Process:

• Recruiter
• "Cultural fit" interview
• Technical interview

Time:

• 20 minutes
• 90 minutes
• 90 minutes over the course of ~3 weeks (this was during the pandemic, so all remote via phone, Google Hangouts, and virtual whiteboard)

Disclaimer: Riot doesn't have true Site Reliability positions at the time of writing this, but these senior engineer roles mentioned overlap quite a bit, and I really wanted to work at Riot. So, your mileage may vary.

The recruiter was great. He took a different approach to recruiting, for sure; he was super friendly. He found 3-4 additional positions, and we discussed all of them to try to find the one that made the most sense. I ended up being processed for a slightly different role that seemed like it might align better.

I was set up with a cultural interview shortly after that. It was 90 minutes of questions that would put you through hypothetical scenarios to see what you would do, with lots of scenarios and real-life examples of problem-solving. There were also a few questions specifically about Riot. This interview was also great; the interviewer was easy to talk to and made 90 minutes feel very short.

The technical interview was a little different: 90 minutes again, but the interviewer came in with a completely different energy than the first two people I'd dealt with so far. The first half involved diving into my experience, really pressing for details, and asking questions like, "Why did you decide to choose that technology instead of X or Y?" It felt like they continued until they could find some weaknesses in the design.

The second half was a HackerRank test. I totally muffed the instructions and it took me forever to dig myself out of it. It could have been solved in about 10 minutes if I wasn't already rattled from the first half.

We took the last 10-15 minutes to discuss the actual role/team, and it was a good exchange that helped me get an idea of the responsibilities.

Overall, everyone seems genuinely happy to work there, and it was a pleasure interviewing. The recruiting staff is very warm and accommodating, too.

Talk through a real-life situation where there was a disagreement in the approach to solve a problem and how the situation was resolved.