I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at 9fin in Apr 2026
Interview
An initial chat with the recruiter, followed by a non-technical conversation with one of the managers, and 2 technical rounds: one coding round and one coding/system design round.
The interviews were not complicated and everyone was lovely to talk to. However, one interviewer has somehow managed to override the entire process with very negative feedback that sounded made up, despite the fact that no other interviewer mentioned such issues.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Very easy coding challenge around implementing some functions and basic unit tests (they give you the spec in advance). Then an easy LeetCode question and a system design challenge on deploying a website.
During the initial interview, questions were read to me in a listless, indifferent manner.
When asked, I said that I applied to 9fin because I heard they are a company who welcomes diversity. The response I got was something like "Right... yeah, we can keep doing that diversity.. thing... ". This comment made me decidedly uncomfortable for the rest of the interview. What could that have meant?? Have they already met their quota for this year, and are no longer hiring anyone who isn't a straight, white, cis-gendered man? I will never know—I never received any feedback and my email asking for an update went unanswered.
To be clear, I am not aiming to be a diversity hire, but rather to work in a place where I won't feel like a diversity hire.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Standard interview questions like, describe a time where you had a big impact, give an example of a time you took initiative to tackle tech debt, etc.
I don’t usually leave reviews about interview experiences, but I felt compelled to in this case due to how poorly the process was handled.
I was contacted by a talent partner who said I seemed like a strong fit for the role. I was then scheduled for a second interview with the hiring manager — but during the meeting, I realized the person I was speaking with wasn’t the same individual I was told I’d be meeting. That was confusing and unprofessional.
At the end of the interview, I was assured that I would receive feedback and details on the next steps by the end of the day. That never happened. I followed up via email, only to be completely ignored.
A simple rejection or a courteous response to a follow-up email would take less than a minute. Ignoring candidates who have invested time and effort into your process is not just discourteous — it’s disrespectful. To future applicants: be aware that this company does not seem to value your time or communication.
Hi there,
Firstly thank you for giving us this feedback. We interview a huge number of candidates a month and aim to keep our candidate experience high, and it sounds like we have not given you a great experience.
We have looked into this internally and believe this situation occurred mainly due to multiple managers in the team taking time off for summer holidays. From a communications perspective, we could have communicated this better and for that we apologise - it falls below our high standards of candidate experience.
This also meant that it took us longer to feedback than is normal for us as we aim to give candidates feedback after 48 hours (max) following an interview. I can see that the team did provide feedback so we hope that you have some clarity and closure from our process.
With all this in mind, we completely appreciate that this was not a good candidate experience for you. I hope that you will still view 9fin positively as we'd love to stay in touch.