I applied online. The process took 4 weeks.

The interview process consists of:

• Screening interview with recruiter covering general background, motivation, and salary expectations.
• Take-home assignment to develop an online web app from scratch using Ruby on Rails based on a short problem statement.
• Debrief of the take-home assignment with 2 senior engineering managers covering your design, product mindset, UX, technical implementation, and architecture.
• Cultural fit interview with the co-founder and an N+2 senior engineering manager covering previous projects, motivation, strengths, areas of improvement, knowledge of the Pennylane value proposition, and generic behavioral questions.
• Debrief with the recruiter providing feedback and the decision for an offer or not.

This was probably the best hiring process I've experienced. What I liked was:

• Fast moving with no delays or long waits for the next stage.
• Relatively few stages, keeping only the essential ones.
• Constant and prompt communication and feedback from the recruiter.
• The take-home assignment presenting a real-life scenario where your actual skills to design and deliver a working prototype in a short period are tested, without live-coding algorithms or puzzles.
• Friendly and engaged interviewers who made me feel comfortable, as if I was just having a discussion.
• A candidate's book provided with lots of useful information on the company and how to best prepare for the interviews.
• The general effort to make everything as smooth as possible and to enable you to bring out the best of yourself.

Areas of improvement:

• The take-home assignment does require a significant time investment, and some people may feel they don't want to or can't invest the time.
• The candidate's book format and styling could be improved.
• Lots of materials, such as videos and articles, are in French, and they should also be in English.
• The website is in French only, except for the careers page, so it is more difficult to learn about the product.

Latest feedback from the manager covered areas of improvement. What can you tell us about Pennylane's value proposition?