Riot has a fairly standard interview process. I talked with a recruiter and then had two phone screens (one technical and one cultural) within the next three weeks. I was then brought onsite for an interview at Riot HQ in Santa Monica, CA.

The onsite interview lasted six hours total and consisted of four one-hour sessions with two interviewers in each session, plus one hour for lunch and a tour of the studio at the end.

Be warned: Riot does not have a great way of interviewing engineers. I thought I did really well for this seemingly simple interview, but I learned they did not want to move forward with me because of some unfortunate reasons.

One was that I did not know the answers to the tech questions immediately and needed to think about them. I'm talking about needing 5-10 minutes to think about the problem and ask relevant questions before attempting a solution. All problems were solved in the allotted time.

They also used stories I told about my weaknesses against me, essentially stating that they want employees with absolutely no weaknesses.

You will receive a packet before the technical phone screen that details what could be discussed in the phone screen. The packet will contain links to websites that deal with interview topics and sample questions. Riot wants you to study all the questions and memorize the answers. They are not interested in watching you think critically and want you to just regurgitate a solution so they can move on.

If you really want a job at Riot, you should devote a lot of time to studying the interview questions. If you have to think, you are done.

Just keep in mind, you will be working with other engineers who went through the same process and probably don't know how to actually make games. Having only one released game in 13 years at Riot Games makes a lot of sense after going through this process.

Has there ever been a time in your career when you had difficulty working with a designer?