The interview process is outlined on the Automattic website. The first stage is an interview with a developer. The next step is a code test, and the last stage is a trial.

My initial interview had very little to do with JavaScript and was about general programming aspects like testing and problem-solving. I was asked a system design question, which caught me off guard, but otherwise, it was straightforward.

I did not make it past the code test stage, but here are some notes about it:

• You're invited to a GitHub repo with a 'broken plugin'. You're given 6 hours to complete a large variety of tasks, both frontend and backend.
• They say to 'not spend more than 6 hours', but in reality, if you want to pass the test and impress them, you'll likely need to spend 12+ hours on the test. This is all unpaid work.
• Vague feedback is provided if you fail the test. I mostly got vaguely defined nitpicks about my submission – 'error handling could be better', etc.

I would say to clarify with them what you're expected to do and how far you're expected to go early on. That's something I didn't do, and I think that made a difference.

I will say that communication was great, and everything happened in a timely fashion. I would just set expectations rather high if you're applying. They're looking for a seasoned developer that's willing to spend the time to impress them.

Given a nested object, remove an item, add an item, and correctly increment the ID based on all other IDs in the nested object.