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Software Engineer Interview Experience - Richmond, Virginia

August 1, 2017
Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

TL;DR: Great people, nice campus, looks promising, but high-caliber engineers need not waste their time until the case interview is revised / eliminated.

There were three rounds of interviews. Each one was 45 minutes. The first was a generic technical one (leetcode easy - medium, much more on the easy side). I finished this in 15 minutes. The second was their case interview (more on this later). The third was a generic behavioral interview that was on the casual side so far as these go. Almost everyone I met was very friendly. They give you a tour of the campus before the interview.

The one downside of this interview was the case interview. I was interviewed by an older lady and mid-level software engineer. The older lady said that she was the head of the case interview department. They handed me a printed piece of paper with a fake bash shell and asked me some questions about how to build a system that handled data securely given this. The question was open-ended, but it seemed like the lady in particular had a set of items that she was trying to ensure that each candidate identified and solved. The mid-level software engineer barely made eye contact throughout the interview, seeming much more interested in his phone. I built a working solution to the problem (identical to that built by engineers who received offers), but the lady seemed dissatisfied with the way I had arrived at it. The parting interaction was as follows: Lady: “So, do you have any more interviews today?” Me: “One more” [Lady smiles sadly at the engineer, who chuckles, and they both leave the room with that]

I interviewed at a big 5 tech company shortly afterwards and accepted an offer there. I was promoted within the first year with significant comp increase in addition to stock rewards / bonuses. Caution is advised to high-caliber engineers applying for positions at this company. It will likely turn out to be a waste of your time, particularly given the significantly higher comp packages at competitive tech / financial services companies.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 38 interview experiences for the Capital One Software Engineer role in Richmond, Virginia.

Success Rate

47%
Pass Rate

Capital One's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Richmond, Virginia is fairly selective, failing a large portion of engineers who go through it.

Experience Rating

Positive79%
Neutral16%
Negative5%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Capital One's Software Engineer interview process in Richmond, Virginia.

Capital One Work Experiences