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Software Engineer Interview Experience - New Zealand

July 3, 2025
Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

This was a screening technical interview another company sent me to complete. I'm not sure the interviewer was even a real human. I was limited to strictly one hour in total.

First, I was asked to talk for one minute about my past experience (it was not used in the interviewing process after that). Then, it was a quiz of five questions with some abstract situations for which I needed to provide abstract solutions. If I finished answering a question before the allocated time for it expired, the interviewer would just sit and wait for the timer. On any clarifying question from me, he would just read the question again.

After the quiz, I needed to do a coding task. I was finishing a function to print out the result, but the interviewer ended the interview as an hour of total interview time passed. That felt quite disrespectful. Overall, talking to the interviewer felt like talking to a wall. The only thing he did was read the text I already had on my screen.

They also offer a redo option if you fail. I can now see why. In my humble opinion, a redo option should not be a thing in a tech interview. Its purpose is to see if you fit the job or not, not to make you train and pass some exam. It feels like I was not tested for how I think and how I solve problems; my answers were just compared with the expected ones. I refused the redo.

I was not given any feedback other than 'not positive'.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Karat Software Engineer role in New Zealand.

Success Rate

0%
Pass Rate

Karat's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in New Zealand is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive0%
Neutral0%
Negative100%

Candidates reported having very negative feelings for Karat's Software Engineer interview process in New Zealand.

Karat Work Experiences