I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Revolut in Apr 2026
Interview
I interviewed for a Senior Software Engineer (Java) role.
The process was structured and fairly fast-paced: recruiter/screening conversation, technical discussions (coding and system design) focused on backend engineering and distributed systems, and a final manager/team-fit stage. Communication from recruiting was clear, and timelines were shared proactively. Overall, the process felt rigorous but very professional
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Revolut in Apr 2026
Interview
One of the worst interview processes I've ever had. It started with the recruiter being completely robotic and extremely fast-paced. Not even a "how are you doing today?" 0 courtesy... But ok, it's just the recruiter, I thought.
This got worse when the same thing happened in the live coding exercise and technical discussion.
- "Hi, can you hear me?"
- "Yes"
- "Ok let's start, here is the exercise..."
It's already a stressful environment. I understand checking if candidates can work under pressure, but you can immediately tell this is not a good place to work.
I did the exercise with zero conversation or feedback, they just pasted instructions in the chat and I talked to myself while implementing everything.
After that, the worst part started: a rapid-fire of general tech and SQL questions. They weren't interested in what knowledge I could bring, or if I could reason thru my thoughts, only in the very specific knowledge they already have or need. This is a valid approach, but as someone who hires engineers myself, if I did this, I would have missed so many good people.
The "One-Day Offer" format sounds efficient on paper, but in practice it's a 2-hour pressure cooker with no human connection.
I was already certain I wouldn't accept an offer before I got rejected. (I know... sounds like I'm angry at the rejection)
1. Screening call (basic tech questions)
2. Coding assignment (can be done online within limited time)
3. Live coding, easy/medium leetcode task
4. System Design. This stage, where I failed twice. First time I received feedback, that as a mobile developer I didn't cover BE part enough. Second time I received the opposite feedback, that I covered BE part, but didn't have enough time to cover mobile part well enough.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
ArraysList vs LinkedList and what structure can be used to achieve O(1) computation time to get/set data (HashMap)