will be changes to priorities and team structures more often than not. Each priority shift comes with its set of learnings, and it's not to say that we don't make mistakes along the way. With that said, I've appreciated how the leadership team has handled all of these situations.

Best team I've worked with

Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

February 9, 2021

Pros: My absolute favorite part of working at Affinity is the people. I have so much respect for the leadership team, and I have full confidence in their ability to make the best decisions when challenges arise. Even if I might not agree with every single decision they make, they put in the effort to make sure everyone understands where they're coming from, and I respect that a lot. The people I work with on a day-to-day basis are some of the smartest and most caring coworkers I've had. We celebrate open-mindedness, and everyone is always open to hearing feedback and is eager to grow.

Cons: We're growing fast in a turbulent economy. This means that there will be changes to priorities and team structures more often than not. Each priority shift comes with its set of learnings, and it's not to say that we don't make mistakes along the way. With that said, I've appreciated how the leadership team has handled all of these situations.

Good company to work with

Automation Engineer • Current Employee

Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Pros: Good communication. Dedicated team to help you continue progressing in technical skills and to certify yourself.

Cons: Lack of some technical skills on the manager's side.

5.0
Good company to work with
Automation Engineer • Current Employee
Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
April 25, 2021
Pros: Good communication. Dedicated team to help you continue progressing in technical skills and to certify yourself.
Cons: Lack of some technical skills on the manager's side.

Inspiring Leadership, Great Product, and a Supportive Team

Director, Engineering • Current Employee

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Pros: The leadership team is thoughtful, transparent, and has a clear vision for where the company is headed. The product itself is genuinely exciting with massive potential, and it's great to be part of a company that's solving real problems. The people here are one of the best parts — smart, humble, and always willing to collaborate and support one another. The culture is open and feedback-driven, and there’s a strong sense of shared purpose.

Cons: Engineering velocity has been impacted by accumulated tech debt over time, which can slow things down. That said, there are a lot of initiatives currently in motion to address this and improve the pace of development. Cross-team alignment can be a bit challenging at times, but it’s something that’s being acknowledged and worked on.

5.0
Inspiring Leadership, Great Product, and a Supportive Team
Director, Engineering • Current Employee
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
July 14, 2025
Pros: The leadership team is thoughtful, transparent, and has a clear vision for where the company is headed. The product itself is genuinely exciting with massive potential, and it's great to be part of a company that's solving real problems. The people here are one of the best parts — smart, humble, and always willing to collaborate and support one another. The culture is open and feedback-driven, and there’s a strong sense of shared purpose.
Cons: Engineering velocity has been impacted by accumulated tech debt over time, which can slow things down. That said, there are a lot of initiatives currently in motion to address this and improve the pace of development. Cross-team alignment can be a bit challenging at times, but it’s something that’s being acknowledged and worked on.

Best team I've worked with

Software Engineer • Current Employee

San Francisco, California, United States

February 9, 2021

Pros: My absolute favorite part of working at Affinity is the people. I have so much respect for the leadership team, and I have full confidence in their ability to make the best decisions when challenges arise. Even if I might not agree with every single decision they make, they put in the effort to make sure everyone understands where they're coming from, and I respect that a lot. The people I work with on a day-to-day basis are some of the smartest and most caring coworkers I've had. We celebrate open-mindedness, and everyone is always open to hearing feedback and is eager to grow.

Cons: We're growing fast in a turbulent economy. This means that there will be changes to priorities and team structures more often than not. Each priority shift comes with its set of learnings, and it's not to say that we don't make mistakes along the way. With that said, I've appreciated how the leadership team has handled all of these situations.

5.0
Best team I've worked with
Software Engineer • Current Employee
San Francisco, California, United States
February 9, 2021
Pros: My absolute favorite part of working at Affinity is the people. I have so much respect for the leadership team, and I have full confidence in their ability to make the best decisions when challenges arise. Even if I might not agree with every single decision they make, they put in the effort to make sure everyone understands where they're coming from, and I respect that a lot. The people I work with on a day-to-day basis are some of the smartest and most caring coworkers I've had. We celebrate open-mindedness, and everyone is always open to hearing feedback and is eager to grow.
Cons: We're growing fast in a turbulent economy. This means that there will be changes to priorities and team structures more often than not. Each priority shift comes with its set of learnings, and it's not to say that we don't make mistakes along the way. With that said, I've appreciated how the leadership team has handled all of these situations.

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